Lose weight to get ahead? ANY "CITY" WORKERS?

[user1465284888]

To cut a long story short, I love my mentor. She has been a lifeline over the past 5 years and has been a motivating factor ever since.

I am a UK size 14/16 and have recently embraced a vegetarian lifestyle due to health complications. I'm about to start work in the city and she is a veteran the field. Fortunately, for her, she WON the genetic lottery, me on the other hand...

She told me to lose weight with the next year (which will be just before my grad training period ends) in order to be more successful at work. I told her she sounds like Katie Hopkins, but I feel like I should take her word for it. After all, she has been in senior position for the past 10 years!

As a newbie at work when would I be able to go to the gym? I would be in the office for 7:30-7:45am (after an hour commute) and would finish after 6/6:30pm (on a good day). City working mums - when do you exercise?

Lose weight because you want to or because you've been advised to by you doctor, not because some industry expert says so.

Don't exercise at all if you don't have time. Just eat less. As people say it's 80% food and only 20% exercise.

Loads of people in London cycle to work which givse you exercise morning and evening by the way. Others have a gym at work and use it - my daughter often goes at lunch time. Others go for a run at 6am. It just depends what fits into your working day.

If you want to lose weight just don't eat any breakfast. Have your vegetarian lunch you take with you and make sure it is mostly veg adn things like avocadoes and is not loads of bread and have no sweets, processed foods.

Eat nothing between then and dinner. No snacjks ever. Drink only water.
That way of being involves no effort and cost just about nothing and involves less time than eating 3 times a day.

However you need the motiviation. Do you want to weigh say 9 stone? If so just go for it and forget the exercise for now if you're busy.

Do you have children? If so, as well as all the diet advice above, a video to help you exercise in the evening would be great. Target 30mn 3 times then 4 times a week in the evening. But a healthy diet is more important than anything! Do not start rewarding exercise with more food, just drink more water (and forget energy drinks, they are terrible for you).

If you don't have childcare, leaving work before 7pm is really early, which is great! You have plenty of time to join a gym/ exercise classes. Either go to a sport club near your office, so you have the choice of lunch time or evenings, or close from home. I personally found it near impossible to exercise during the day, too much faffing with shower/ hair/ looking presentable in the office in the afternoon. I rarely have lunch break anyway.

If you have time to watch tv or be on mumsnet, you have time to exercise. (not if you are in the tube obviously).

People might not like it here, but there has been a very fit "vibe" in the city, people doing marathon, climbing mountains and so on. Being overweight is not a good image, you don't come across as dynamic, having loads of energy, being fit and healthy etc. I see examples everyday. Women are not targeted at all.

I personally want to lose weight, despite my mentor's input. I am 4 stones and most of it is in my bust tbh. I am 5ft4/5 and by looking at me most people would say I am a size 14 but just busty. I would like to be a size 10 by this time next year. I think a year is a healthy amount of time to drop the kilos.

I am hoping on joining the work gym -- and going after work. I don't want to deal with my hair in the afternoon. I also think I will join a sports club. Netball, squash or tennis and play on the weekends.

I suspect you may be 13 stone rather than around 9 so yes it would be healthier to lose weight. The main way you can do it is eat less. Don't bank on the exercise losing it for you as plenty of people exercise and then reward themselves with something with more calories than the exercise expended.

I am 4 stones

You mean 14 right?

Yes, I mean 14 stones.

Might be a good idea to get down to 9 or 10 in that case if you can. I certainly can determine which companies people come from when I do some work things in the city. The higher the pay and greater the prestige the more normal weights and better dressed people are. The larger ones tend to be less well known firms and suffer lower pay, terrible though that seems.

I think it's true that people are judgy and do equate fatter to mean lazier whether true or not. I think the key is to dress smartly in clothes that are stylish. On the exercise front as a full time city worker with two children I find it essential to find time to exercise to give me more energy and keep me in shape. Working at a desk all day is not good for anyone and exercise helps me destroys and stay in shape. I feel better when slimmer personally.

I don't work in the City, but I do work in a fairly senior role (equivalent to Head of). I'm a 14/16 and have just been promoted into this more senior role. My colleague was also promoted to the same role (different dept). She is a size 20/22. We were both promoted based on what we delivered and what sensible words came out of our mouths, not what dress size we wore.

