In a modern company, employee health and productivity should be at the top of any business agenda. All too often, employee health is sacrificed in favour of longer working hours, shorter breaks and a poor working environment.

It gets worse:

Obesity rates are climbing. In the last ten years, obesity rates in UK men have doubled, from 13% to 26%.

Data: http://www.hscic.gov.uk

Numbers of people who are overweight are also rising to dangerous levels: occurrence in women has risen from 48% to 57%, and in men from 57 to 67%, in just the last 10 years. By the year 2050 it is expected that over half of the UK’s population will be obese.

Think about this:

If you are male, and your body fat levels are within medically accepted healthy boundaries, you are already within the top 33% of the UK population in terms of body-weight health. It is now more “normal” to be overweight than at a healthy weight, which is absolutely crazy.

One of the main issues:

The sedentary work lifestyle that many of us maintain is a lot more damaging than one might think. Many of us spend 7-8 hours a day sitting at our office desk, and then go home and watch television for a further 4 hours (based on UK averages). In total we therefore spend up to 12 hours, every single day, in a seated position. This is then followed by a typical 8 hours of night sleep.

That gives us a total of 20 hours in a seated or lying down position. This doesn’t include your time commuting to work (which is in the seated position in the car for most).

Research shows that our metabolic rate drops up to 90% after a hour of remaining seated. It’s little wonder that the average person piles on 1 stone within a year of taking on a new desk job.

Let’s take a closer look at the compound effect:

By the compound effect, we mean small decisions made repeatedly that have little or no effect in the short term, but far-reaching effects in the long term.

Let’s use two fictional men as an example. The first (John) has landed a new job with his friend (Paul) at a call centre. Both men are very excited to start work, and both are the same age, height and weight (both are overweight).

John has been reading books and educating himself on his new lifestyle, and as a result knows that he must dedicate a portion of his day to activity. Paul, on the other hand, is aiming for an early promotion, so he decides to work overtime in his lunch break. He therefore eats at his desk.

John decides to play table tennis for 30 minutes at lunch time every day before eating, while his friend Paul remains seated. John is only burning 125 calories more a day than Paul, but Paul has an extra snack of 125 calories a day more than John.

Let’s take a look at the compound effect of these little actions on both of these men over a longer period.

Note: There are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat.

Month 1:

John has now burned 3,750 calories in his first month of playing table tennis for 30 minutes each lunch time. He has lost just over 1 pound of weight, while Paul has now gained just over 1 pound. So far, the difference is tiny and almost imperceptible.

Month 2:

John has now burned 7,500 calories and Paul has eaten 7,500 calories in snacks in their first two months at work. John has lost just over 2 pounds while Paul has gained 2 pounds.

Month 6:

John has now burned 22,500 calories in the first six months of working at his new job. Paul has eaten an extra 22,500 calories, from having only a minor snack extra each day.

John is now 6 pounds down, while Paul is 6 pounds up. So far this would seem to be only a minor difference, but the gap in weight will start to become noticeable.

Month 24 (2 years):

After two years, the compound effect truly shows.

John has now burned 90,000 calories from just 30 minutes of casual table tennis play per day. This is equivalent to a staggering 25 pounds of fat lost, and has also given him the opportunity to build relationships with his co-workers by playing.

Paul has consumed 90,000 extra calories from the small additional snack he has eaten daily. As a result, Paul has put on 25 pounds of fat.

The key difference is clear between them. Even though John has only lost 25 pounds in two years, there is now an astonishing difference of 50 pounds in their respective weights.

That 50 pounds means a difference of nearly 3½ stone between them, arising from two minor decisions made daily. This figure is in line with the research that shows that the average new office worker puts on a stone in their first year. Putting on that stone could arise from something as simple as eating one small, innocent snack each day.

Picture above: 5lbs of fat vs 1lbs of fat. Imagine losing 5 more of that 5lbs of fat!

People tend to dismiss the idea that their small snacking habits have long term effects, or that their unwillingness to do some exercise daily has a long term effect. If you were to put on 25 pounds of fat instantly from eating one small snack at lunch, it’s very unlikely you’d still eat it.

The reason the compound effect is so powerful is that it sneaks up on you. You don’t notice gradual changes, and because there is no immediate health implication, it’s easy to keep giving in to short term temptations.

The compound effect is always working, either against you or for you.

The above train of thought is ruining the health of thousands of office workers across the UK. As a result, the nation is unquestionably getting fatter and unhealthier by the year. However, there are simple solutions to help us all solve this problem, which must come primarily from the top of every business.

All business directors and owners need to acknowledge that it is their responsibility to provide their office workers with games and education on snacking, as well as opportunities for employees to get out of their chair and do some physical activity.

This is an issue that needs to be resolved, but of course there is no chance that desk jobs will be eliminated. As a result, we need to adapt and make sure that we don’t let the compound effect work against us at work. With that in mind, we have created this guide for you to read, understand, print out and adopt in your office environment.

In this guide we will cover 21 benefits of playing games at the office, as well as exploring some office “hacks” that can help you to increase productivity and well-being.

One of the largest pieces of research to date on the subject – involving almost 800,000 people – found that, compared with those who remained sitting the least, people who remained sitting the longest had a: