To wonder how postmen become overweight?

[Tonnnnnn]

Postwomen as well.

The average postie must walk around 20-30k steps a day, which must burn 1800 calories+ yet you see overweight postman/woman.
Does the body become very efficient so fewer calories are being burned?

They eat calorie laden food?

You can’t outrun a bad diet. 80% of weight management is about food.

Also forgot to add, they are carrying 5-10kg bags which makes their job even more physical.

Stress? Stress can definitely thwart even a good diet and exercise. You just never know what people are going through underneath.

The calories burned are completely irrelevant without knowing the calories consumed.

I don't think I've seen overweight postmen.
If they are it would be bad diet

Yes it does.

Doesn't matter how many steps you take, though, if you have a fry up every morning, burger for lunch and pie and chips for dinner.

Genetics also play a part. Not everyone’s metabolism burns at the same rate.

i used to walk around 25k each day when we had our dog. Still had to watch the diet.

I considered this job for exactly that reason, building in exercise into your work day. But I imagine it also works up quite the appetite.

Their sleep probably isn’t brilliant, having to be up so early, so that could affect weight too.

This. Weight is 80% what you eat and 20% what you do.

Maybe they put on a pound every time someone is judgemental about their weight

Because 80% of weight loss is down to diet.

I’m a dog walker and do about 25k steps a day - everyone assumes I must just be able to eat whatever I want but the reality is that while I do a lot of steps, I’m often waiting for dogs to sniff or pee and I rarely actually do any long periods of high intensity movement.

I can easily do 20,000 steps a day at work and walking the kids to school, I run 3 days a week and go to the gym 3 days a week but if I don't watch what I eat I gain weight.

Even with everything I do my maintenance calories are less than 2000 because I'm short and also don't weigh a huge amount. 2000 calories doesn't really go very far at all if I'm eating higher calorie foods and drinking wine. Recently I've easily been eating and drinking easily 3000 calories a day because I haven't been tracking.

It's just so easy to gain weight and so hard to lose!

Round my way they turn up in a van once a week. No heavy postbags, they don't seem to even do daily deliveries any more.

All our posties have been fit and thin. Its about the only good thing about their job

Not sure about posties but I’m sure I’ve never seen an overweight surgeon. I wonder if it’s the lifestyle (very busy, working standing up for long periods) or if it’s because seeing how badly people treat their bodies makes surgeons take better care of themselves.

i looked into this, i work as a nurse, do over 20k steps on an average shift, and still gained weight. Regular high step counts dont affect weight. For the steps to "count" you have to increase heart rate, not walk at a leisurely pace, and even then, the effect on weight is minimal, its all diet.

Plenty of overweight Nurses who spend hours and hours walking up and down a ward / corridor. Can you really not work out how active people are overweight?

Unless they are also only consuming 1800 calories then they will gain fat. It's basic science.

There are no fat posties around here.

I'd love to be a postwoman in spring and summer then get an office job in winter if it was allowed.

Genes
Stress
Poor sleep
High calorie intake
UPF foods and drinks
Medical issues / illnesses
Ancestral traits
Lack of strength training / intense cardio

Lots of reasons why we can become overweight despite our activity levels.
Modern life is difficult for most people and weight can be very reactive to this. A book called Why We Eat by Dr Andrew Jenkins is very informative if you want to learn more :)

I’ve noticed Dr’s now are rarely overweight (apart from a few) and I think they probably see the complications that occur from obesity and don’t want that. It’s also easier to give out weight advice when you are at a healthy weight yourself.

My guess is that they eat more calories than they burn, is there a prize?

Noticed this too. Been in hospitals a lot the past 6 months. Only saw one obese consultant/surgeon and thought he’s not really a great example to his patients.

My DH lost a ton of weight during Covid because he went from eating a chicken fillet roll, bar of chocolate and bottle of coke every day to have stir fry's for lunch. His previous lunch could easily have been 1,500 calories or more

Around here they just drive house to house. No different than the Amazon driver. A lot of time sitting in the car very sedentary, mixed with getting in and out all day (hard on the knees) to walk 2 steps to the post box. Probably eating convenience food because no fridge or cooker in the van.