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How to get in shape as a developer?

andevenloper on July 26, 2018

Hey all,

I’ve often wondered, how do I get in shape when I’m very much out of shape? What is needed to maintain a healthy lifecycle as a developer who works 12 hour days in average?

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sudiukil profile image
Quentin Sonrel

As @quii said, not working 12 hours a day would definitely help, although I suspect it's not that easy or you would have done it already!

I don't know how "out of shape" you are but the top 3 things to keep a healthy lifestyle are:

  • Food
  • Sleep
  • Exercise

What you eat is probably the most important thing because it's (IMHO) the easiest thing to control and it has a huge impact on your health and shape, especially in the long run.
Then comes sleep: good sleep is essential to a good health, think about quality rather than quantity!
Finally, exercise is always good, but it indeed takes time. But even a small amount of exercise (let's say 25 minutes three times a week) can make you an healthier person, and it's awesome to relieve pressure and stress (which are bad for your health).

Anyway, take care of yourself, work is important, but your health is even more important!

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andevenloper

I’ve been cutting back and changing my food with no real luck. I don’t excercise as much as I should, I only manage to do about 6KM a day biking, and 7000 steps walking around office, to bike, store, etc daily. Despite this amount, I haven’t lost a single pound in almost 3 months

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Antonio Radovcic • Edited

Really do try counting calories. Get myFitnessPal and set it to 1kg per week weight loss. The first week is horrible, but then it gets easier. Don't worry about carbs/fats/etc., just watch the energy. I'm doing this currently again, for me it's 1500 a day plus biking for an hour gets me 300 more.

It's interesting if you have never done it before; you won't believe how many calories there are in certain foods.

Also: Sleep. Get at least 8 hrs a day.

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sudiukil profile image
Quentin Sonrel

Amazon link seems to be broken :)

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Antonio Radovcic

fixed

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sudiukil profile image
Quentin Sonrel

Well, that's already a fair amount of exercise (much more than what I do myself to be honest (30 minutes of "light" workout four times a week)).

As for the food, I'm no expert but something worth trying is chrono-nutriton (feel free to Google about it, this is the first article written in english I found, I mostly read about it in French).

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Ross Henderson

A lot of companies offer these facilities in-house to help people work long hours. Unfortunately I don't work for one of these companies, but I know my Dad goes to the gym in his work after he finishes.

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flavio ⚡️🔥

If you work remotely, having a dog is a great hack to get out of the house and do some movement.

It forces you to go out every day 3-4 times and take a refreshing walk. You can't just let the dog sit there like a gym membership.

Walks are not time lost, as you can listen to podcasts or audiobooks, or just think.

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Georgina Grey • Edited

If you're overweight it REALLY comes down to what you eat and how you do it. Go to see a nutritionist if you haven't, when it comes to your health think of it as an investment and not as an expense.

Really follow their advice, is fairly common they won't ask you to exercise a lot if you need to lose a few pounds first. If you're not able to go the gym, check out HIIT (high intensity interval training), those workouts are intended to last from 15 to 30 minutes max.

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Ross Summerell

For me its getting out the office atleast 1 hour a day, thats been gym mostly I can walk there train for 30min shower and get back to the office in time.

Getting away from my PC is probably the best thing I can do in the day, it makes me more productive when I get back and gets my more creative side going while I'm running on that treadmill!

I'm also lucky enough to live by the Indian Ocean, so I have started Biking 20km or BodyBoarding during lunch, I get into the office extra early so I can take my time and enjoy it.

Really would recommend it to anyone!

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Jon Cronin

To reinforce what a lot of others have mentioned, you have to focus/prioritize sleep, diet, exercise.

Logging my food was a game changer for me, I didn't realize how much I was eating and what my food actually contained nutritionally until I did this.

Stay consistent. it's not going to happen overnight, you just gotta keep doing the work and making the right choices.

When it comes to diet and exercise, do what works for you, something you can see yourself doing for the long run.

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Chris James

Maybe easier said than done but I would say not working 12 hours a day!

I'm lucky enough that I work in an area where the job market is very healthy and an employer would find it very hard to retain people working those kind of hours.

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Jesse M. Holmes

I’m making the right kind of progress by reading the FAQ over at /r/fitness. It’s a lot of the same answers you’ll be getting here, but that rabbit hole is a good one for your health!

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rhymes

Work less, eat better, sleep more and start with the 7 minute workout well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/...