Obesity in the work place.

[xelnaga13]

I want to preface this by stating this is not meant to be  judgmental of any individual.

I recently read a study about the high costs and consequences of obesity in the American work force. It made me look at my own work environment and how obesity effects it.

I work with young children all day. Ranging in age from 2-6 years old. The job is extremely demanding on a persons energy levels. Im 26 and in very good athletic condition and it still takes everything I have to do an A+ job.

We have several employees that are obese/morbidly obese. Ive noticed several differences in the way that the owner of the business treats them as opposed to their more fit peers. Its obvious that the owner delegates less labor intensive or energy requiring tasks to them .

Also, everyone has good/bad days. But the very out of shape employees always look exhausted by midday.

Like I said I dont want to sound judgmental, but when you hire someone who doesnt complete 100 percent of their job then the rest of the staff has to pick up their work.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? 

 

[hammer]

Yes we do have a problem will weight, however, be careful not to judge the cause as there are many reasons for this. My own problem is one that was beyond my control at first. I was a very fit and sound construction worker after 11years of military service, and some of that was special such as diving and so on.

I was heavier then most but had a very low BMI compared to my shipmates. As I aged after about 32, 33 my Heath started to fail and I had found out that I was diabetic and had been for possibly 20 years or more but because of a very active life style I kept it under control without ever even knowing it. I also found out that my thyroid was also dead.

I was putting on weight faster then I could buy new cloths, could not get control of my sugars, got put on insulin, put on even more weight, I gained over 130lbs in a very short time.

I was only 37 and had a heart attack, tried every diet I could come up with and nothing worked, talk about disappointment. I was I guy that could pick up a back end of a pickup truck and now I could hardly walk!

There are a lot of people like me out there and some that got fat just becausea they didn't care. But I do care and I am still working on losing the weight! I watch what I eat, eat a high protean diet, low carbs and watch the portions. In the last 4 years I have lost over 60 lbs and still going down and not stopping till I hit my pre-Navy weight of 195-200!

I know it is easy to look at someone and say "what went wrong" but try to understand that there may be medical issues that don't show up on the out side like thyroid problems, and diabetics and many others.

And there is also low self esteem and self confidence that can come into play with people with weight problem as well as people with gynecomastia.


Bob aka Hammer

[walt]

hello my freinds , i am in a same sort of predicament , my military wgt was 198lbs, i did work construction for a number of years until i got hurt falling off a scaffold pick , to make a long story short i work healthcare these days and am at the 286lb mark , borderline diabetic and have a pituitary thats kaput.my Dr says loose weight but its a tough battle as we all know.with having to take replacement  hormones bi weekly and not being able to afford a "correct" diet we do eat as healthy as we can but on a very limited budget so the best is out of reach most of the time.anyhow i do have problems keeping up at times here at work but nights are not as demanding as the day shift physically.as far as overweight i am not alone in that boat, a good part of our nursing staff had a few pounds on hold.

[xelnaga13]

@ Hammer- Nice post. Congrats on your weight loss. Your condition sounds similar to what my father has " metabolic syndrome".

[Alchemist]

My weight went up and down with my ability to build cells.  When I gained I was loosing muscle and putting on watery fat having no relationship to amount eaten.  After 50 years of looking it turns out that the problem was a folate deficiency caused by folic acid and/or folinic acid/vegetable folate, paradoxical folate deficiency specifically.  It was complicated by also not being able to utilize the cyanocbl.  Further the folic/folinic acid accumulates and blocks the methylfolate from meat.  For me if I start getting too much of the wrong folates and not enough Metafolin (16 mg/day) cells start going wrong.  In 2 days I get angular cheilitis (sores at corners of mouth), in 5 days I get IBS and start gaining 3 pounds a day.