Herbalife discovers that working ladies in Singapore more sedentary than men

Herbalife, a global nutrition company, has uncovered differences in the health attitudes and lifestyle habits of working men and women in Singapore. The Nutrition at Work* survey revealed that women in Singapore have a higher tendency to spend more time at their work desks, lunch more often at their desks, and find it harder to stay active during the average work day compared to men.

“As a global nutrition company, our goal is to provide members and their customers with quality nutrition products designed to help people eat right and get active,” said Dr Luigi Gratton, Vice President of Worldwide Nutrition Education at Herbalife. “These survey results underscore the growing need for us to take steps towards inspiring positive nutrition practices and healthy, active living among working women in Singapore in order to cultivate a healthier workforce.”

Some of the key findings include:

· Nine in 10 women in Singapore spend more than six hours at their desk each day, compared to eight in 10 men, showing that women have a higher tendency to spend more time at their desks on an average work day.

· A third (34%) of women get more than 30 minutes of physical activity during the work day—the recommended level of moderate physical activity per day recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) — compared to 42% of men who get more than 30 minutes of physical activity during the work day.

As Herbalife is dedicated to inspiring both men and women to live healthy active lifestyles, the survey unveiled noteworthy differences in the exercise and diet habits of men and women, including:

· Thirteen percent of working women in Singapore exercise more than three times a week, lower than the Asia Pacific average of 15%.

· One in five (22%) of working men in Singapore engage in physical activity more than three times a week, slightly above the Asia Pacific average of 20%.

· Four in 10 (44%) Singapore women said they have lunch at their desks at least twice per week, compared to 38% of men.

Comparing the findings against the Asia Pacific average, which showed that 58% of women and 50% of men eat lunch at their desks more than twice a week, results reveal:

· Singapore workers tend to lead largely sedentary lifestyles, though they still understand the need to step away from their desks to engage in physical activity.

· Eighty-one percent of women and 74% of men recognise weight gain as a top health concern in Singapore – surpassing even the regional average of 77% of women and 71% of men.

· Two-thirds of men and women in Singapore actually strive to live a healthy, active life, with over six in 10 men and women saying they would be more encouraged to stay active if physical activity were part of their corporate culture.

Overall, while survey respondents recognise the importance of living a healthy active lifestyle, they also highly value the role that corporate culture plays in helping them achieve that lifestyle.

*Herbalife’s Nutrition At Work survey was conducted in March 2016, with 5,500 respondents aged 18 and above, from Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

All images from Herbalife infographic.

Install a treadmill at your desk to get more productive

A study published in research journal Plos One in February has shown that walking on a treadmill at your desk may make you more productive than if you are at a standard desk and chair arrangement. 

Source: Plos One

Authors of "Treadmill Workstations: The Effects of Walking while Working on Physical Activity and Work Performance" Avner Ben-Ner and Chimnay Manohar from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Darla Hamann from the School of Urban and Public Affairs, University of Texas-Arlington, and Gabriel Koepp and James Levine from the Obesity Solutions department, Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University, conducted an experiment at a financial services company over 12 months to study how the availability of treadmill workstations would affect physical activity and work performance of employees. 

Half of a group of sedentary volunteers received treadmill workstations during the first two months of the study and the rest in the seventh month of the study. They could walk on the treadmills at speeds of 0 to 2 mph (0 to 3.2 km per hour), if they wished, in place of a chair-desk arrangement. 

According to weekly online performance surveys from participants, their supervisors, as well as sedentary colleagues, overall work performance, quality and quantity of performance, and interactions with co-workers all improved as a result of the treadmill workstations. Specifically, the treadmill workstation led to about 77 fewer sedentary minutes per day, out of about 600 ‘discretionary’ minutes for non-sedentary activity, including approximately 500 minutes at work during a weekday. This accounted for an increase in total average daily activity caloric expenditure of more than 74 calories. 

Management will wonder if participants did less work as a result of walking on the treadmill, but the researchers say no. Both participants and supervisors rated the volunteers as more productive over time, especially after "an early decline in performance" as participants had to learn how to handle walking on the treadmill while working on various tasks. 

The researchers caution that while the volunteers have been found to be similar to their colleagues, they might have been motivated to be more active in the first place. They also suggested that the complexity of the work tasks might also affect the results.