10 jobs that are making you fat

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m writing this post as I eat a chocolate chip cookie brought in by one of the lovely and talented Forbes producers. I like to call this “reporting from the trenches."

(Of sedentary employees who are getting fatter by the minute, that is).

This week, job-hunting hub CareerBuilder.com released the results of a survey that tells us 44 percent of American workers have gained weight at their current job. Twenty-six percent gained more than 10 pounds and 14 percent gained a whopping 20.

Surveys like this one hit me particularly hard lately — most specifically because I sat through all four hours of HBO’s “Weight of The Nation” and am seriously concerned. Did you see those fatty livers? Did you?
But enough preaching. Since technology allows us to do our jobs, talk to colleagues and attend meetings without ever leaving our desks, and the average American works more than 47 hours a week, it’s no wonder only 18 percent of adults get the total amount of physical activity recommended for good health. Most of us rarely get out heart rates up outside of work either — we commute in our cars, on trains or subways, and when we return home tend to seek out the couch straight away. In fact, nearly 40 percent of us get no physical activity at all.

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None.

To be fair, I do get some. But as a web reporter, meaning I spend nine hours of my day in an office talking on the phone and exercising my finger muscles tap-tap-tapping away on my keyboard, I can commiserate with the under-developed muscles of most of America. Lucky for me I don’t earn a paycheck in one of the fattest professions revealed this week.

That’s right, according to CareerBuilder, there are certain occupations that had a higher incidence of workers reporting a significant weight gain, which the experts say are tied both to sedentary work environments and highly stressful positions. More than half of the employees who gained weight blamed it on sitting at their desks for the entire day, up to and including their lunch hour (guilty as charged).

Here are the 10 jobs where employees are most likely to gain weight:

• Travel agent
• Attorney/judge
• Social worker
• Teacher
• Artist/designer/architect
• Administrative assistant
• Physician
• Protective services (police, firefighter)
• Marketing/public relations professional
• Information technology professional

Other scapegoats for weight gain on the job (besides sitting on our butts all day) are stress (37 percent said they gained weight because of stress), eating out with coworkers/clients (23 percent), workplace celebrations (18 percent) and the pressure to eat the delicious treats their coworkers bring into the office (10 percent – damn you and your cookies).

Of course, your employer (or profession of choice) isn’t entirely to blame for those extra pounds. According to CareerBuilder, more and more companies are doing their part to implement healthy living and fitness initiatives. “Twenty-nine percent of companies provide gym passes, workout facilities or wellness benefits for their employees,” says CarrerBuilder’s VP of human resources Rosemary Haefner. “But only 10 percent of workers say they take advantage of the benefit.”

Meaning it’s more about you than your career. Over on Jezebel, Cassie Murdoch looks at the flip side of the “oh my god we need to exercise more” conversation, citing another recent survey:

Either way, looking at this week’s list of professions in which employees should be even more on guard for weight gain than others, I was really struck by one thing: No one is safe. Reporters aren’t on this list but I’m not mounting my high horse on this one. If firefighters are gaining weight saving lives, my waist is growing with every keystroke.

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