The article in the New York times 2 days ago about people blogging til they dropped has stirred up a lot of discussion on the web. John Chow and David Peralty have both written posts today about how being fat and blogging on a regular basis has little or no connection and I agree 100%. Kelby Carr also touched upon the subject today on BloggingTips.
Blogging is the same as any other desk job, infact any other job, in that if you spend too much time working and don’t make time for exercise you are likely to put on weight.
“If you consume more calories than you burned off on a given day then you will put on weight”
That’s it. The average daily calories recommended for men is 2500 and for a women it’s 2000. 3500 calories is equal to 1lb of weight so if you eat 500 calories over what your body needs every day you will put a pound on every week. Once you understand that you quickly understand that by sitting at your pc all day you are not burning many calories and so if you snack a lot at your desk you’re going to put on weight.
On a serious note
I train about 5 or 6 times a week (taekwondo, jujitsu + gym) and I’m very interested in health related topics and I think it’s good that this kind of thing is being highlighted and discussed more. After smoking, being overweight is the most likely reason for years being cut from your life (ie. via weight related problems). The main problem that the USA and the UK has with weight issues is education - we are simply not educated enough on the subject. When I was at school the cafeteria’s main meal was hamburgers, chips with an equal portion of salt (I assume it still does!).
Personally I’m currently trying to trim up and lose a stone in the next 1-2 months. According to the BMI scale, I’m not overweight and I eat pretty healthy too but I’d like to be more toned. I don’t eat junk food or drink soda (soft drinks) that much, my main problem is eating too much bread and other carbohydrates and of course my weekend drinking sessions don’t help!
Have you found yourself putting more weight on the more you work on the net? What do you do to ensure you don’t let your work affect your health?
* The original article in the NY times talks more about blogger’s not getting enough sleep and putting themselves under too much stress so this post was more in reply to the posts which have arisen since then 
We eat pretty healthily however working from home and working 10-12 hours sometimes just means the exercise doesn’t get priority. However with the better weather looming and the beach just a short bike ride away I’m hoping to make one or two afternoons a week times to get out, get some fresh air and get some cycling in. In the meantime I’ve also invested in a Nintendo Wii mainly to get some exercise. Gotta say, one boxing match and I’m worn out! Plus it’s more fun than watching a fitness DVD!
The wii is a lot of fun. The boxing is very tiring - easily the most tiring in wii sports. Wii fit is coming out in the uk soon (£69.99) so if you like your keep fit videos you might like it. Its been really popular in Japan.
I’m going to get mario kart tomorrow - good price at £33 with the wheel. Takes me back to the old days of the snes!
The Wii Fit is down as £60 on Amazon. It definitely looks like a good buy if you compare it to the price of a game, twice the price but you get a lot for your money. Certainly something I could do with. Never owned a console before, the last thing I had that was similar was a C64!
Although, of course there’s no substitute for fresh air and outdoor exercise
Really. £60 is the cheapest I have seen it. The Commodore 64 was ace. I had it when I was a kid. We had the C16 before that but that broke.