Editor’s Note: This post was updated on November 8, 2018, for accuracy and comprehensiveness. It was originally published on May 17, 2017.

The average U.S. adult works 47 hours a week, with around 40% saying they put in 50+ hours. This adds up to an average of a month extra work each year compared to our European counterparts!

We get it: you’re ambitious, determined … perhaps even a bit entrepreneurial.

You are the first to arrive at work and the last to leave. After a long stressful day at work, you have to worry about family and personal commitments… the last thing you are thinking about exercise. If you work a desk job and commute, it’s easy to fall into a sedentary lifestyle.

Don’t worry, we’ve come up with some actionable strategies for time-crunched workaholics who want to improve their body composition (specifically, build lean body mass and lose fat).

If you’re strapped for time and want to build a leaner, stronger physique, then this article is for you.

Read on for the 3 effective strategies and action steps you can take in accordance with each.

Strategy #1: Start in the Kitchen

Ok, we know you’ve heard it before but it bears repeating:

Unless you’re in the small minority of people who are incredibly disciplined/mindful/educated about food when you eat out, eating out often puts you in a perilous spot if you’re trying to improve your body composition.

People who work long hours tend to order takeout or dine out a lot because, at the end of a long day, they don’t feel like they have much time, interest, and/or energy left to cook food.

The numbers back this up: Millennials spend 44% of their food dollars on meals out of the house, according to the USDA’s latest food expenditure data. Even baby boomers spend close to 40 percent of their food dollars on eating out.

What’s the problem with this, you ask?

Eating out is one of the biggest reasons people become overweight.

It’s hard to track the amount of calories and nutrients you’re getting from your food when most restaurants either a) don’t know the nutrition facts information for their dishes, or b) make it hard for you to find them. When you eat out, you tend to consume excess empty calories and thus increase the chances of storing fat.

That’s why preparing your own food is so important. It gives you direct control over what you eat, and allows you to test different dietary approaches to see which one works best for improving your body composition (and gut health as an added benefit). Even if you don’t enjoy cooking food, try following these steps for a few weeks and see how your body responds.

Action Steps:

• Find out your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR (aka, the minimum amount of calories you need in a day for basic bodily functions). This will help you figure out how many calories you need in order to optimize your diet to meet your goal, whether its muscle gain or fat loss,   

1. Don’t have the energy to prepare food for your diet every day? Pick one day of the week to prepare an array of whole, nutrient-dense foods to eat for the week. Here are some food prep ideas for both omnivores and vegetarians/vegans:

   1. Get a salad spinner and rinse/spin a bunch of greens for the week.

      • Roast root vegetables like beets, carrots, onions, and parsnips (a little olive oil and salt is all you need).

      • Prepare a big batch of oatmeal, quinoa, rice, or other whole grain you enjoy eating. Experiment with other whole grains you haven’t tried before.

      • Grill a bunch of lean chicken, fish, or tofu so you have an abundance of lean protein on hand.

      • Buy raw nuts and seeds and roast them with sea salt for a healthy snack.
        
        

2. Keep a food diary and track everything you eat. It may sound tedious and annoying but it’s effective: keeping a food journal can double weight loss, according to research. There are plenty of apps and websites that let you easily track what you’re eating in 5-10 minutes/day. If you want to take a more data-driven approach to understand your body composition, then keeping track of your diet is an important piece of the equation most people neglect.

Strategy # 2. Strength Training + HIIT = Build Muscle, Burn Fat

After a busy workday, you want to be as efficient as you can with the time left in the day. If you want to improve your lean body mass and achieve a toned, healthy look in the least amount of time possible, resistance training and high intensity interval training (HIIT) are your best bets.

Let’s unpack the science behind each.

Resistance Training

Resistance training has as many stigmas attached to it as well as benefits. First, let’s look at the benefits. Resistance training, which means that you are strength training using any form of resistance, can help you:

• Increase lean body mass

• Make your bones, joints, and skeletal muscles stronger and reduce pain

• Reduce anxiety

• Improve your body image

• Help you burn more calories at rest

There are a plenty of myths surrounding resistance training and strength training in general that may make some hesitate to incorporate it into their fitness routine. Here are two of the biggest:

1. Myth 1: Resistance training will automatically make you gain weight. It’s true that resistance training or any strength training may make losing weight more difficult–but that’s because resistance training helps you burn fat and build lean body mass. This means your weight may stay the same but you will “look” leaner.

