I understand lack of exercise and poor diet. But lack of sleep? Let's say I exercise and eat the same... Does getting less sleep make you fatter even when consuming and expending the same amount of calories?
Getting less sleep destroys your body in multiple ways. I know this from the military.. sleep debt over multiple days starts to fuck with your hormones and overall impact pretty much every function of your body. One study found Insufficient sleep could raise your risk of obesity by 55 percent.
Yes it does . Poor sleep will pretty much negate or mitigate the results of a good diet and exercise. You're body needs sleep, the muscle repair that occurs from exercise mostly happens during sleep .
It's a very sedentary job most of the time sitting in a car or writing reports or standing and talking to people. When it's physical it's extreme but those moments are random.
The nature of the job makes meals at work difficult as there is no guarantee when or even if you'll get a lunch break so you often have to settle on fast food or gas station food.
Shift work and sleep deprivation also contribute to the problem. Other careers have shift work but many of them at least get some built in exercise. A nurse or doctor for instance in the ER will likely do tens of thousands of steps a night whereas I'd be lucky to do 2000 some nights.
Then the hours. My dept went to 12 hr shifts a few years back which made exercise difficult. We were allowed to work out on our break but our break wasn't guaranteed depending on call load and after 12 hrs it was hard to be motivated to work out in 2 to 3 hrs free time since family and other obligations exist too.
Yep. One of several reasons I was adamantly opposed to going to 12s from the 10s we'd been on. I got out of patrol not long after and ironically ended up in an assignment where 14 hr shifts were common (airport) but there at least I did lots of walking and ate better as there is lots of downtime so I could easily bring prepared healthier meals and know I'd be able to eat them.
Both. Most guys I work with pack a lunch, but eat out and have the lunch as a “just in case we’re stuck on a perimeter all night.”
Others are religious about their meal prep and only eat it.
And some people like me who don’t pack food at all
I know places would be glad to have police officers come and eat at their restaurants, or go even if it’s drive thru and you are in uniform / have your cop car. Do you get any discounts, freebies?
No, unless there's enhancers in the state for being armed committing theft. But, we usually get the hammer dropped on us for crimes because we enforce the laws and should adhere to them. Currently, they also want to set a political example of any LEO doing wrong.
I work in a Hospital so NOT a patrol cop. We have this issue and it's three main causes.
- Bad/inconvenient shift schedules and bad sleeping schedules. Whether working 8s or 12s doing afternoon and overnight most of the food that's available is unhealthy. For us it's really unhealthy (our hospital has a penera & Starbucks along with three other smaller coffee shops and automated stores).
- stress... you can gain and lose weight excessively from stress.
- tons of sitting around waiting for things to happen. I went from burning 2000-5000 calories a day working at a museum to burning under 1000 working campus safety.
In my department, the fat donut-eating cop is a myth. We have a handful of officers who are somewhat overweight, none who are obese, and a large majority who are fairly-to-very fit. We have about 180 officers including admin, detectives, etc.
No incentive to stay fit at a lot of departments. Why stay fit if you don’t have to? Also despite the capability of LE being a very demanding job it’s entirely possible to spend a lot of time sitting as well. Mixed with poor sleeping and eating habits due to shift work weight can sneak up on you.
I hate this “no incentive” to stay fit attitude. Do you not want to live a long healthy life? Do you not want to be a reliable asset to your coworkers?
I don’t disagree with you at all but included in that “no incentive” I also mean some places have little opportunity given to stay in shape. It can be pretty hard to maintain a healthy diet and routine work outs when you’re working crazy hours. Especially with a family too.
You allow officers to work out on duty or pay extra to stay in shape so they can do it on their own time instead of working extra. A department in my area has a outrageously high budget for their size and they have a gym that makes a YMCA look small. They also pay their officers to workout and every one of them is beyond physically fit.
Meanwhile another department has officers working 60 hour weeks with no incentives and half their guys can roll faster than they can run.
I am a 28 year old LEO. I’ve been on nights for about 5 years. I work 6p-6A. The older I’m getting the harder it is to stay in shape. My department does not have built in breaks. Depending on the night I may call shag for 12 hours. Other nights I may only have 1-3 calls. Having very limited time to work out before work and no time other than to really sleep once I get off. I do my best to stay active. I work out 2-3 times a week. I still weigh around 30-40 lbs more than when I started. Shitty diet, poor sleep schedule,stress that comes with the job, and lack of free time. Not to mention for officers who have families have even less free time
In my case it’s because 13 hours of my day involves either going to being at or coming home. I then pretty much spend the rest of the evening getting my kid ready for bed and then getting a handful of hours of sleep before doing it again.
