You might think that spending extra time at work won’t do you much harm but if you do it regularly, there is a high chance it will. Joelle Abramowitz, an economist at the US Census Bureau, has written a paper on her research that explains why working more hours in the office can make you obese.
Every 10 extra hours a week spent behind the desk at work can increase the body-mass index by 0.2 for men and 0.4 for women. This means that in average the weight gain for men can be of 1,4 pounds and for women 2,5 pounds. This discovery doesn’t include people who have more active jobs, but only those who live more sedentary lives.
Abramowitz shares that nowadays 20% of American jobs are scarcely laborious in comparison with the 1960s when they were 50%. In the past times people were mostly working outdoors, whereas now only 1% of the Americans have a job in the agriculture sector. It is simple to understand that when spending more time at the desk you have less time to move and be active. That makes people more busy and there is less time for them even to prepare their meals for the day which leaves them with no choice but buying take-away food and junk food. Spending extra hours at work leaves them with less time to work out or to simply take healthy walks. Moreover, people who work more hours tend to sleep less or have unhealthy sleeping patterns. The combination of all these factors: sitting behind the desk, eating take-away food, the lack of daily exercise and sleep deprivation often results in weight gain.
Shelby Harris, a sleep psychologist shares that the human body needs a proper recovery every day and you can’t really make up for a week of sleep deprivation by sleeping trough the whole weekend. Often times people forget that the quality of sleep is far more important than the hours you are asleep. That is why making it to deeper levels of sleep is so important for people in order for them to recharge properly. This also explains why the lack of sleep can be a factor in getting obese.
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