Weight Management to Ensure Health, Wellness, and Great Work for Leaders

Hard-working business leaders sometimes believe they must sacrifice their physical health to devote more time to their business. While this single-minded drive to success is commendable, it can be unsustainable in the long term.

Performance coach Dan Go finds that neglecting physical health can take away from your business' competitive advantages by impacting your performance at work. Lacklustre health habits promote bodily stagnancy and malnutrition. Coupled with the daily stresses of running a business, they can quickly result in negative repercussions, like becoming overweight or obese.

If you want your business to reach new heights, one of the best things you can do is to achieve better health and wellness through weight management. Here's more on the topic and what you can do about it:

The importance of weight management for business leaders

Decreased fatigue

According to a recent study from BMJ Open, presenteeism increases when you're obese. You may thus find yourself in a sluggish or unproductive state at work. That can lower your productivity and make you unable to contribute your best as a business leader. By managing your weight for better health and wellness, you'll have more energy to stay alert on the job and lead your company better.

Supplementary reading: 6 Ways To Boost Employee Morale And Motivation

Improved long-term health

Obesity makes it more likely for you to develop serious health conditions. In particular, the World Health Organisation notes that a raised BMI is a significant risk factor for potentially fatal diseases like stroke and degenerative disorders like osteoarthritis. These illnesses can continually demand your attention and take away from your ability to lead in the long term, which is why weight management is so important. With the proper lifestyle changes, you can better preserve your health and oversee company growth in the long run.

More effective leadership

While your fitness level doesn't take away from your leadership ability, it can affect your employee's perception of you. According to leadership life coach Nasir Shaikh, business leaders are a vital influence over their employees. By setting an example in managing weight for better health and wellness, you can encourage your own staff to better manage their stress and improve their resilience in a way that fosters company growth. More importantly, you'll be cultivating a positive image of yourself that inspires them to respect and trust you and how you lead.

Explore: Are You a Self-Care Avoider? How Leaders Can Trick Themselves into Loving Self-Care

Top strategies for better weight management

1. Seek medical support

Weight management can be more difficult for some individuals because of genetic factors—and if you're of this group, you'll want to get medical help for your health goals. The WeightWatchers weight loss program includes a medical weight loss program that can help address biological aspects of weight control before you move on to lifestyle shifts that may impact your current leadership strategies. Here, you'll most likely be prescribed liraglutide—often known by its brand name, Saxenda.

An FDA-approved GLP-1 medication, Saxenda for weight loss works by increasing your insulin and inhibiting your glucagon to lower your blood sugar. This can help you better control your appetite, helping you lose any weight slowing you down and preventing you from overeating, especially if you tend to do so amid the stresses of leading a company. Consult your doctor to check your eligibility for this or a similar weight management treatment.

2. Get proper nutrition and exercise

Your health habits are vital to achieving your wellness goals, especially regarding eating and exercise. What you eat determines how many calories your body intakes and how fast it loses them—eating sugary vending machine snacks, for example, makes you gain weight without nutrition, while consuming vegetables helps you feel full for longer and boosts your health and energy. Your exercise frequency also helps you regulate your weight by burning additional calories.

Incorporating these habits into your busy schedule doesn't need to be difficult, either. A 2021 Preventive Medicine Reports study shows that workplace cafeteria interventions improve dietary intake and healthy food sales, and doing this means you'll always have nutritious meals readily available. You could also invest in a membership to a nearby gym. This way, it'll be a straightforward process to exercise before or after going to work.

3. Lower your stress levels

As a business leader, your day-to-day is likely filled with complex and urgent challenges. This can lead to spikes in cortisol—a stress hormone that slows your metabolism and increases your appetite. You’ll need to find ways to ward off your workplace pressures if you don’t want to find yourself devouring large amounts of comfort food. Mindfulness is an excellent place to start. By meditating and calming down during tense situations, you can control your weight better and make decisions with a clearer head.

4. Attain quality sleep

Rest is essential for leaders. In our previous article Great Sleep for Health, Wellness, and Great Work, we underline that a lack of sleep can cause confusion and irritability, negatively affecting your ability to lead. It can also create appetite surges by producing more of the hunger hormone ghrelin, which may exacerbate weight gain. Try some best practices like limiting your daily caffeine intake and creating rituals to wind down before bed to get those critical 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night.

Weight management can be key to ensuring better health, wellness, and performance for business leaders. Try the tips above to attain these results.

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