Lose The Job, Lose The Weight

If you’re like most, your job is a source of stress.  Actually it’s probably the leading source of stress:

According to the Center for Disease Control/National Institute on Occupational Safety & Health, the workplace is the number one cause of life stress. The American Institute of Stress reports 120,000 people die every year as a direct result of work-related stress.  Additionally, healthcare costs resulting from work-related stress total an average of $190 billion a year. 

Incredible, and sad.  I’ve written about stress a lot on my blog over the years.  Sometimes directly, and others as related to home ownership, car-commuting to work, or even rock climbing. 

We all know stress impacts our health, and chronic stress over long periods can cause disease and shorten our lives.  Obesity is one of the biggest health crisis’s in America.  Since obesity is the leading cause of many or most chronic diseases and chronic disease is another major health crisis, I would argue that obesity is the most pressing health crisis in America. 

And before you get angry at me, please know that I’m a former obese guy.  I know what’s it’s like to be obese – to be stigmatized and judged because of my weight.  Been there, done that, have the scars to prove it. 

But can retiring from your stressful job or reducing your hours by going part time help you lose weight?

 

What The Science & Research Says

I’m all about published and peer-reviewed research, so let’s look at some papers that study the relationship between stress and obesity. 

From the Annals of Behavioral Medicine:

Multiple types of stressors may be risk factors for obesity, and cumulative exposure to these stressors may increase the odds of obesity. Reducing exposure to stressors at the population level may have the potential to contribute to reducing the burden of obesity. 

From The Annual Review Of Psychiatry:

Based on the available scientific evidence, the conclusion of this review is that, yes, through multiple pathways, stress plays a role in the development and maintenance of obesity. 

From PubMed: 

Stress may play a major role in the development and maintenance of obesity in individuals who have an increased glucocorticoid exposure or sensitivity. These insights may lead to more effective and individualized obesity treatment strategies. 

And from one of the earliest studies that started bringing this issue to the forefront: 

During human evolution, food was scarce and life-threatening stressors frequent; elevated glucocorticoid levels and depressed insulin levels, except when feeding, therefore served adaptive purposes. However, in our current obesogenic environment where food is plentiful, palatable and easy accessible, the proliferation of stressors may drive non-homeostatic feeding – in other words, eating without metabolic need. Repeated bouts of minor daily stressors that keep the stress system in a chronically activated state may alter brain reward/motivation pathways involved in wanting and seeking hyperpalatable foods and induce metabolic changes that promote weight and body fat mass. Weight-related adaptions of the metabolic, neuroendocrine, and neuronal pathways can together potentiate food preference, craving and intake under conditions of stress. A sensitized feed-forward process may result in changes that promote elevated desires for and increased consumption of hyperpalatable foods. Individual differences in susceptibility to obesity and types of stress may further moderate this process. 

 

Solve For Y

Whew….  Okay, you get the picture.  Stress is a big contributor to making us fat and unhealthy.  And, per the CDC, our jobs are the leading cause of stress in our lives. 

This isn’t a hard equation to solve. 

In full disclosure, I lost most of my weight (from 230lbs to 162-ish) while I still had a full time job.  But, since going part-time to 20 hours a week in 2017 I’ve found it substantially easier to keep my weight where I want it. 

I have more time to workout, to cook healthy meals, to read labels in the grocery store.  And oh the biggie, I have WAY WAY less work stress.  In fact I have hardly any. 

Sure I have stresses in my life but they are mostly not work related.  Sometimes the biggest stress to my week will be trying to negotiate the ramps on the local mountain bike trails that the teenagers keep building bigger and bigger. 

That’s a good stress to have.

 

Conclusion

The topic of obesity has become a sensitive one and something that people are even getting canceled over.  I think that’s largely because approximately 43% of Americans are now obese, and approximately 75% are overweight.  So it seems to be “targeting” about half the population or more. 

I’m not targeting or blaming anyone.  But the facts are what they are. 

• Obesity is horribly unhealthy and leads to a multitude of diseases, a massive healthcare burden on the public, and ultimately a shorter lifespan. 
• Stress is clearly helping drive the obesity crisis. 
• Our jobs are the leading cause of stress. 

I empathize with anyone struggling with bodyweight.  If anyone who is struggling wants to reach out to me I’d gladly discuss my journey and do my best to encourage or even coach you to make big changes and take control of your weight.  It’s hard, the deck is stacked against us.

But I would also encourage you to save your money, stop being a typical American consumer, spend way less than you earn, and get to financial independence.  Because when you do, it opens up a world of choices and allows you to ditch the job that’s causing so much stress. 

In short, lose the job, lose the weight.