These Statistics On How Your Job Affects Your Weight Are Pretty Depressing
New research done by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examines the differences in exercise routines based on your job, and is pretty depressing overall.
The data collected between 2008 and 2014 showed that 43% of working adults are not getting enough exercise. People with jobs that involve more physical labor are less likely to exercise in their spare time compared to people who work more typical office jobs. And 51% of people working production jobs failed to meet average exercise expectations, compared to 30% of adults working in more sedentary environments.
Another trend? Those with a higher level of education were more likely to meet levels of exercise recommendations.
“Education is social capital,” says Dr. Debra Blackwell, a leading doctor of the study. “It’s much more than the highest grade completed. It represents access to information, and how you use that information to make decisions about lifestyle choices.”
So how much exercise should you be getting? “150 minutes of moderate physical activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, plus some weight training to strengthen muscles a few days a week,” is the recommendation offered by the CDC on their website.
I browsed their site and saw that they actually have a few good tips for managing exercise when you’re a busy worker bee.
“We know 150 minutes each week sounds like a lot of time, but it’s not,” the website reads. “That’s 2 hours and 30 minutes, about the same amount of time you might spend watching a movie. The good news is that you can spread your activity out during the week, so you don’t have to do it all at once. You can even break it up into smaller chunks of time during the day. It’s about what works best for you, as long as you’re doing physical activity at a moderate or vigorous effort for at least 10 minutes at a time.”
10 minutes at a time sounds doable, right? Exercise isn’t the end of the world, right?