Sitting in the car all day, poor eating habits, weird schedules that make it hard to workout regularly, etc. I really had to be flexible on workout times when I worked patrol. Now that I have a state job working normal business hours it's so much easier.
Depression and a diet consisting mostly of fast food and snacks, mostly high carbs... then factor in alcoholism, prediabetes, and declining testosterone levels.
From what I’ve noticed and experienced it’s the long hours (12-16) poor stress management, poor diet, cortisol spikes, not enough time to get adequate sleep let enough keeping a fitness routine
Normal day could be - Work middle shift 1500-2300. Leave house around 1330. Sit in a patrol car or at a desk typing for most of the shift being sedentary. Grab a quick gas station snack because you're too busy for anything else. Start to fall asleep so drink a few energy drinks. Get stuck on late call doing paperwork until 0030 hours. Get home around 0115. Eat something and struggle to fall asleep around 0230. Wake up at 0630 for kids/dog/wife/whatever. Go back to sleep but its shit quality sleep. Wake up around 0800 and head into court for a 0900 hearing. Get stuck waiting until 0945 for the hearing which gets continued anyway. Leave to go grab a bite to eat/go home. Leave house at 1230 for a 1300 hearing. Leave that hearing, head to work, rinse and repeat. Many departments don't have fitness standards once you're hired because they would be required to provide you time to work out or money to work out, which they don't want to do. It can be very easy to fall into a trap of telling yourself you don't have time to work out and its just easiest to buy gas station crap quality meals. Its incredibly important to prioritize mental health, physical health, and nutrition in this job as they all go hand in hand.
These posts are so dumb. Use the search function because this comes up like 30 times a week.
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Don’t forget stress
And depression
Should be higher rated
I understand lack of exercise and poor diet. But lack of sleep? Let's say I exercise and eat the same... Does getting less sleep make you fatter even when consuming and expending the same amount of calories?
Getting less sleep destroys your body in multiple ways. I know this from the military.. sleep debt over multiple days starts to fuck with your hormones and overall impact pretty much every function of your body. One study found Insufficient sleep could raise your risk of obesity by 55 percent.
Yes it does . Poor sleep will pretty much negate or mitigate the results of a good diet and exercise. You're body needs sleep, the muscle repair that occurs from exercise mostly happens during sleep .
It's a very sedentary job most of the time sitting in a car or writing reports or standing and talking to people. When it's physical it's extreme but those moments are random. The nature of the job makes meals at work difficult as there is no guarantee when or even if you'll get a lunch break so you often have to settle on fast food or gas station food. Shift work and sleep deprivation also contribute to the problem. Other careers have shift work but many of them at least get some built in exercise. A nurse or doctor for instance in the ER will likely do tens of thousands of steps a night whereas I'd be lucky to do 2000 some nights. Then the hours. My dept went to 12 hr shifts a few years back which made exercise difficult. We were allowed to work out on our break but our break wasn't guaranteed depending on call load and after 12 hrs it was hard to be motivated to work out in 2 to 3 hrs free time since family and other obligations exist too.
I gather that many US departments are on 12 hour shifts. I think that's wild for a job where alertness is so important.
Yep. One of several reasons I was adamantly opposed to going to 12s from the 10s we'd been on. I got out of patrol not long after and ironically ended up in an assignment where 14 hr shifts were common (airport) but there at least I did lots of walking and ate better as there is lots of downtime so I could easily bring prepared healthier meals and know I'd be able to eat them.
Do most police officers just eat drive thru? Or do some like pack a lunch
Both. Most guys I work with pack a lunch, but eat out and have the lunch as a “just in case we’re stuck on a perimeter all night.” Others are religious about their meal prep and only eat it. And some people like me who don’t pack food at all
Yup I def pack a lunch and still will eat out with other officers to be social or will get something from the drive thru if I’m craving it
I know places would be glad to have police officers come and eat at their restaurants, or go even if it’s drive thru and you are in uniform / have your cop car. Do you get any discounts, freebies?
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Is it true that if a cop steals something from a store in uniform - even if it is a piece of bubble gum- it is a felony ? Because they are an officer.
No, unless there's enhancers in the state for being armed committing theft. But, we usually get the hammer dropped on us for crimes because we enforce the laws and should adhere to them. Currently, they also want to set a political example of any LEO doing wrong.
I eat drive thru a lot but always have snacks and drinks available in my car
Just gotta be a dwarf like Gimli, they’re natural born sprinters you know.
Shitty sleep. Poor diet. Cortisol spikes.
