Do You Work in an Office? You’re Probably Overeating

I wasn’t always a miserable personal trainer you know.  I used to have a miserable office job as well.  I had the long drives to and from work with nine plus hours behind a screen in between.  Make no mistake, I was still active.  In fact, I was beyond active.  This was a time where I was going to jiu jitsu classes four times per week with weightlifting and kickboxing mixed in as well.  It was a rare time where exercise performance held precedent over body aesthetics.

As the “fit guy” many people will come up and ask about your workout routine, and inevitably the questions about diet follow.  Those with prior knowledge about nutrition often get right to the point and want to crunch numbers.

“How many calories do you eat every day?”

My body composition wasn’t all that different than it is now.  I weighed about 185lbs, hovered around 10% body fat, and performed high intensity exercise for about 90 minutes a day (if you don’t know, ask someone what it’s like to take a jiu jitsu class).

“Maybe 2300-2400 calories.”

This is immediately met with an exclamation of “really?!”

For those unfamiliar with calorie counting, this is a relatively low number for a person like me.  I was about 25 years old at the time, male (still am), had a good amount of muscle, healthy body fat, and extremely physically active.  So what gives?

All of those physical attributes taken into account doesn’t negate the fact that I sit on my ass for 90% of the day.  My drive to work was over an hour.  I’m behind a computer for nine hours.  The drive home is another hour.  By then it’s late so you pack in a quick meal and get ready for bed.

Think about the people in your office, or maybe even yourself.  Think about what they eat in a typical morning, much less a typical day.  A buttered bagel and caramel macchiato from Starbucks will pack in over 800 calories before you even sit at your desk.  I want this to be realistic so I hope you’d agree that this is a reasonable breakfast.  I’m not trying to inflate numbers by giving you the calorie count for McGriddles and hash browns.  Coffee and a bagel, this is what people do.

It doesn’t end there though, because that breakfast doesn’t provide much protein or fiber.  So it’s going to digest quickly, your blood sugar will drop, and the hunger pangs will come again.  Luckily it’s almost lunchtime and the office is ordering pizza and coke.  There’s another 1,000 calories down the hatch.

Finally you get home and have a more balanced meal: chicken, rice, and a vegetable.  And even though you promised yourself you wouldn’t, you check your email.  And something goes wrong.  And you get stressed.  And you go to the freezer for ice cream.

I hope this was a realistic illustration of the typical office worker.  In my opinion it’s a conservative estimation since I added NO snacks.  So we’re talking 2,700-3,000 calories per day.  Oh and by the way this individual wasn’t grappling or lifting weights for an hour.  This coupled with a few benders on the weekend leaves you with what you see every day.  The balding man with the white buttoned down shirt and the belly hanging over the belt.

But I didn’t want this to be completely about the avatar of corporate America.  I wanted this to be about the person who does work out, but thinks it masks the hours upon hours of sedentary living.  It doesn’t.  You still need to be meticulous about your food choices.  You probably don’t need 300 grams of carbs for that arm workout.  You probably don’t need a 400 calorie protein bar in between meals.

One thing I always encourage people to do, even if it’s for a week, is to track their food intake on an app like MyFitnessPal.  People get stuck in the mindset of good foods versus bad foods when the damage is in the dose.  This practice of logging food is an eye opener for a lot of people when they realize their healthy avocado salad with chicken, cheese, dressing, and nuts is 900 calories.

Weight loss happens in two ways; diet and/or exercise.  But for a lot of people it’s a hell of a lot easier to eat 200 less calories than it is to drag your ass to the gym and do cardio.