Your Weight and Desktop Dining

Eating at your desk while working may be a recipe for weight gain and indigestion. Here’s why…

I vividly remember the moment when I realized I typically eat at my desk while working. I was at Heinrich-Heine University in Deüsseldorf, Germany, where my husband, Larry Scherwitz, and I, had been invited to do research on lifestyle (diet, stress management, exercise, and group support) and heart disease. After several months, when we had become good friends with some colleagues, I heard a knock on my office door around lunchtime. “We’re going to the cafeteria for lunch,” said Siegfried. “Would you and Larry like to join us?” In response, I stopped clicking away at my computer mid-word, gathered my purse and coat, and then walked through the wintry campus with my husband and three co-workers until we arrived at the building that housed the cafeteria.

Once inside, we were greeted by students’ energetic conversations as they waited in line to choose their food. After our leisurely lunch, convivial conversation, and another chance to walk and talk in the fresh, crisp air, we all returned to work. Larry and I would repeat this welcomed ritual with our friends many times during the two years we worked in Europe.

Desktop Dining
Upon reflection, I can’t help but think how atypical such a social scenario has become for many in America during lunchtime. Most of us know that eating meals in positive social surroundings with others is at the least, pleasurable. Recent research, however, suggests that it may provide more than a mere reprieve from work. Indeed, walking away from your desk and focusing instead on food and friends while eating may counter weight gain and indigestion problems.

One of the first studies to demonstrate the link between desktop dining and increased risk of weight gain or indigestion was done by the American Dietetic Association, which cosponsored a survey with ConAgra Foods. When they polled 1,024 full-time employees who work at desks, they discovered that most eat while working: 67% eat lunch, 61% nibble munchies, and 37% eat breakfast while working at their desks. With an additional 10% of men and 7% of women “dining” at their desks for dinner, it seems that some continue the habit into the evening hours.

Weight Worries
How might desktop dining translate into an increased risk for pililng on added pounds or increasing the odds of indigestion? Eating at your desk means you're likely to consume more food than you realize. Along with overeating, staying put also means you're moving less and are therefore burning fewer calories than more motion-conscious co-workers. Not surprisingly, this can lead to the tired but true formula for weight gain: eating more and moving less.

“That’s exactly what happened to me,” exclaimed a physician-friend of mine when I told him about the link between desktop dining and weight gain. “Because I was on deadline to complete my fifth book, I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner while working at my computer [between seeing patients],” he clarified. “During this time, my wife took over my job of walking our dog each day,” he added. “After nine months of this routine, I finished the manuscript; at the same time, I was surprised to discover I had gained almost 20 pounds. This had never happened to me before.” My health savvy friend said it took almost a year to get back to his normal weight.

Minding Meals
Turning off your computer while eating and focusing on your food instead of task-stacking (doing simultaneous activities) may help your digestion in yet another way: eating more mindfully may increase alpha-amylase, an enzyme that helps you to metabolize carbohydrates and to digest B-vitamins.

Better yet, take a cue from our European lunchtime encounters. Suggest sharing an impromptu meal or snack with colleagues or co-workers. Then walk a little and talk a little. In this way, instead of putting on pounds or dealing with digestion, you’ll be flavoring food with friendship, and treating your body to enhanced health.

Deborah Kesten, MPH is an international nutrition, lifestyle, and health researcher and Certified Wellness Coach. She also is the award-winning author of Feeding the Body, Nourishing the Soul, The Healing Secrets of Food, and The Enlightened Diet. Call her at 415.810.7874 or visit her at www.Enlightened-Diet.com to take her FREE What’s Your Eating Style? quiz, to sign up for her Whole Person Nutrition Program for wellness and weight loss, and to discover more about wellness coaching, and Deborah’s award-winning books.

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