“Success will make you fat” may be the new mantra for the competitive employee.  An unacknowledged but obvious effect of contemporary working conditions is that the more competitive the workplace, the more likely an increase in weight and decrease in physical fitness.

Eating too much food and too much of the wrong foods at work can no longer be blamed on the occasional leftover brownies in the coffee room or the large jar of candy in the reception area. Nor is the decline in physical fitness from lack of health clubs, personal trainers and home gyms. The real cause of increasing obesity and decreasing stamina among many of today’s employees is the work ethic under which they are forced to labor. Department heads, team mates and co-workers expect you to be at your desk for long hours, starting early in the morning and ending sometime long past what used to be conventional quitting time.

Marlene, one of our weight-loss clients, told us, “When I worked for an investment firm in New York I would be at my desk at 7:30 am and never left before 9:30 pm. Once or twice when I was getting ready to leave at 9, my co-worker asked me if today was a holiday. She was serious because everyone believed they had to put in 14-16 hour days.” 

The excessively long workdays are not a rare occurrence. Rather, it seems to be the norm because, as this client explained, people are afraid that if they do not work as long as everyone else in their team or department, they will not be promoted or worse yet, may be fired if the company decides to downsize.

Excessive hours are not confined to the business world. A real estate broker told us that if she leaves the office to go for a walk or get a healthy lunch, her co-workers take her calls and her house listings for themselves. Another client, an academic working with other professors to develop a new method of graduate school teaching, said that she had to give up her early morning sessions with her personal trainer because she was arriving at the office too late. Too late meant 8 am. When we asked if she could go to a lunchtime class at the enormous gym across from her office, she said that no one left at lunchtime.

”We are expected to be at our desks at lunch and to continue to work while we are eating,” she related. “ I choose foods that can be eaten with one hand while I answer my e-mails with the other hand.”

A third client who had used her lunch hour to power walk around the beautiful campus on which her biotech company was located, was subtly reprimanded by her boss for leaving the office. Jane told us, “He would leave a pile of work on my desk while I was gone and then criticize me for taking time off—even though I was entitled to a break.”

The work does not stop on Fridays either. A friend who loves to ski in the winter and bike in the summer quit her job with a start-up engineering firm because she was expected to work all day Saturdays and often had to work at home on reports on Sundays. Another client told us that when she logs onto her home computer Sunday afternoon to check on personal e-mails, she finds 50 or 60 from her office. 

Consequently, the eating situation suffers. An impossibly early start to the day, especially given commuting times, means that breakfast at home is not possible. Instead of a healthy breakfast of cottage cheese, fruit and whole wheat toast or an egg-white omelet, English muffin and juice, the options are limited to buttered bagels or doughnuts eaten on the commuter train, in the car or often as soon as one arrives at work. Many meetings start early in the morning and people do not want to wait until a co-worker finishes her cereal before starting. Instead, companies order food for their employees so they can eat through meetings as well as at their desks.

“We used to have coffee breaks so you could eat something around l0 if you skipped breakfast. I used to run downstairs to the cafeteria for a container of yogurt or a banana. Now coffee breaks are frowned on as a waste of time,” said Marlene.

Yet food is provided all through the day and far into the night. A client who had gained an enormous amount of weight at a prestigious law firm said that dinner was always available because the attorneys were expected to stay at work until at least l0 pm. The same was true for a scientist who worked at a large medical research facility. “Our research team would review our progress on Friday afternoons. The meetings always ran into the evening so we were given pizza and beer to make up for losing part of our weekend.”

Unfortunately, the meals rarely confirm to government standards for healthy eating. The food is high in fat, excessive in portion size and high-fat snacks and desserts are always included.

