Keeping Weight Off In Office Jobs

Survey Shows It's Hard To Do; Expert Offers Tips To Stay Slim

(CBS)  Almost half of office workers say they've put on weight since they started their current jobs.

They report their perceptions in a new survey on CareerBuilder.com.

For 1-in-5, the gain was 10 pounds or more.

Among others, 57 percent of government workers reported bigger waistlines, 54 percent of IT workers, and 53 percent of accounting/finance workers, compared to 35 percent of retail workers and 39 percent of sales workers.

In other words, not surprisingly, people with sedentary jobs report weight gain in larger numbers.

But can it be avoided?

On The Early Show Tuesday, Neal Pire, a fitness consultant and a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, suggested that it can.

He said all our efforts, however small, add up, and help keep us healthier.

He pointed out to co-anchor Harry Smith that there once was a time that when, if we wanted to confer with a co-worker in the office, we would get up, go to that person's office and speak face to face. But with computers, e-mail, instant messaging and other technology-driven conveniences, we are doing ever more work at our offices without ever getting up from our chairs.

The faster technology moves, says Pire, the more slowly we do.