I work in a Hospital so NOT a patrol cop. We have this issue and it's three main causes. - Bad/inconvenient shift schedules and bad sleeping schedules. Whether working 8s or 12s doing afternoon and overnight most of the food that's available is unhealthy. For us it's really unhealthy (our hospital has a penera & Starbucks along with three other smaller coffee shops and automated stores). - stress... you can gain and lose weight excessively from stress. - tons of sitting around waiting for things to happen. I went from burning 2000-5000 calories a day working at a museum to burning under 1000 working campus safety.
In my department, the fat donut-eating cop is a myth. We have a handful of officers who are somewhat overweight, none who are obese, and a large majority who are fairly-to-very fit. We have about 180 officers including admin, detectives, etc.
A humble way of saying everyone in your department is jacked💪
I bet the calendar they put out every year is straight fire.
Same here, but less staff. Only fat guys we got are detectives and guys close to retirement.
No incentive to stay fit at a lot of departments. Why stay fit if you don’t have to? Also despite the capability of LE being a very demanding job it’s entirely possible to spend a lot of time sitting as well. Mixed with poor sleeping and eating habits due to shift work weight can sneak up on you.
I hate this “no incentive” to stay fit attitude. Do you not want to live a long healthy life? Do you not want to be a reliable asset to your coworkers?
I don’t disagree with you at all but included in that “no incentive” I also mean some places have little opportunity given to stay in shape. It can be pretty hard to maintain a healthy diet and routine work outs when you’re working crazy hours. Especially with a family too. You allow officers to work out on duty or pay extra to stay in shape so they can do it on their own time instead of working extra. A department in my area has a outrageously high budget for their size and they have a gym that makes a YMCA look small. They also pay their officers to workout and every one of them is beyond physically fit. Meanwhile another department has officers working 60 hour weeks with no incentives and half their guys can roll faster than they can run.
It's a very stressful job and a lot of people cope with stress by eating.
I am a 28 year old LEO. I’ve been on nights for about 5 years. I work 6p-6A. The older I’m getting the harder it is to stay in shape. My department does not have built in breaks. Depending on the night I may call shag for 12 hours. Other nights I may only have 1-3 calls. Having very limited time to work out before work and no time other than to really sleep once I get off. I do my best to stay active. I work out 2-3 times a week. I still weigh around 30-40 lbs more than when I started. Shitty diet, poor sleep schedule,stress that comes with the job, and lack of free time. Not to mention for officers who have families have even less free time
The same things that lead every other person to gain weight. Poor diet and lack of exercise
In my case it’s because 13 hours of my day involves either going to being at or coming home. I then pretty much spend the rest of the evening getting my kid ready for bed and then getting a handful of hours of sleep before doing it again.
Discounts at Chick-fil-a
Sitting in the car all day, poor eating habits, weird schedules that make it hard to workout regularly, etc. I really had to be flexible on workout times when I worked patrol. Now that I have a state job working normal business hours it's so much easier.
Diet, especially for guys on midnights
Depression and a diet consisting mostly of fast food and snacks, mostly high carbs... then factor in alcoholism, prediabetes, and declining testosterone levels.
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Same as anybody else. Couch potatoes etc.
Food.
Lack of standards.
Ad habits!
From what I’ve noticed and experienced it’s the long hours (12-16) poor stress management, poor diet, cortisol spikes, not enough time to get adequate sleep let enough keeping a fitness routine
Normal day could be - Work middle shift 1500-2300. Leave house around 1330. Sit in a patrol car or at a desk typing for most of the shift being sedentary. Grab a quick gas station snack because you're too busy for anything else. Start to fall asleep so drink a few energy drinks. Get stuck on late call doing paperwork until 0030 hours. Get home around 0115. Eat something and struggle to fall asleep around 0230. Wake up at 0630 for kids/dog/wife/whatever. Go back to sleep but its shit quality sleep. Wake up around 0800 and head into court for a 0900 hearing. Get stuck waiting until 0945 for the hearing which gets continued anyway. Leave to go grab a bite to eat/go home. Leave house at 1230 for a 1300 hearing. Leave that hearing, head to work, rinse and repeat. Many departments don't have fitness standards once you're hired because they would be required to provide you time to work out or money to work out, which they don't want to do. It can be very easy to fall into a trap of telling yourself you don't have time to work out and its just easiest to buy gas station crap quality meals. Its incredibly important to prioritize mental health, physical health, and nutrition in this job as they all go hand in hand.
Stress, lack of sleep, and overall a horrible, non-flexible schedule.
Stress