How to lose weight if always at work?
 

I work around 65-75 hours per week (from 9am till 11pm) - sitting job, very limited activity. Taking into account commute time, it leaves no time for sleeping properly or for exercise. I've been trying to lose weight for quite some time, but instead slowly gaining more weight.

I have just joined FitDay and hope tracking what I eat will help. The question is: should I cut on sleeping for exercising or should I try to sleep properly and cut on calories?

I now aim to eat around 1000-1200 kcal per day, with increase during weekend, when I can dedicate some time for walking/ running/ roller-skating and other activities.

I'm 5'8, 165 pounds, aiming to lose around 20 pounds I've gained in last 3 years to get back to my comfortable weight...

Hi AprilT, I can relate to simply not having the time to exercise. During my really busy times, I try to do what you do...load up on days I have more time. The thing that works best if I can make myself do it, though, is to try to get in two really good workouts (weekends) and then on at least three other days, at least do something brief, like just run a mile on the treadmill. In the past, I used to do a round of the 30-day-shred on busy days...it literally takes 20 minutes and it does produce results.

Hope you find the combination that works for you. Looking forward to seeing you on the forums!

Oh...forgot to add...the sleep vs. exercise is my personal demon.

People will tell you to just get up a bit earlier and make it happen. In some cases, that's absolutely great advice. In my case, though, it often means the difference between sleeping six hours and five hours, and seeing as how I should probably get more than six in the first place, I'm not willing to cut any more.

It has been proven that too little sleep impedes weight loss due to producing more of the stress hormone cortisol. What "enough sleep" is probably varies, but it is something to think about when deciding whether to sleep or exercise.

Hi AprilT - I had this situation some years ago - working in a high-commitment professional job, with a long commute, and a young child. For me, the low-carb way worked better than the low-calorie exercise way. I successfully lost weight and kept it off with a book "The Carbohydrate Addicts Lifespan Program." It worked for me too because the restaurants that were regular lunching spots for me and my colleagues offered food that fit in the plan (chicken caesar salad hold the croutons or cheeseburger with salad), and it allowed for a dinner that my family would also eat. Now, I hadn't been dieting before starting the plan, and low-carb dieting messes with our metabolism. And it was pre-menopause. Now I am post-menopause I seem to need to be stricter in counting carbs and calories than that program. And each one of us responds differently to different eating programs. But rather than adding to stress hormones with even less sleep and low-calorie eating, you might explore other approaches. (By the way, for those worried about fat in foods - when I had a comprehensive physical after being on this eating plan for 5 years the only abnormality was that my "good cholesterol" was unusually high and my "bad cholesterol" was unusually low.) Best wishes, and good luck! Jaime

Calories still count no matter what the composition of those calories are. If you're eating more calories than you burn on a "low carb" diet then you'll still gain weight, but I can see how a "low carb" diet might work for some people to end up eating fewer calories.

My suggestion is that if you feel that your current work schedule is really harming your health then you may have to try to seek a work environment that leaves you some free time. Even if you were at your ideal weight, you might not be cardiovascularly healthy not being able to move around any more than that.

Recent research shows that the composition of calories does make a difference - see studies reported in Science News Daily. When I was following a high-carb low-calorie diet I lost only if I restricted calories to about 1200 a day and exercised twice a day. With a low-carb diet I lost 40 lbs, and kept it off for 5 years, without counting calories and with little exercise. Now I am post-menopausal I am tracking calories as well as carbs, protein, and fiber, and find that I lose at about 1500 calories a day with the carbs from low-glycemic, high-fiber, sources. That is fewer calories than I burn, but not as great a difference as I seemed to require on the low-fat (high carb) diet that is the standard recommendation by doctors and nutritionists.

Here are citations to two relevant studies.

Effect of three common diets on energy expenditure following weight loss detailed

Most Effective Weight Loss Diet Revealed, According To New Study

I agree that composition can make a difference in how effective a diet is, but at the end of the day people have to find the composition that works best for them that still creates a calorie deficit.

For a lot of people including more protein, fewer carbs, and adding some fat to the diet helps.

Sometimes I like to eat a larger volume of food and on those days it's easier for me to just make big portions of vegetable soup or a fruit salad (mostly carbs), and other times it's easier to eat more protein and smaller portions. It varies day by day with me but I do try to make sure I don't gain weight back.

I think if there's no calorie deficit there won't be any weight loss. I worry when I hear people tell others (not you, but I've heard this before) they can eat "to satiation" if they eat enough fat or protein, not realizing how much many people can eat if they're not told to limit the portions too. Someone else on fit day recently posted that they could easily blow through 1000 calories of almonds if they let themselves. This is something I can agree with. I can also eat a lot of meat at one sitting if I was told to eat "to satiation". About the only food that's safe for me to eat to satiation and still stay within a decent calorie range are vegetables.

I agree that portion control is an important part of any dietary regime. I remember sharing an apartment with a slender fellow student and being surprised at what she considered a "serving." Coming from a family of overweight people I was used to "servings" of about twice what I actually needed. Eating "to satiation" doesn't work if our concept of "satiation" is "feeling full" rather than just "not actually being hungry anymore." (And we may need to stop eating before then to give our brain a chance to catch up with the fact that it has received food.) And I also agree that vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables are key to healthy weight loss, whatever our other dietary rules. We need the volume, and the fiber, and the micronutrients.

Many people in today's life are busy enough in their daily work that they can't save some moments for exercise and fitness. Health and fitness is more important than work in my opinion, if you are not healthy you can't work and results will be nothing for you. So try to devote some minutes to exercise in the morning. But if you can't do that then you have to be really careful about your food. Avoid high fat and eat natural fat burning foods. Use lemon, orange, and grape fruit for fat burning.