Juggling multiple projects and deadlines, handling stress, attending meetings, working night shifts – these days working women seem to be walking a tightrope doing household chores and managing a successful career, with little time left to even catch up on sleep! And for most of them, work hours extend beyond 10 hours! With easy access to calorie-dense food through vending machines and office cafeteria, for women working insane hours, gaining extra pounds, and at all the wrong places (yes, we are talking about belly fat), is a given. And weight gain is just a tip of the iceberg, because a study done by Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, in 2012, found that those who worked for more than 8 hours in a day had anywhere from 40% to 80% higher chance of developing heart disease compared to those who worked in an 8-hour shift! As we have mentioned above, a lot of women in the corporate, tech, and other fields are putting in around 10 to 12 hours in a day, glued to their computers. These insane working hours combined with sleep deprivation, chronic stress, exhaustion, and of course unhealthy eating pattern – leads to rapid weight gain. We would also like to mention that all these factors can throw hormones out of whack too, and thus, the biggest hurdle to weight loss raises its head. If you have nodded to all of the above conditions and feel that it’s you who we are talking about; overwhelmed with so much going around and anguished at the inability to get lean and fit, we have some effective tips that would help you jumpstart your weight loss journey while effectively managing both work and personal commitments.
Why Women Who Work For Long Hours Find it Difficult To Lose Weight?
After a long day at work, most women are just too exhausted to exercise and find comfort in calorie-dense food and snacks for having worked hard. Also, with no time on hand to cook and readymade food available in a few minutes through food-delivery apps, it becomes convenient to just grab a plate and eat without counting calories. Also, such food ordered from restaurants may have unhealthy ingredients, transfat, and high sugar, sodium, and fat content, leading to weight gain. The combination of unhealthy eating habits, not exercising, sleep deprivation, chronic stress make it extremely difficult to lose weight. Also, having a desk job means leading a sedentary lifestyle. There’s an enzyme called “lipoprotein lipase,” which is responsible for burning fat and being in an inactive state can severely impact this enzyme’s “fat-burning activity” by 90%, such as when you spend most of your day at the desk or on the couch watching TV. Additionally, night shifts disrupts the natural circadian rhythm of the body and lowers metabolism further. All these factors make it extremely difficult to get lean or fit.
11 Weight Loss Tips For Women Working Insane Hours:
- You Cannot Outrun a Poor Diet:
Make no mistake, people would say just eat less and exercise to get lean. But it isn’t all that easy! In reality, eating right and not “less” does the trick. If you want to lose weight, avoid weight gain, or maintain the current weight, you have to absolutely watch the diet. Eating less would only drive the body to go into a “famine mode” where it would lower metabolism and burn fewer calories to hold on to existing fat. That’s why Rati Beauty Diet does not deprive you of food, puts you on a routine that’s easy to follow, sustainable, and is not restrictive, so that you have good energy to take on the world every single day.
- Hit a Goal of 10,000 Steps:
Not only to lose weight, it’s essential to be active through the day to keep health problems away, especially when you are working from home, spending hours together sitting before the computer. As we have mentioned above, an enzyme called “lipoprotein lipase,” which is actively involved in the fat-burning process can switch off when you lead a sedentary lifestyle, such as when you spend most of your day at the desk or on the couch watching TV. Being on your feet triggers the body to release this enzyme that helps to process fat molecules and glucose. If you have desk job, take break every half an hour, get up from the chair, and take a stroll. In fact, set alarm on your phone at every half hour interval so that you can take a short break and get some fresh air, and also reactivate that fat-burning lipoprotein lipase enzyme. In fact, short breaks during working hours also help to boost productivity.
- Meal Prep For The Whole Week:
We know how difficult it is to get back home after a long work day and then plan on what to cook. It’s the reason why most of us seek resort in readymade processed food, instant noodles, or better, order food from outside. That’s where meal prepping helps – you just have to take one or two hours on your off-day to chop, cut, and meal prep for the entire week. Once you have meal prep boxes ready in the refrigerator, it would take just a few minutes to put together a healthy dish from the Rati Beauty diet plan.
- Don’t Skip Lunch and Overeat at Dinner:
Never skip meals during the day just because you couldn’t find time to eat since most likely you would end up with a ravenous appetite and resort to binge eating.
- Trade Sit-Down Meetings with Walk and Talk Meetings:
You get to burn a lot of calories by just being on your feet. Ask your colleagues to do walk and talk meetings instead of sitting around a table.
- Squeeze Workout Early in the Morning or Make Use of Office Lunch Break:
Make your health a priority and squeeze at least 30 to 45 minutes during a day for exercise. Walking, jogging, yoga, gym, every activity where you get to move your body is great. In fact, you can make use of office lunch break to actually break a sweat.
- Keep Away From Unhealthy Snacks:
Clear the work desk drawer of unhealthy snacks and swap it up with trail mix or nuts for a quick bite.
- Keep Sipping on Water:
We all know how water affects weight loss, but most of us, fail to even drink 8 glasses of this precious elixir. Keep reminders on your phone to have a glass of water every 1 or two hours. Drink at least 2 liters of water because most of the time you are hungry, you might just be thirsty and need a glass of water. Our body is not good at differentiating hunger and thirst signals and tends to mixes both up. So, the next time hunger pang hits, wait for a few minutes, grab a glass of water, and see the hunger signal subside. Also, those frequent trips to the loo would make sure you are not sitting sedentary for long hours.
- Find Ways To Stay Motivated:
People often cite lack of motivation as a major reason why they can’t get started on a weight loss journey or give up halfway blaming fizzling out of motivation. If you think lack of motivation is the reason you are unable to lose weight, read about “7 Ways To Keep Yourself Motivated To Lose Weight.”
- Plan Ahead:
Work lunches, birthday treats, promotion parties, team dinners, are all part of a professional’s life, but plan ahead on what you would eat and avoid calorie-dense food. Check menus online and plan exactly on what’s right for your weight loss journey.
- Say No To Food Pushers:
A “food pusher” can either be a co-worker or a friend or someone from the family who tempts you to eat more food, overeat, or just basically eat unhealthy food that’s not part of your diet. These “food pushers,” can knowingly or unknowingly derail your weight loss plan, by encouraging you to eat more food. Here are some extremely polite ways to say no to food pushers.
- Sleep without Distractions:
After a long and tiring day at work, guess what we all do – binge watch favorite shows, catch up on web series, and or just randomly view videos on youtube, compromising on precious sleep hours. Without good sleep (for not less than 7 hours), can hamper all your weight loss efforts because sleep deprivation slows down metabolism, increases food cravings, and elevates stress and hunger hormones – which do not work in your favor, especially while trying to get into shape.
With these tips, no one can stop you from getting healthy and losing weight.
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