Might seem like a stupid question

greenmachine88

Can you put on weight by sitting down for too long? Say if you were in a job that required you to sit at a desk for a long period of time, even if you work out on a regular basis can you still put on weight by remaining in a sedentary position for too long?

This could officially be the dumbest question ever posted but it's worth a shot.

radia

It's never dumb to get information.

If your calorie intake is more than the calories you're using, you'll put on weight. It's not specifically to do with whether you're sitting for long periods or not.

If you formerly led a relatively active life, plus the workouts you mention, and your weight at that time was static, that means that the calories you were burning in your daily activities and workouts were pretty much equal to the calories you were eating. So if you remove the calories you were burning in daily movement (new sedentary job) the workout calorie burning won't be enough on its own to match your food intake (unless you step up the workouts or decrease the food) so you'll probably put on weight.

However, if your former daily activities plus workouts were actually causing you to lose weight, your new sedentary job plus workouts may simply mean your weight remains static or doesn't decrease as fast.

It's really just a balancing act between calories in and calories out. If you decrease food* or increase your workouts to compensate for the fact that during your working hours you're not as active, it'll be fine.

* Obviously while still maintaining sensible diet. May be a case of altering type of food rather than decreasing it. I should really have said decrease calories.

metamorphosis

greenmachine88 wrote: »

Can you put on weight by sitting down for too long? Say if you were in a job that required you to sit at a desk for a long period of time, even if you work out on a regular basis can you still put on weight by remaining in a sedentary position for too long?

This could officially be the dumbest question ever posted but it's worth a shot.

Baring any special medical condion, to put on weight you must burn less energy (calories) than you consume. That stands true whether you are standing all day, lying all day, rolling around all day, running all day etc.

The problem with sitting or been sedentary all day long is that it is very very easy to eat more than you burn as you are effectively little movement so your body needs less energy (calories). If you consistantly eat more than your body needs you will gain weight.

shoeaddict27

radia's right, its all about moderation and balancing the amount you eat with the amount of exercise you do.

if you're working in an office where you're at your desk all day, try to do little things like go for a walk at lunch time (the fresh air will help concentration too) or even just take a stroll to the water cooler or make tea

i used to always think that when you're not moving around enough your just giving the fat from food a chance to settle, it freaked me out a lil to imagine it, so i just started exercising more :P

Procasinator

greenmachine88 wrote: »

Can you put on weight by sitting down for too long? Say if you were in a job that required you to sit at a desk for a long period of time, even if you work out on a regular basis can you still put on weight by remaining in a sedentary position for too long?

This could officially be the dumbest question ever posted but it's worth a shot.

It all depends on how much energy you take in and how much you expend. So say if you are transitioning from an active lifestyle to a sedentary one without changing any other factors (what you eat), then you could expect to gain weight.

An equation*:

x = energy consumed (food, breaking down fat, etc)
y = energy used (living of course, higher number with exercise)
z = energy left (the fat)

x - y = z

You are looking to have a small z to keep away weight gain.

* Hugely simplified, of course - but the basic premise holds accurate in most cases. Z won't be 0 or negative, cause you'd, be like, totally dead and probably be breaking laws of thermodynamics and have terrible DOMs.

Will Heffernan

greenmachine88 wrote: »

Can you put on weight by sitting down for too long? Say if you were in a job that required you to sit at a desk for a long period of time, even if you work out on a regular basis can you still put on weight by remaining in a sedentary position for too long?

This could officially be the dumbest question ever posted but it's worth a shot.

This isn't even the dumbest today...you are safe.

Sitting down too long or being inactive doesn't 'make' you put on weight....by weight I'll just assume you mean fat. Even when you are asleep your 'engine' is at idle...it is ticking over and burning calories....just not as many as you would be if you were active.

So you can take Person A....who sits at their desk all day then gets in a 1 hour workout in the evening....they have a baseline metabolic rate...this is essentially just the calories you burn to keep the engine running...just for the sake of discussion lets say this is 1500 calories...this is just what it takes to keep person A's lights on.....then there's the calories that they need just to 'sit around' at a desk...this is the calories needed to go get coffee and to steal pens from the staionary cabinet....lets say this needs another 750 calories on top of the keeping the lights on...then they hit the gym...and burn 750 calories taking it to the max on the stairmaster (do they still have stairmasters in real gym's?). So in a day person A is burning 3000 calories...if they eat 3500 calories a day...that's a 500 calorie surplus on top of requirements....they are gaining weight

Person B...who is Person A's identical twin...they work all day as a gardner then gets in a 1 hour workout in the evening....they have a baseline metabolic rate...just for the sake of discussion lets say this is 1500 calories...then there's the calories that they need just do their job...digging holes and dragging crap around all day....lets say this needs another 1500 calories...then they hit the gym...and burn 750 calories taking it to the max on the stairmaster. So in a day person A is burning 3750 calories...if they eat 3500 calories a day...that's a 250 calorie deficit on below requirements...they're losing weight

radia

But if person A only consumes 3000 calories they won't put on weight.

Or if they steal heavier things from the stationery cabinet (maybe whole reams of paper) and burn up an extra 500 calories (3500 total) they'll be grand too. (Especially since prison diet probably isn't appealing enough to make them want to eat more than 3500 calories worth.)

Will Heffernan

radia wrote: »

But if person A only consumes 3000 calories they won't put on weight.

This is true...we know these people...they eat like humans...they do little or no exercise and yet don't end up like blimps...it's called maintainence...and it isn't that difficult...you can sit on one hole and not fill the other and remain exactly the same.

Or if they steal heavier things from the stationery cabinet (maybe whole reams of paper) and burn up an extra 500 calories (3500 total) they'll be grand too. (Especially since prison diet probably isn't appealing enough to make them want to eat more than 3500 calories worth.)

Also true...rather than pens...stealing photocopiers would work.

greenmachine88

great points thanks

ray jay

Will Heffernan wrote: »

This is true...we know these people...they eat like humans...they do little or no exercise and yet don't end up like blimps...it's called maintainence...and it isn't that difficult...you can sit on one hole and not fill the other and remain exactly the same.

Someone posted an interesting article about this recently. People given a calorie excess fidgeted more which used up a lot of the extra energy - one person gained only 360g of fat after 8 weeks eating 1000 cals/day over their old maintenance level.