I’ve acquired a desk job in a small office, and while I’m grateful for the paycheck, I can feel my ass widening into my chair every day. It doesn’t help that the work is repetitive and boring, so I’m snacking a lot.
I know about Kegels, of course. I have enough space under my desk to stick my legs out straight (parallel to the ground) and squeeze my glutes, so I’ve been doing that. Are there any other ways to quietly, unobtrusively work a few muscle groups here and there? (Preferably while still seated.)
Stop eating. Nothing you can do will offset the amount of calories you intact. For example high impact aerobic, the kind you see where people are jumping around, well this burns about 300 calories AN HOUR.
A candy bar is about 220 calories. Taking the stairs won’t burn any extra calories. Unless you can raise your heart rate and keep it raised to at least 65% of your maximum you won’t burn any more calories. Your body will compensate.
Eating fruit isn’t much better. Fruit is simply sugar with some vitamins thrown in. You need to stop eating. Try chewing gum, if allowed or drink a lot of no calorie drinks like black coffee, tea or diet soda.
I pretty much agree with Mark’s post in that you’re just going to have to eat less to compensate for your more sedentary lifestyle. I don’t drink coffee or tea though and I like to substitute most of my soda habit (Diet Coke) with Crystal Light, which has 0mg sodium when I mix one packet in a bottle of water versus Diet Coke’s 30mg/20oz.
That said, taking the stairs and parking away from the building and such is still a good idea.
That depends on how hard you work out. A lot of people just kinda go through the motions, and they might indeed burn only 300 calories per hour. Someone who puts a lot of intensity into his moves could burn twice as much – and of course, one’s body mass also plays a major role.
Having said that, you’re right. It can still take a huge amount of time to burn off a single candy bar.
Not true. Fruit also typically contains a lot of water, and the right kinds of fruits also have belly-filling fiber. Then there are the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that candy typically doesn’t have.
When you go to the supply room to get a couple of reams of copy paper, use them to do biceps curls all the way back to your printer. Or triceps extensions. I know these exercises are not all that subtle, but I do them anyway.
Don’t sit- stand. You’ll burn a lot more calories standing at your desk than you will just sitting there. Prop your computer and work are up on a few empty paper boxes and stand all day, or at least for a part of it.
I walk to people when I need to talk to them instead of using the phone. I walk at lunch every day, and instead of snacking I keep a refillable water bottle on my desk and make an effort to empty it at least three times a day (750ml). I find that most of the time when I think I want to eat I’m actually just thirsty.
Is it a semi-private office? If so I like push-ups against my desk. You can get a good work-out ripping them fast and if someone does walk in or the phone rings, you can recover quickly. I also keep a couple of those grip/spring things for my hands; cuts down on the keyboard cramps as well.
I use a Stride Cycle. Basically it’s a mini cycle (pedals only, no wheels) that you can use under your desk while you type/answer phone calls/whatever. You can set the resistance to customize your level of effort and they’re not too expensive (I think I got mine for around $35). I only wish my model had some kind of calories burned metric (or miles pedaled).
Thanks, kopec, that was a good suggestion. I just did ten reps, and made a mental note to do that several times a day. (My wrists are too shot to support my body weight for very long, esp. in the push-up position.)
And yes, I do always take the stairs, but my office is on the 3rd floor (of a 3-story building) so it’s not much. On slow days, I’ll sometimes do a random lap of the stairwell, but sometimes, the heels & skirt combo I’ve worn for a meeting makes that a tad difficult.