2. Myth 2: Resistance training isn’t as effective as hardcore cardio. If you like to run, bike or swim, more power to you … those are all great workouts. Plus, aerobic exercise can help reduce cardiovascular risk and body fat. However, we lose muscle mass every year after age 35. This increases our risk for sarcopenia, which is a decrease in muscle mass associated with aging.  Studies show that resistance training is beneficial for preventing and even reversing sarcopenia in older adults and can be an effective long-term strategy to prevent weight gain and unwanted changes in body composition. Although cardio exercise may be effective in fat loss, it does not help as much to increase muscle mass– and sometimes may result in decreases in muscle mass. And let’s face it: most of us don’t just exercise because it’s good for our heart—we do it because it also helps us look and feel better about ourselves. If you’re seeking a more athletic, toned look, then plain old cardio isn’t going to cut it.

Resistance training can seem daunting at first, but doing more bench presses at the gym and even adding dumbbell exercises at home can help you build the muscle.

HIIT

High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, is a type of workout that includes quick, intense bursts of exercise, followed by short (sometimes active) recovery periods.

If your main goal is to lose body fat in the least amount of time and you’re not as concerned about muscle gain, HIIT is a proven approach.

Studies show that HIIT is equal to or better than cardio for overall cardiovascular health … and more efficient.

One caveat here: if you’re sedentary, HIIT may actually not be any more efficient than traditional steady-state cardio (i.e., running on the treadmill) for losing weight quickly. But HIIT is still one of the best types of workouts for burning fat and improving your body composition.

Action Steps:

1. Schedule at least two resistance training( or any type of strength training) and/or HIIT workouts every week (this is the minimum amount the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommend). Try a 15 minute HIIT wo

2. Track how your body is changing. The more you incorporate strength training and HIIT workouts into your schedule, the more you’ll see your body improve. The third and final strategy will show you how.

3. Get up and move!  If you have a sedentary desk job, it’s important to take a break and move around. It doesn’t have to be as intense as a cardio workout, but any movement – even leisurely movement, can be impactful. The key is to break up long periods of sitting.     

Strategy 3: Track Your Progress, Get Results

Tracking your progress is one of the most overlooked things you can do to encourage a long-term commitment to eating well and exercising. Especially with the hours and hours you’re spending at your desk or running around making calls, the last thing on your mind while trying to eat healthy and exercise is to calculate how your body is changing.

Like we mentioned, keeping a food journal is a good way to track what you’re eating over time and make notes of how different foods affect your body. Likewise, it’s a good idea to schedule your workouts in advance and record your exercise routines in a journal.

But aside from the physical exam and labs from your physician, how can you track improvements to your physical health beyond weight loss or BMI (especially when your goal is muscle gain)?

Body Composition Analysis

Tracking body composition progress gives you objective feedback on metrics that you are about: lean body mass gain and fat loss. And it’s easy!  Body composition analysis tests can be done under a minute and are vital in showing you what’s working and what’s not. You’ll be able to directly make data-driven adjustments and tweaks that can help you achieve your goal. You don’t have time to waste as a busy individual. Periodic Body composition tests can make sure that you are on track to meeting your fitness goals.  

Action Steps:

1. Start small. Research shows small commitments can help prevent weight gain and lead to sustainable behavior changes that become lifelong habits. For example, commit to 20 minutes of exercise per day. Pack fruit with you for breakfast or lunch. Do 5 pushups every day. Take a 30-minute walk. All of these “tiny habits”, as Dr. Fogg, a Stanford psychologist, calls them, can add up to big rewards.

2. Track your progress. If you don’t have a daily planner, get one. Or use Evernote, Google Calendar/Docs/Sheets, Apple Notes, Momentum, etc. The key is, record what you’re doing. Find a local gym that offers body composition analysis services. Keep your numbers, set a new goal, and get your numbers checked every 1-3 months. For food tracking, try free services like MyPlate or MyFitnessPal.

