I can’t tell you how many times I have googled “how to lose weight when working from home” over the last two years.
Even though I’ve worked office jobs for the last 10 or so years, I’ve always found ways to lose weight, maintain my weight or stay active. Even if it meant turning my commute into an excuse to exercise by stopping at the gym or parking further away from work so I could get some extra steps in for the day, I was at least leaving the house and having the opportunity to move my body.
Since I started working for myself in the middle of 2020, this became an impossible challenge.
Things started out not too bad and I was able to maintain my current weight, but any ideas about weight loss had to go out the window. Which was ok because although I felt like if I lost another 5lbs I’d be pleased with myself, in reality, I felt pretty good about myself.
When my husband and I decided to start trying for our second, I assumed I would lose the weight as I did with my first. After I had my first baby, I discovered a program (which I won’t name now because I don’t support their methods) to help me adjust my diet and lose all of the baby weight.
In my early twenties, I lost 30lbs calorie counting, so I was fairly confident I would find a diet to help me this time.
Can you see where this is going?
SPOILER: I did not find a diet option to help me lose weight this time around.
And the main difference between then and now is that I’m working from home and I’m lucky to get more than 2,000 steps in per day.
So what’s a girl to do when working a sedentary job pays the bills and the diet isn’t working?
She’s got to make some MAJOR lifestyle changes… within the confines of her own home.
I’m going to break this post up into diet and exercise for ease so if you feel like you’ve got one down, feel free to skip to the other!
How To Lose Weight When Working From Home: Diet
As I mentioned previously, I followed a diet program after my first baby which I had a lot of success with but when I look back at that time, I was eating some complex or just plain weird meals. With two children to care for now, alongside working full time on my own business, I don’t have time to cook for an hour every evening to make sure I’m eating a healthy meal. I also don’t want to survive on 70-calorie snack bars to get me through the day.
This leads me to calorie counting, the approach which I’ve had the biggest success with in the past.
Initially, I started out calorie counting again in my efforts to lose weight from baby no 2 and it did seem to work but I. Was. Miserable.
Counting every single calorie you put in your mouth is not only time-consuming but it’s depressing. After another disappointing meal where the pasta weight I was “allowed” to have wasn’t quite enough, I just totally gave up on calorie counting.
So what am I doing now?
Now, it’s all about portion control and distributing the right quantities of each food group on my plate. Here’s what I’m doing:
- 50% veggies
- 25% protein
- 25% carbs
And the best part? It’s SO EASY.
I don’t have to think about anything until I’m putting my dinner on the plate. I don’t have to log anything. I don’t need to count how many “treats” I’ve had in a day. As long as I stick to this method for lunch and dinner, I seem to be on the right track with my diet.
I will admit that I stick to a very boring breakfast of easy oats with 1% fat milk along with a cup of coffee, and in the day I try to make sure I keep snacking to a minimum and include fruit wherever possible. But in my opinion, you shouldn’t be eating 500 calories worth of snacks on a daily basis anyway. I’m not here to teach you about healthy eating (I think I love pizza too much for that) but I am here to share my diet adjustments that have worked.
How To Lose Weight When Working From Home: Exercise
This was the hardest part of my life to adjust. When your job requires you to sit at a desk for 8+ hours per day, how are you supposed to fit in exercise?
As I’ve mentioned, I’m a mom to two young children, so it’s not possible to work out before or after work as I am in “mom mode” during all parts of the day I’m not in “work mode”.
I wish I could remember how I discovered standing desks now but my memory goes something like *wait, standing desks are a thing?!* and then I ran straight to Reddit to see if I could find anyone using one to see it in action. Before I knew it, I had a standing desk converter in my Amazon basket and I was ready to checkout.
I was so excited to get my standing desk that I started reading every thread I could find on Reddit to see what other tips I could find. I wasn’t sure if it would help me lose weight but I did feel like it would encourage me to be more active in my workday.
And then I discovered a post asking about experiences with under desk treadmills and everything just clicked into place.
This was going to be my solution. This was how I was going to lose that damn baby weight that just won’t come off despite my “baby” now being 16 months old.
So I threw myself all in and ordered an under desk treadmill the same night. Within the first week of using it, I’d lost 3lbs and, well, the rest is history…
… actually, the rest is being documented here!
In a nutshell, I’m currently walking about 16,000 steps per day and the benefits to my mental health (as well as my waist) have been undeniable. I feel more energized, and productive and my body feels like it’s really “moved” every day. Unlike before when I’d feel stiff and uncomfortable after a day at my desk.
TLDR; How To Lose Weight When Working From Home
It’ll come as no surprise to you that I have had to make changes to my diet and exercise routine in order to lose weight while working from home, but hopefully the tips I’ve shared in this blog post are different from the usual crap you find on Google about drinking more water or taking a 20 minute walk in the middle of the day. These changes are ones you CAN stick to, you just need to tackle this head-on!