Yes, lose weight if you want to. Yes, eat healthily because it's just better to. Yes, exercise to clear your mind, blow off steam and keep your heart beating. But don't do any of those things because you worry your career will not advance if you don't. I treat my refusal to diet as a tiny act of rebellion against this ridiculously outdated ideas and I'm more proud of what I've achieved in my life than being some arbitrary number on a set of scales.

When you do climb up that corporate ladder, wouldn't you rather know you'd done it on merit than because you kept your body looking a certain way?

Oh crap. I start work in less than a month. What should I do?!!! Will they hate and judge me? I hope they give me a few months to change my appearance. I don't want to be known as the fatty!!! Oh dear god!! :(

Low carbing is the quickest way to drop weight, but its not very sustainable. I know a few friends have had sucess with 5:2.

There is still a massive amount of sexism around. Your appearance will affect the way people interpret your behaviour. I think i read once that women who wear make up to work earn 25%more over their lifetime than those who don't. Women who are larger are sometimes deemed to have less control. It is ridiculous and unfair, but I think she was trying to give you a heads up, rather than condoning it.

Difficult to know where to start with the mentor's advice. (Any chance of finding a new mentor?) A decent mentor would encourage you to focus on developing your skills, knowledge and relationships in the workplace, not to define yourself and your success through your weight.

The much trotted out weightloss = 80% diet 20% exercise is such rubbish. (I'd be interested to know how many people who believe that have long-term success in keeping weight off.)

Has the op mentioned her height and weight? Label in knickers is meaningless.

BTW avocados are very calorie dense. Have a sandwich, much more filling. Smash the avocado over your mentors head...

14 stone and about 5 foot 5 (which is average UK height). I would say most womn in the city are about 9 stone at that height.
However if you are very good at your job none of this matters. It sounds like she wants to lose weight anyway so just get started on losing a pound a week and those extra 70 pounds will be gone in a year and a half.
Avocados are a very healthy food, better than bread and about 350 cal. But however it is done finding a way to eat less and better for life is always the answer, not quick fix diets which last a week.

Bread is healthy. No food is unhealthy. Commercial smoothies, health bars, sugar shake diets and fizzy pop aren't food BTW.

Op, you need to lose weight for your health. Jobs come and go.

Unfortunately Phoebe, it is different in the city. There are of course exceptions to the rule, but generally when you have a pool of talent to pick from that's as big as the city, the top firms and top jobs want, and can get, someone who is the whole package. And there is a culture of fitness and achievement there, which being overweight doesn't tie in with. For both men and women, most were slimmer.

When I worked there we had a lunchtime running club in our office, it was great. Shakes off the cobwebs, clears your head and energises you for the long hours to come (and keeps you fit and trim).

In my experience (more than 15 years in the City) the vast majority of professional women are fairly slim. There are larger women but they tend to be mostly in support roles (based solely on my own observation). The City is full of high achievers who subscribe to the work hard play hard culture and that includes lots of sport for many. It is very hard for working parents though - there just aren't enough hours in the day!

user i lost ten stone Went from 21 stone down to 11 stone which took me from a 46G bra size down to a 32HH.

Losing weight is perfectly possible but changing your natural body shape isnt.

And you should do this for yourself if YOU want to not because someone at work says so.

And i hope she isnt expecting you to lose it at a rate of knots. Slow steady weight loss is better.

Fast weight loss can cause painful illnesses like gallstones and im damn sure they wouldnt want you taking time off work.

Definitely agree with this "Commercial smoothies, health bars, sugar shake diets and fizzy pop aren't food BTW." Absolutely. Always eat real food. Drink water. Walk, run up escalators, cycle to work, avoid all that processed junk.

I'd say looking very groomed and put together is more important, than your weight.

You don't notice someone's size if they look immaculate and well dressed.

I'm 5'5 and I'm happy at 11 stone. I've never been near 9 stone, vaguely remember 10 and a half that would have made me a size 10. I'm happy at 11 stone and that makes me a size 12.

Don't stress too much about weight at the moment. Make sure your clothes fit well and look smart and professional. You have an appropriate hairstyle and your make up decent. If your desk based a good manicure can make you look groomed

I think she has told you the truth, up toooo I to action it.

Look around you in the city - hardly anyone is far. There is a culture of healthy eating and exercising - biking is the new golf.

Like or or not, being fat convoys laziness and a lack of care about yourself.