Conclusion

The “best” approach for you, the busy professional, is the one that 1) helps you strike the right personal balance between work, health, and play, and 2) aligns with your personal body composition goal.

If your goal is to build lean body mass while keeping a low body fat percentage, resistance training is a proven method. What you eat and how much you eat obviously are big factors too. For example, research shows eating about 15% more calories per day than what is required to maintain your body weight is optimal for increasing lean body mass.

If you’re trying to burn more fat and get a toned, lean look in the least amount of time, HIIT is a great option.

Regardless of which type of exercise fits into your busy life, eat right, exercise, and track your progress, including your body composition numbers! The next generation of successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, and big thinkers are already using this highly strategic, data-driven approach. If you haven’t jumped on the body composition bandwagon, maybe it’s time to start.

Don’t give in to a sedentary lifestyle! Even with the loads of work you have on your plate, small, incremental changes to your diet and exercise can do wonders to your health.

***

Scott Christ is a health and wellness entrepreneur, writer, and website strategy consultant. He’s also the creator of the world’s healthiest plant-based protein powder.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on October 14, 2018, for accuracy and comprehensiveness. It was originally published on August 5, 2016.

Think about how long you sit in a day. It’s probably something you have never tracked, but on average Americans spend more than half their waking hours sitting! Between sitting in traffic, attending class or work, or relaxing on the sofa the number of hours you spend sitting can add up quickly. Even if you exercise three times a week, you may still suffer from a sedentary lifestyle because its hard to counteract the total number of hours that you sit in a week. Why does this matter? How much harm can sitting most of the day actually do to your health? Quite a lot actually. According to recent studies, your inactive, sedentary lifestyle may be shortening your lifespan!

You May Want to Stand Up for This

Headlines like “Sitting is the new smoking” might seem like the type of clickbait health article you can dismiss because everyone else is sitting all day too so … how can it harm you right?

Not so fast. In 2009, over 17,000 Canadians participated in a study that sought to find a connection between sitting and mortality. Participants ranged in age, body type, and activity level. At the end of the study, researchers found an association between sitting time and mortality from all causes and concluded extended periods of sitting should be discouraged. A sedentary lifestyle where you sit all day harms your health by encouraging muscle loss and fat gain and increasing your risk factor for multiple diseases.  

In this article, we will cover the five ways your body composition is negatively affected by too much sitting. But don’t worry, it’s not all doom-and-gloom: we have tips on how you can break up long periods of sitting, even if you work a desk job.

#1: Insulin Resistance

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death among Americans. Those who sit for extended periods of time, don’t exercise, and don’t take care of their nutrition can experience insulin resistance, which happens when insulin isn’t able to transport excess blood sugar out of your blood and into your muscles. When insulin resistance because significant, that’s type-2 diabetes.

One study of 3,757 women found that women who sat for eight hours a day had a 56 percent higher chance of developing diabetes. Diabetics tend to have more fat within their bodies, particularly visceral fat, which can further encourage insulin resistance and keep them from being healthy.

In addition, diabetics experience quicker loss of muscle mass as they age compared to healthy individuals. The loss of muscle intensifies symptoms further deteriorates body composition.

#2: Risk for Heart Disease

Enzymes that burn body fat decrease by 90% when sitting for an hour or longer. The enzyme involved with body fat burning is called lipoprotein lipase, or LPL. LPL’s role is to produce good cholesterol, or HDL, which helps with triglyceride levels and protects against heart disease by keeping bad cholesterol from building up in the arteries. A sedentary lifestyle has been shown to decrease HDL Levels.  A low HDL level is a common metabolic syndrome risk factor and is associated with increased risk of hypertension (high blood pressures) and cardiovascular disease.

In a 2003 animal study, rodents were forced to stay lying down for most of the day – to simulate a sedentary lifestyle – and the researchers found that the LPL levels in their leg muscles decreased immensely. When they stood up, the enzyme was ten times more active! Although these studies with humans are still underway, its still a convincing reason to take short breaks with moderate physical activity.

#3: Muscles become weaker

When you sit, your gluteal muscles, abdominal muscles, and legs lay dormant. If you sit for extended periods of time day after day, these muscles can degenerate. Because the size of your metabolism is linked with your body composition – more muscle increases metabolism and helps your burn more calories – any muscle loss, especially from the lower body which is your largest muscle group, can lead to consistent fat gain if the diet is not changed.

In the future, gradual muscle loss from your lower body can hurt your functional strength and as you become older increase your fall risk and affect your ability to live independently.    

#4: Circulation Becomes Slower

Not only does blood flow to your brain slow down when you sit for too long, but the blood flow to your legs also becomes sluggish. Sitting for an excessive period of time without standing can increase the risk of developing blood clots. Most of the time blood clots are harmless and will dissolve on its own. But there is the possibility that the blood clot breaks off and cause blockage in the lungs, which can be fatal.  

One study showed a profound reduction in the vascular flow after sitting for just three hours. But the researchers found that those who took breaks and got up to walk around for two minutes, every hour, increased their lifespan by 33 percent.

#5: Bones Become Brittle

Long-term sitting and inactivity can lead to weakened bones. The Mayo Clinic has stated that “People who spend a lot of time sitting have a higher risk of osteoporosis than do those who are more active.” The reason is that bone is live tissue that is constantly in a state of forming new bone material and absorbing the old bone material. As we age the rate that bone is reabsorbed is faster than new bone that is formed. One of the factors that lead to rapid bone loss is a lack of physical activity.

Like muscles, bones become stronger when they are used. Engaging in walking and movement which includes weight-bearing can increase the durability of bones.

Tips to Get Moving!

How can you increase your physical activity, even if you work all day? You have to get creative. Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Transportation – Do you drive to work? If so, park as far away as possible to get in extra steps throughout the day. If you can, bike or walk to the office. Take the steps up to your office if you are not on the first floor. If you can work from home, work from your home office. When at home, get up, do some walking, and even walk to the library to do more work. Think about your day before it starts to get those extra steps in each and every day.

2. Layout makeover –  Have you taken a look at your office? Sometimes moving your office objects may make it easier for you to get your steps in. Take a look, is your printer close to your computer? Try to move it across the room to make yourself get up and move. Most of us live with our cell phones very close to us. Move your cell phone’s charger by the printer; it will help you get up to move and keep you less distracted. Make coffee in your break room, come back and do some work, and get up again to get your coffee. Anything to get yourself moving counts towards your health.

3. Change up the way you sit –  If you are allowed, sit on an exercise ball at your desk for short periods, or take it a step further and try a standing desk. There are unique ways of moving at work nowadays with standing desks, treadmill desks, and even bicycle desks. Imagine getting through one of your long meetings with an hour-long bike ride, instead of a large latte. If none of these are viable options, or if an exercise ball isn’t your thing, there are exercises you can do in your desk chair that engage the muscles of your core.

4. Trade out your comfy chair – If you are not allowed to use a ball or cool new desk, try just an old fashioned wooden, uncomfortable chair. It will make you sit up straight if you must remain sitting, attempt good posture.

5. Alarm clock – Set a timer every hour for two minutes of constant movement. Try to keep moving with different exercises, sometimes called deskercises, stretches, or take a lap or two around the building.

6. Step Tracker – Motivate yourself by purchasing a step tracker. It is an eye opener to many individuals to see how much you are sitting around. Many trackers you can wear as a bracelet and challenge friends to different goals.

Now It’s Your Turn: Be a Role Model

If you work an office job or you have a full course load, it can be easy to become inactive and lead a sedentary lifestyle. The good news is that recent studies found that just one hour of physical activity can potentially offset the 8-hour sitting marathon many people perform in their offices. That doesn’t mean that getting all your activity for the day in your one-hour gym session is enough because you can’t forget the time you spend driving and relaxing at home! The idea is to find opportunities to get moving.

Now that you’re at the end of the article, stand up and start moving! Your body will thank you for it.

***

Janine Kelbach, RNC-OB is a Registered Nurse certified in Obstetrics. She has been practicing in labor and delivery for over a decade. She developed her writing career in 2012, specializing in health topics. She, her husband, Adam, and two children Zachary and James reside in Cleveland, OH

When it comes to showing the effectiveness of corporate wellness programs, showing a positive ROI can be a little tricky.

