back to article IT workers told, 'Put down the biscuits, fat boy'

The BCS is urging tech workers to get fit for the New Year and has set up a website to help them shift the extra pounds. A survey last year put IT workers at the bottom of the league for fitness. In fact the only thing tech workers came out on top for was drinking coffee - with an average of ten cups a day. Only 14 per cent …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    FO BCS, I'm joining the NBA

    And you can pry my biscuits from my cold dead fingers... (admittedly it won't be a long wait)

  2. The Original Ash
    Pint

    Prepare for a pun...

    That site isn't responding. It's under excessive load.

    Waaa waaa waaaaaaaaa....

    1. Raving
      Thumb Up

      That site isn't responding. It's under excessive load. ...

      ... and a core dump to follow.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    I blame the users

    if users would just stop comming around to the IT section and dumping there issues onto the techs to fix there and then we wouldn't have fat It people. Reason being is that if the user was to use the proper support logging system the IT tech would have to come to them and as such induce the needed level of excersice. But no users insist on not only stealing there excercise but also forcing them to deal with problems that never get retrospectivly logged by the user and as such make the IT department look even more inerfecient. i would even say that users go out of there way to kill It support staff either by there mindless acts upon there computer knowing forwell that it will only induce stress. Some could argue its even casued by software suppliers who indirectly force the users onto such hate crimes against It workers as a drive to boost there healthcare software and expensive support contracts. But its the users at the end of the day who cause the health of IT workers to drop. If we had no users the health of It support staff would rise. So to all you users out there, dont harass It support staff. Think would you like it if every customer you had to deal with first contacted you by appearing behind yoru desk; Stop abusing your right to be in the same building as It support staff, think before you use your computer as the IT staff should not be considered to be the pope in terms of your local misdoings and to cover up your mistakes against there computer children.

    1. Jason 24
      Thumb Up

      Are you sure...

      That that's a joke? Sounds spot on to me!

  4. Cazzo Enorme

    #include <title.h>

    The physical state of most of my fellow programmers is what often makes me reluctant to say what I do as a job. I go to the gym three or four times a week, shower daily, don't like sci-fi or fantasy novels and have a girlfriend - but I still get that kind of look that says "so what's weird with you then" when I own up to twiddling bits for a living. Sigh.

    1. Steven Knox
      Joke

      So....

      what IS weird with you, then?

      (sorry, had to say it.)

      1. Cazzo Enorme

        @Steven Knox

        "what IS weird with you, then?"

        Well, I do suffer from OCD. It sometimes manifests itself as an unconscious need to move objects around so they're all aligned. For instance, in the gym I always put the same size weights back on the same bar of the rack. In descending weight order. With same side of each weight facing outwards.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Hey, I do that

          Just thought I liked straight lines. Cool. Now I can say I have OCD!!!

          As to also being a techie, I do also have a partner, and ex wife, 3 children, a racing car, a guitar collection, a sit on mower, a Linux box at home and a fascinating selection of unusual disease that often get mentioned on House (no STD's I hasten to add).

          And no OCD as well. My life is complete!

  5. CT

    loading...

    the website link given just sat there "Loading..." for me

  6. CT

    old news?

    ...loading...

    ... although there's a 1 December press release at http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.33587

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    "ten cups a day"

    lol that's me down to a t

  8. Dave Murray
    Thumb Down

    "Piss off BCS"

    says skinny programmer who never gets ill and eats wtf I like without need for excercise or dieting.

    Haven't they heard that BMI is a load of bollocks?

    Now where did I put those cream cakes and the spare jar of coffee?

    1. Sooty

      i used to know someone like this

      "says skinny programmer who never gets ill and eats wtf I like without need for excercise or dieting."

      I took great pleasure in them swelling up by 10 stone in a couple of years when their body finally gave up.

      I just think it's in the nature of developers to be lazy, after all we're paid to solve problems by expending the least amount of effort

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Way higher than 19% here

    There's a couple of coach potatoes, but everyone else is busy going to the gym, cycling, kayaking, walking, running or similar. No-one is precisely an athlete, but with an IT job, partners and children what do you expect?

    The days of the hard drinking, fast food eating, slobby programmer or sysadmin are over.

    I was walking knee to waist deep in snow yesterday and am exercising again tonight..

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah Lardy Boys

    put that pork pie down.

    Who in IT actually answers the questions to a survey with any degree of honesty, it is just not done. Some of the fittest people I know are Developers or Admins, and some of the least fit are in Doctoring another group who never answers a survey honestly.

    I say we bring back gladiator style two people enter, one person leaves style competitions, those who claim they are fit take on those who don't, no holds barred unarmed combat, survival of the fittest, mono a mono.

    1. J 3
      Coat

      mono a mono?

      Hey, no need to bring diseases into the rink.

      Nor monkeys.

    2. Chronos
      Pint

      mono a mono.

      You are Miguel de Icaza AICMFP. Or beer, whichever is easier.

  11. Piro Silver badge
    Happy

    But of course

    The best engineer is the one that sets up everything so he can deal with it remotely in his own time, and given the choice of things to do, would you rather be sat in the pub with a plate of chips and a pint, or out in the cold, running around?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Surely that's wrong?

      The warmest rooms I've been in in the past week were datacentres.

  12. Blake St. Claire
    Headmaster

    @AC 17:08GMT

    mono a mono?

    1. sig

      It's a joke, you muppet.

      Further explanation for the hard of thinking: A play on 'mano a mano' (i.e. 'hand to hand') with reference to the open-source .net implementation Mono.

  13. AndrueC Silver badge
    IT Angle

    Shed the what now?

    The only pounds I have are in my bank account and I have no intention of shedding them for anyone.

    If by some chance you happen to be talking about some ancient measurement of weight (and the American version of it at that) then thanks but no thanks. I'm 1.8 metres tall, 43 years old and weigh 72kg. Maybe it's my ability to use modern measuring standards that helps me remain fit and healthy :)

  14. Saganhill
    Happy

    I excercise

    I do excercise----Virtually.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unfit IT Types.

    Guilty.

    Though I did start a vicious diet in December. Down 20 lbs and a couple inches around the middle. Working out a few times a week to build muscle.

    So at least some of us make changes, but I have to say these programs are entirely backwards in how to deal with “fitness” issues. The skinny and fit always think it’s “so easy” to get and stay fit. Motivation is just never a problem for these folks, and hey, everyone’s built the same, right?

    When trying to help people lose weight or get fit, guilt tripping them into it is never going to work. You have to look at the reasons the person got out of shape in the first place, and why they continue to be so. Work by attacking the source of the problem, be it psychological, physical, time-management, stress, you name it. There as dozens of different reasons that people get out of shape, however society’s response is “they are just lazy, worthless bastards.” Ostracizing them and trying to guilt them into losing weight/getting fit only exacerbates the issues. People with weight or fitness issues will often avoid social situations including places where they could go for exercise due to this. If you receive abuse in public situations due to weight/fitness issues, you tend to avoid public situations. Suddenly the “lazy lardasses” aren’t going to the gym, out for a jog etc. not due to laziness, but rather fear of social recrimination. This is often especially true amongst IT folk. Like it or not, many IT folk were “geeks” growing up, and don’t seem to respond well to the “suck it up, ya pansy” drill-sergeant approach.

    I’m not saying people should not be accountable for their own issues. I don’t blame society/parents/etc. for my getting out of shape. I am simply saying that this particular approach (trying to guilt people into losing weight or increasing fitness) is a waste of money. (Decades of failure, if nothing else, serves as evidence for this.)

    If an organisation/government/individual/etc. honestly wants to help with the problem, they need to take a different track. Repeating the same action over and over again expecting different results...

    Well, I can applaud the effort at least. Encouraging people to get fit and stay that way is a laudable goal. I simply believe this particular implementation is heavily flawed and doomed to failure.

  16. Blake St. Claire
    Boffin

    @AndrueC, Re: Shed the what now?

    | If by some chance you happen to be talking about some ancient measurement of weight (and the

    | American version of it at that)

    American bashing? So tacky.

