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Friday, 12 October, 2007 1:52 PM
Nearly Half of U.S. Workers Have
Gained Weight at Their Current Jobs, CareerBuilder.com Survey Finds
Expert
Offers Tips to Avoid Extra Pounds During the Winter
CHICAGO
-- With cold weather and holiday parties
just around the corner, the office can be particularly hazardous
for
putting on extra pounds. Forty-nine percent of workers say they
have
gained weight at their current jobs, according to a recent
CareerBuilder.com survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, of more
than
5,600 workers nationwide.
Twenty-eight percent
of workers report they have gained more than ten
pounds and 13 percent say they have gained more than 20 pounds while
in
their present positions. Comparing genders, more women (52 percent)
than men (46 percent) say they have gained weight at their current
jobs.
"In the fall and
winter, it becomes particularly difficult to stay on
track," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources
at
CareerBuilder.com. "Holiday and end-of-year business obligations,
along
with the temptations of office treats and cold weather keeping workers
indoors, all combine to make it difficult to maintain healthy habits.
Workers who plan ahead and apply moderation will be in a much better
position to avoid fall and winter weight gain."
According to the survey,
many workers are not taking food matters into
their own hands. Fifty-eight percent of the workers surveyed say
they
eat out at work for lunch at least once a week, with more than
one-in-ten (12 percent) eating out five times a week for lunch.
Some workers don't even make their way out of the building and opt
for
the vending machine. Thirteen percent of workers admit to eating
lunch
out of the vending machine at work at least once a week.
When asked about snacking
at work, 38 percent of workers say they eat
more unhealthy snacks at the office than at home. Twenty percent
say
they do not usually eat fruits or vegetables during the work week.
In terms of snacking
frequency, 69 percent of workers say they snack at
least once during the workday. Thirty-seven percent say they snack
at
least twice a day and 12 percent say at least three times a day.
Haefner recommends
the following tips for fending off fall and winter weight gain in
the workplace:
-- Stock the shelves
-- pack your office drawers with healthy and
filling
snacks, so it will be easier to elude comfort food temptations on
chilly days.
-- Drink and be merry
-- keep a bottle of water at your desk and drink
it
throughout the day to curb your urge to chow down.
-- Start a support group
-- get together with other co-workers and
start a
lunch or fitness group that will help keep everyone on track.
-- Brown-bag it -- take
a few extra minutes to pack your lunch. You
can
control portions and lessen the strain on your waistband and your
wallet.
-- Indulge without guilt
-- let's face it, sometimes dessert is just
too
hard to pass up. The key is everything in moderation.
-- Keep your mouth busy
-- chewing gum or chatting with co-workers can
help you to avoid that second trip to the sweet table at office
holiday
celebrations.
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted
online within the United States by Harris
Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 5,600 US employees,
(employed full-time; not self-employed; with no involvement in hiring
decisions), ages 18 and over within the United States between June
1 and
June 13, 2007. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education,
region
and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them
into
line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity
score
weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to
be
online.
With a pure probability
sample of 5,600, one could say with a
ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a
sampling
error of +/-1.3 percentage points. Sampling error for data from
sub-samples is higher and varies. However that does not take other
sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on
a
probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can
be
calculated.
Source: CareerBuilder.com
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