On one hand, you read reports like this one in the Harvard Business Review that trumpet the effectiveness of successful corporate wellness programs at companies like Johnson & Johnson, which was reported as saving $250 million over 5 years at a rate of $2.71 in savings per dollar invested.

If you’re an employer, you read articles like this and think: “Great! Healthier employees plus measurable savings? Who wouldn’t want that?”

But on the other hand, contrarian reports like this one from the RAND Corporation tell a different story.  According to RAND, only disease management programs have positive returns in savings; for lifestyle management programs – the ones that promote exercise and healthy lifestyles – employers can expect a return of only fifty cents on the dollar.

Following RAND’s logic, it would make sense for the fiscally-minded executive or HR director to only provide benefits that treat chronic illnesses and not spend money encouraging their employees against unhealthy choices that lead to conditions like obesity, for instance.

But taking this line of thought can come at a high price for companies. Unhealthy employees and employees who are steadily becoming unhealthier tend to become less productive.  Employees who can’t work at their full potential are a source of loss.

Yet you won’t see these employees taking sick days; you’ll see them at their desks day in day out, present – but not productive.  Called “presenteeism,” unhealthy employees who come to work are costing their companies billions in lost productivity. If you’re an employer looking for positive ROI on your wellness program, this is something you cannot afford to ignore.

It’s Not Just About Sick Days

In order to understand how corporate wellness programs deliver significant benefits over the long term, it’s important to understand where costs for employers come from. The first two you probably know.

There are direct costs for sick employees, like medical and pharmaceutical costs.  Then there are sick days that employers are legally obliged to give, which represent money spent on employees who aren’t working.  That’s referred to as “absenteeism.”

These costs have been traditionally understood as costs corporate wellness programs can mitigate: healthier employees don’t take sick days, don’t lose productive hours, and don’t make as many insurance claims for illnesses.

Presenteeism, by contrast, occurs when employees should be absent but feel that they should be at work because of their obligations or for fear of disciplinary action.  But what is presenteeism?

According to research published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, presenteeism occurs when:

• There is lost time between when an employee comes to work and when the employee begins work

Or when hours are lost when an employee:

• Loses concentration

• Must repeat a task

• Works slower due to feelings of fatigue

• Does nothing

All of these actions may cause the employee to be less productive, meaning the company is losing productive hours from individuals who are at work when they should be absent.

Lots of seemingly minor issues can cause an employee to be a “presentee” worker.  Simply coming into work sick when they should be absent will cause an employee to be less productive.  But then, there are other, more silent factors that can cause loss of productivity including headaches, back pain, indigestion, acid reflux, etc.

Many of these minor complaints can be traced back to one chronic problem that is only growing with each passing year: the ongoing rise of obesity in the United States.  While it might seem hard to imagine that your employees’ diets and exercise habits are having a direct effect on their productivity, a growing body of research suggests otherwise.  Let’s take a look.

Lost Productivity

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one-third of American adults are obese, which research in the Journal of the American Medical Association defines as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) equal to or greater than 30.  For reference, here are the BMI ranges and their corresponding weight classifications according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Statistically speaking, if you employ American adults in your business, some of them are likely to fall into this category.

Furthermore, the CDC estimates that the annual medical costs attributed to obesity are $147 billion, and that costs for people who are obese are $1,429 greater per individual than those who are not.

From an employer’s standpoint, employee obesity might not rank very high on the list of business concerns.  The trend towards a sedentary lifestyle is something that an individual chooses for themselves, and an employer is not a parent.

But as an employer, you expect productivity from your employees, and in recent years a growing body of research has started to indicate that overweight and obese employees are costing their employers billions in lost hours due to both absenteeism and presenteeism.

A 2009 study examining the costs of obesity in the workplace begins by noting that increased medical expenditures ranged from an additional $170 for overweight employees (BMI: 25.0 – 29.9) to greater than $1,500 for employees with grade II obesity (BMI: 35.0 to 39.9).  Some of these costs were attributable to absenteeism, and the employee group with the greatest rates of absenteeism – women with grade III obesity – missed 1 week more work than those of normal weight.

1 week of lost productive hours, assuming an employee works 40 hours a week, can range in the high hundreds to thousands of dollars per employee (depending on salary), with the loss compounding for each additional overweight employee.

That’s just absenteeism. When the costs of presenteeism are added in, the amount of productive hours and money lost due to obesity becomes hard to ignore.

Research conducted by Finkelstein et al. estimates that the total costs among full-time employees that are attributable to obesity total some $73.1 billion.  When broken down by type of cost – medical, absenteeism, and presenteeism – the results are as follows:

For women, costs related to presenteeism are estimated to be $15 billion – 38% of the total costs related to poor health.  For men the costs related to presenteeism are $15 billion as well, but for this group, presenteeism is the greatest source of financial loss, more than direct medical costs and losses due to sick leave.  The authors concluded that:

“…presenteeism is the single largest driver of the costs of poor health among full-time employees, regardless of BMI. Moreover, with the exception of overweight men [BMI: 25-29.9], medical expenditures, absenteeism, and presenteeism increase with increasing BMI.”

The “Threshold Effect”

These findings are confirmed in a second study published in the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. This study looked at employees in the manufacturing industry in Kentucky and found that annual loss per worker due to obesity was $506 in presenteeism and $433 in absenteeism.

More interestingly, the paper’s authors noted something they uncovered that they termed a “threshold effect.”

Among overweight (25-29.9) and mildly obese employees (BMI 30-34.9), the authors did not observe any significant costs related to productivity loss.  However, these costs began and steadily increased once BMI ranges extended into moderately or extremely obese ranges (BMI: 35+).  And they scale rapidly with the size of the company.

In the study, of the employees in the companies under review, 12.9% were categorized as obese.  Although obesity rates vary from company to company, using this figure as a model, a company of 100 employees can expect a loss of $6,376 due to productivity losses related to presenteeism caused by complications related to obesity.  And remember, this money is excluding the direct costs and absentee costs.

The authors of this study conclude:

“…health effects on productivity are concentrated among the most obese workers with BMIs of 35.0 or  greater, suggesting that employers should consider workplace interventions targeting obesity.  Even modest weight loss could result in hundreds of dollars of improved productivity costs per worker per year.”

Shifting Perspectives on Corporate Wellness

Given the massive financial impact presenteeism can have on bottom lines and the link between obesity and presenteeism, corporate wellness programs can and must be seen in a new light when thinking about ROI.

Although the conclusions drawn by the RAND study about the ROI of corporate wellness programs aren’t necessarily incorrect, they are a bit narrow-minded in that they only take into account measurable, direct returns on dollars invested without considering the costs in productivity loss related to both absenteeism and presenteeism.

One significant oversight in the RAND study is the classification of the factors that lead to developing obesity, such as poor eating habits and lack of exercise as being under the umbrella of “lifestyle management programs,” – the programs that yielded only 50 cents per dollar invested. These were the programs RAND advised against investing in.

But as research has shown, the link between obesity and presenteeism represents a huge potential drain in resources.  A well-run corporate wellness program can yield a huge ROI if it can increase productivity in its employees, and according to the CDC, maintaining a healthy workforce lowers both direct and indirect costs, including the ones related to absenteeism and presenteeism.

These indirect costs aren’t to be dismissed, and fortunately, they are preventable. In Health and Productivity as a Business Strategy, Loeppke et al. (2009) demonstrated that while there is an additional $2.30 in productivity losses for every dollar spent on employees’ medical and drug costs, there are at least $2-4 absorbed in health costs related to productivity losses caused by absentee/presenteeism for every dollar invested in their health.

Bottom Line

If you want to get the most out of your employees and avoid losing money, you need to keep them healthy and productive.  In order to keep them productive, you need to offer and encourage your employees to use resources to take care of their bodies and improve their health.

But even beyond your bottom line: offering these types of resources demonstrate that you care about your employees as people and not just as people who work for you.  Most people like being productive, and everyone likes being healthy.

Isn’t it time to rethink how you manage your wellness program?