    Our pounds weigh as much as your pounds. You aren't, by any chance, thinking of our gallons vs. your gallons are you?

    1. AndrueC Silver badge

      Bring on the metric system :)

      Actually it was 'Imperial measurements bashing'. The reference to America was more due to the fact that when I hear my parents talking about body weight they always use stones - although I'll grant that 'losing a few stones' is going to be harder than a few pounds :)

      It's a similar deal with distance they use yards for anything beyond arm's reach. That's a lot easier for me to work with since one yard is approximately one metre. The American love of using feet for nearly everything causes me to keep having to divide by three which hurts me poor l'il brain :D

      1. sig

        Pedantorama

        Actually the US doesn't use the Imperial system of weights and measures since they declared independence before our Weights and Measures Act was passed in 1824. Thus they use the Queen Anne gallon (128 fl oz) rather than the Imperial gallon (160 fl oz), giving them measly pints of beer.

  17. Andraž 'ruskie' Levstik

    The Hacker's diet

    http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/

    This is something that IT people could probably understand... And others of the more logicaly oriented industries as well :)

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    In my narrow and bigotted experience,...

    you can be smart or athletic, but generally not both. (And look how much of a porker Linus is! But he did marry a former Finnish karate champion)

  19. Craig 12
    Stop

    10 cups *average* ?

    I haven't had a cup of coffee (or tea) at work for the past couple of weeks, and only have a couple during the day at home. Who is the coffee-monster drinking 20 cups to even me out?!

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  20. Colin Barfoot
    Happy

    fit for what?

    Surely for a job that requires extended periods of sitting a nice, comfy fat arse is about as fit as you can get. So, the larger the arse the fitter you are. Can't the government get anything right?

  21. Andy 70
    FAIL

    yet another example of the BCS timewasters in action

    lets see,

    the SA's did K2 last year and are in training for it again, the support guys are marathon runners, the dev guys do tri-athlons.

    given that most of the sites i've visited have some variation of the above theme, BCS can FO.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Kinda disappointing

    In the age of weightwatchers email/web based motivational systems, online nutritional assessments with dietary recommendations, posture and healthy work environment guides and so on, it's a bit disappointing to find that the opportunity to create something engaging using web technologies has been bypassed by the BCS in favour of a bunch of talking head videos and a cluttered, unengaging site. Sorry, "microsite". Perhaps it will improve over time, but I'd have thought if you are targeting techies you would want to build an up-to-date, engaging site using innovative technologies. Opportunity missed, I fear.

    Anon in this instance because I do work for the BCS!

  23. Paul Woodhouse

    Gym equipment is so difficult to work though

    seriously, I went to the gym once and couldn't work out how to program the running machine, fitness instructor nearly wet herself when she found out I was in IT...

    I'll stick to martial arts for my fitness thanks...

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon
      Heart

      Sir

      I have a similar problem, but with fax machines.

      Everyone has their blind spot :)

  24. Elmer Phud
    Coat

    BCS

    "Chartered Institute for IT"

    ChiIT

    Shirley not pronunced as . . .

    Coat got

  25. YumDogfood

    pry my biscuits

    If it was the NBA then you would get fit, on the other hand if it was the NRA...

    http://www.nba.com (fit people)

    http://home.nra.org (Charlton Heston lovers)

  26. fortheloveofgod
    Paris Hilton

    Dumb Survey

    As an IT worker I find this survey the biggest load of cobblers I've ever come across.

    I goto the gym every single day and also participate in other fitness routines - in a week I burn around 12,600 calories.

    So I'll keep eating my biscuits thank you very much!

    Paris, as she could help me shift another 32,000 calories per week :D

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Heyyyyyy STUPID JOURNO....

    I hate people and their articles - where they write mostly in aconyms.....

    In this case - NOT ONCE did said author explain what BCS actually is.

    "cough - idiot - cough"

  28. Mike Bird 1

    Don't they have better things to do?

    I don't need the BCS to tell me to stop eating bikkies.

    What they should do is get on with processing my London Central group membership (still outstanding after two years and various approaches to the Central London team).

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