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?

I asked my DP's friend, who is a postie, about this. He was overweight and had to lose some for his health and had a FitBit or a smart watch or something to track everything. I asked how many calories he burned just doing his round and it was something like 800 calories.

On average, it's suggested a man needs around 2,500 calories a day. Add 800 calories to that and you get 3,300 calories required in a day to maintain their weight (assuming it's a healthy weight in the first place). Taking into account three meals a day plus drinks and potentially snacks, a man could easily put away a lot more than 3,300 calories a day if they're not watching what they eat, and can still very easily gain weight.

Like a couple of posters have said, when I was younger, the postal service delivered twice a day 6 days a week.

Now they deliver twice a week max.

There's fewer letters but many more parcels, so out went the bikes and in came the vans.

But I think that this is a nasty and judgemental thread to have even been started

Imagine being in an operating theatre, gowned up having to lean forward doing delicate work over a patient for a long period of time.

A massive beer gut is not going to be helpful in that process.

Bashfulclam Lots of overweight Nurses though! (I am well built myself) not a critisisim of them .Probably long shifts and stress

My husband is a postman and he’s over weight. He’s also a greedy pig and loves pizza, burgers and milky mocha lattes. He walks about 15 miles a day at work but has Achilles tendonitis and bursitis so isn’t able to much other exercise. He obviously consumes much more than he burns.

My understanding that losing / gaining weight is mainly around what you eat and not the exercise you do.

I walk close to 20k steps a day (or burn the equivalent in gym classes) - easily put on weight. It’s all about what they eat. Very easy to consume what they’ve burned if they have a Greggs sausage roll at the end of a shift or a Gail’s almond croissant (800 calories - boom).

surgeons are usually thin because they are rich, not because of the standing up- otherwise all nurses would be rail thin. Weight and income are incredibly closely correlated.

The only women at my DD’s private school gates who are larger than a size 12 have health issues (eg on steroids).

Ours drive either house to house or culdesac to culdesac so while they would have a decent step count I wouldn't imagine it's as much as you'd think. Plus diet is a huge part of weight control

I've never seen an overweight postie, all the ones around my way are quite athletic looking.

Same here

I wish steps burned that many calories! I'm on 10k already and my fitbit tells me I've burned a grand total of 220 extra. I tend to do 15k steps, about a third at brisk pace and burn about 300 extra a day from that. It does keep my weight in check, because if I didn't do them I'd gain 2lb every 3/4 weeks, but I have to make sure not to eat them back.

I can't say I've noticed any particularly fat postmen/women.

We used to have a severely obese postwoman when I was growing up, my parents used to joke that their uniform was big enough to use as a tent. It's not a new phenomenon. Yes they burn a lot of calories but that doesn't overcome a terrible diet.

I dated a postman for a week or two. He did walk a lot, but he lived on pasties, fizzy drinks and cakes. Walking doesn't use up that many calories. 😁

The posties are all of normal looking weight where I live.

Spot on. It is surprising how few calories some people need to get through their day.

My post menopausal friend has less than 1000cals a day, is very active yet struggles to lose weight (and yes she counts the cals very carefully and only eats healthy stuff).

It demonstrates your lack of understanding in human metabolism and biochemistry.

You absolutely cannot out exercise a bad diet. Weight loss in the kitchen, health in the gym.

never seen an overweight postie here

When I was a postie hardly any of the workforce were fat. I lost a stone doing it

I've never seen a fat postmen! They've always been slim.

Also not seen an overweight postie.

Perhaps I should become a postie

I often see our local posties outside McDonalds, so they may be making up for their exercise calorifically!

That's weird.

My DS is a postie and I've met just about everyone he works with.

I can't think of a single one that's overweight and yet obesity is very high in this area.