Marlene said, “After I started on my diet, I realized how many calories I used to eat when sitting at a meeting. And I wasn’t the only one. As soon as things got rough, we would all reach for the cookies or chips and start munching.“

Alyssa, the lawyer, told us that she probably gained 20 pounds the first year as a law associate because she used to almost binge on the dinners served every evening at the law firm. ”Eating was the only break I had from the endless hours at my desk. I knew that as soon as I stopped eating, I would have to go back to the tedium of whatever I was doing.” This same person confessed that she used to empty the vending machine of all its candy bars when she worked very late. “There were a few times when I had to stay in the office all night to finish working on a project,” she said.  “Eating was the only way I could stay awake, and candy bars were the only foods available.”

But eating too much does not stop when the professional leaves work. Often it is the only form of relaxation available when there is finally time to relax. We had a great deal of difficulty persuading an extremely successful entrepreneur to give up her three-course dinner and bottle of wine every night in order to lose weight.

“Listen.” she said, “Dinner and drinking wine is what I look forward to when I eventually get home.  I have no time for others kinds of relaxation since I work so late and have to get to work so early. Food is my reward for my hard work.”

Food can also be the way people decrease work-related stress. Years ago we had a client who was constantly criticized by other members of her team when she made her reports. She told us that she used to eat a gigantic chocolate bar before going into the weekly meetings so she would feel emotionally numb. Another, an owner who was constantly fighting with his business partner, would come home at night and eat continually until he fell into bed. ”It was the only way I could keep down my anger and frustration,’ he told us.

Does this mean that losing weight will have to be delayed until retirement or that the only way to reduce your weight is to reduce your ambition? The answer is that if you are willing to spend a small amount of time to take charge of your eating, you not only will lose weight, you will also lose stress and gain mental sharpness.

There are three rules to follow and some simple techniques on applying them. The rules are:

• Protein foods will keep you sharp and mentally aggressive.
• Carbohydrate foods without protein as snacks will decrease your stress and increase your focus.
• High-fats foods will dull your mind and emotions.

Planning and strategizing about what and when you will eat during the workday is crucial to losing weight and gaining focus and mental sharpness. Make sure that all your meals eaten at work include low-fat protein options like cottage cheese or yogurt for breakfast, and turkey, chicken, seafood or lean beef for lunch. If dinner precedes more work, make sure you eat low fat- protein then as well.

Eating a carbohydrate snack before lunch and again late in the afternoon as we suggest in the Serotonin Power Diet will do two things for you: It will decrease your appetite and decrease your stress. In addition, the afternoon carbohydrate snack will restore your concentration and declining motivation.

If you are able to eat dinner after work is over, the best way to ensure that you do not continue to eat after dinner is to have a meal of carbohydrate and vegetables. Such a combination will increase serotonin and prevent you from eating from dinner until bedtime. It also will give you a sense of relaxation and calmness so essential for renewal and facing work the next day.

Be subtly assertive at work so you get the foods you need.

Make a list of foods that you can eat for breakfast, in a car, train or at your desk. For example drinkable yogurt, or an egg/English muffin sandwich without cheese, bacon, sausage and butter), fruit, and coffee or tea can usually be consumed on the move or at your desk.

If your company provides lunch and /or dinner meals, you can request foods that correspond to your dieting, mental and emotional needs. After all, if you were following a religious or medically-restricted diet, you would do so. Otherwise, send out for the meal or bring some in and store them in the company refrigerator. Take snacks into work with you; many come pre-packaged. Or you might try Serotrim, a carbohydrate drink that reduces appetite and stress.

You may have to deal with the curiosity and even resistance of your co-workers to your change in eating habits. Recognize that you are giving yourself a competitive edge by eating this way so decide how much of the information you want to share. Of course, once your weight loss becomes apparent, your mental acuity noticed by all and your serene response to office politics commented on, you may decide to reveal your eating secrets.

Judith J. Wurtman, PhD is a Research Scientist at MIT, the founder and director of Harvard University's TRIAD Weight Management Center and a co-founder of Adara Weight Management and Back Bay Scientific and co-author of the new book The Serotonin Power Diet

Bookmark:

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed