The World Health Organization conducted a study to call center agents from different

parts of the world and found out that there is a correlation between obesity and call center
workplace. But, a very big revelation is that Filipino call center agents, who used to work
at night have the biggest percentage of Body Mass Increase (BMI) among the call center
workers throughout the world.
Factors why call center agents tend to gain weight:
Stress
According to studies, high stress levels trigger heavy food intake.
Hormones play a role in elevating the the desire to eat foods containing
carbohydrates during prolonged periods of stress. When our brains receive stimuli that
indicate a period of stress on the body, they respond by releasing cortisol, a hormone
whose primary function is to raise blood sugar and promote the metabolism of
carbohydrates, protein and fat. In response to higher blood sugar levels, the pancreas
releases extra insulin, which has the effect of lowering blood sugar rather quickly. This, in
turn, causes a craving for foods rich in carbohydrates - e.g., comfort foods.
Prolonged stress brain response: cortisol release effect: gluconeogenesis and
glycogenolysis raises blood sugar pancreas: insulin production lowers blood
sugar through glycogenesis and lipogenesis craving for foods rich in carbs: "comfort
foods" glycolysis: breakdown of carbs (glucose) pyruvate: lactate (muscles)
through LDH (anaerobic process)
Extra glucose that your body doesn't need for immediate energy will go into storage.
A small amount will be stored as glycogen, which is a stored form of glucose in your
muscles and liver. Once this storage area is filled up, the remaining glucose gets
converted to fat, which is essentially long-term energy storage.
fat= 9 cal/ g carb= 4 cal/ gram: lipids is more efficient for energy storage
High stress levels trigger heavy food intake, which is often unutilized by the body due to
lack of physical activity.
Cortisol
- known as the "stress hormone"
- promote gluconeogenesis: production of glucose from non-carbohydrate
sources: lactate (muscles)
pyruvate (liver) endproduct: glucose
- main promoter of glycogenolysis (breakdown of
glycogen to glucose; takes place in the cells of muscle
and liver)

Insulin
- Only hormone that decreases glucose level
- Normally released when glucose levels are high
- - Stored from liver, fat and muscles
- Primary hormone responsible for the entry of glucose into the cell (glycogenesis)
- Promotes glycogenesis, lipogenesis
- Insulin stimulates lipogenesis primarily by activating two
enzymatic pathways. Pyruvate
dehydrogenase (PDH), converts pyruvate into acetylCoA. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), converts
acetyl-CoA produced by PDH into
malonyl-CoA. Malonyl-CoA provides the two-carbon building blocks
that are used to
create larger fatty acids.
Eating habits
The call center is a fast-phased environment, people working in this industry, usually
consume fast foods. These foods are high in fat, and loaded with sugar and salt.
Coffee is also a usual drink in order to stay awake.
70% of out total body status is produced by the foods we eat.
Working Shift
The graveyard shift is a very big factor. At night, the body will only use a percentage of
its work force as it needed to rest. This includes the metabolism which is quite slow at
night.
When we are awake at night, the brain gets confused and might send receptors that you
needed to eat.
Lifestyle
Eat and sleep is the most common lifestyle of the Filipino call center agents. Eat, drink
alcohol and sleep, is the lifestyle of the second most agents in the Philippines. A very few
exercise and watch what they eat. Thats why, agents gain weight.
Lifestyle is the biggest factor in gaining weight whatever your profession is.
1. What are the factors / reasons for their rebound weight gain?
The diet regimen that they tried like high protein and no carbohydrate diet and high
fat and protein and no carbohydrate diet involves a metabolic process known as ketosis.
Normally, when we eat carbohydrates, our blood glucose rises. Our pancreas releases

insulin in order to control blood glucose. When insulin is present, the body cannot burn
stored body fat (because insulin promotes lipogenesis).
Ketosis is simply a normal metabolic process in which the body cells burn fragments
of fats called ketones instead of glucose for fuel.
In a ketogenic diet plan, you control insulin by limiting carbohydrates, which makes
our body burn stored fat for energy. This state is called ketosis.
A ketogenic diet plan requires tracking the carb amounts in the foods eaten and
keeping carbohydrate intake between 20-60 grams per day. The daily protein
requirement will be moderate, and depends on height, gender and how much exercise
is done. The balance of calories will be from fats. These ratios ensure that most
people go intoketosis and stay there, which is the main objective of the ketogenic diet.
The nutrient intake on a ketogenic diet typically works out to about 70-75% of
calories from fat, 20-25% from protein, and 5-10% from carbohydrate on a
daily basis when calories are not restricted. Since a ketogenic diet reduces hunger,
calorie counting is optional. However it's important to understand how macronutrient
percentages can be affected by caloric intake, so you may want to read the calorie
counting page to clarify your thoughts on this subject.
The key to understanding a ketogenic diet plan is to remember that one is swapping
out the carbs in the diet with a higher fat and a moderate protein intake.
Perhaps the reason for their rebound weight gain is
that were not able to continue a restricted carbohydrate diet because of their work
lifestyle as call center agents.
2. What are the effects of of caffeine and smoking on weight gain?
Caffeine and Cortisol
An excessive caffeine intake is associated with increased cortisol levels, a stress
hormone, according to the February-March 2011 issue of "Organic Lifestyle Magazine."
Caffeine and Weight
Just like stress and a lack of sleep are associated with weight gain because of the increase
they cause in your cortisol levels, you can also experience problems with your weight by
drinking too much coffee. High cortisol levels resulting from excessive caffeine are more
likely to put extra weight around your waist, according to Dr. Len Kravitz, program
coordinator of exercise science and a researcher at the University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque. High cortisol levels promote the accumulation of fat in your belly, the type
of fat that not only causes the infamous muffin top, but is also related to a higher risk of
metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and heart diseases.

Mechanisms through which cigarette smoking reduces body weight. Smoking reduces
body weight by increasing energy expenditure and inhibiting the expected compensatory
increase in caloric intake. Nicotine increases energy expenditure both by direct effects on
peripheral tissues, largely mediated by catecholamines, and by effects on central nervous
system neuroendocrine circuits. Nicotine's effects on the brain also leads to suppression
of appetite, and smoking per se can serve as a behavioral alternative to eating. AgRP,
Agouti-related peptide; CART, cocaine amphetamine-regulated transcript; DA,
dopamine; Epi, epinephrine; GABA, -aminobutyric acid; NEpi, norepinephrine; NPY,
neuropeptide Y; POMC, proopiomelanocortin.
Why high fat and moderate protein? Fats have little to no effect on blood sugar and
insulin levels. Protein does affect both blood sugar and insulin, if large quantities are
consumed. If you overeat protein (more than 1.5-2.0 grams/kg lean body mass), it can
drive up your blood insulin levels temporarily. High insulin levels can put the brakes on
the body's ability to release and burn the fatty acids which provide the substrate for
ketosis. This affects some people more than others, however. It most likely depends on
how insulin resistant you are and how much you exercise.
Saturated fat is not harmful in the context of a low carb diet. This study from
Johns Hopkins Medical School confirms this.The ketogenic diet plan is healthier
because the higher saturated fat intake increases your HDL cholesterol, and at the
same time, a lower carb intake decreases your triglycerides levels. These two factors
are the major markers for heart disease, and the closer your triglyceride/HDL ratio is
to 1, the healthier your heart. In reality, the cause of heart disease is a chronically high
carbohydrate consumption, not a high saturated fat and cholesterol intake.I think the
best way to learn this is to get a full blood test before you start a ketogenic diet plan,
then do the diet faithfully for 3 months. Then have your blood work checked again.
You'll see the difference and discover how much better you feel. (See my Healthy
Eating Politics website for more information on the how the lie that "cholesterol and
saturated fat cause heart disease" got started and gets repeated.
3. What are the effects of obesity on the biochemical pathways?
Effect of change in sleep pattern:

1. Being tired might cause you to eat more.

Studies have shown that sleep restriction leads to marked decreases in leptin and
increases in ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that suppresses appetite, while ghrelin
stimulates appetite. So basically this means that sleep-deprived people feel hungrier and
less sated, which could cause them to eat more.
When youre tired, one of the cognitive side effects thats been demonstrated in research
is impaired decision making. Studies have also found that sleep deprivation actually
increases your cravings for calorie-dense, high-carb and junk foods. So, not only are you
feeling hungrier due to the ghrelin, your sleepy self is also more inclined to make
unhealthy food decisions.
2. Sleeping too little or too much can alter your metabolism.
While you are at rest, your body is hard at work repairing cell and tissue damage and
doing other things to keep you healthy. Some of this may relate to insulin and your
metabolism.
One recent study from a Doha University looked at the sleep habits of over 500 people
recently diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. Researchers found that people with weekday
sleep debt were more likely to be obese. At follow-up intervals six and 12 months later,
weekday sleep debt was still associated with higher risk of obesity and also insulin
resistance. Both risks increased significantly for every additional 30 minutes of sleep debt
per day.
Other research has identified links between ongoing partial sleep deprivation and
hormonal imbalance, inflammation, changes to the way the body responds to glucose and
overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. In large studies, increased risk of
diabetes has also been demonstrated for both short sleepers (less than 6 hours) and long
sleepers (over 8 hours). Potential connections could be related to elevated cortisol levels
and changes in growth hormone secretion seen in sleep restriction, which may contribute
to the development of insulin resistance.
3. Irregular sleep patterns could lead to weight gain.
One of the core principles of good sleep hygiene is sticking to a regular routine and
schedule. Normalizing bedtimes and wake-up times tells your body what to expect and
helps support your internal clock. Keeping odd hours or drastically varying weekday and
weekend schedules could increase risk of sleep problems and may be tied into weight.
Penn State researchers recently looked at over 300 teens eating and sleep habits and
found that varying sleep times affected eating habits. Variations of an hour or more
(either more or less sleep) were associated with eating more calories, more fat and more
carbohydrates, as well as increased nighttime snacking.
Sleep less, hang on to fat more. Lack of sleep may also affect the kind of weight you
lose.
In another study at the University of Chicago, researchers followed 10 overweight but

healthy subjects who were placed on a balanced diet, then observed in two 14-day
increments, one in which they got about 7.5 hours of sleep, and another in which they got
5 hours and 15 minutes. During both periods, the subjects lost an average of 6.6 pounds.
But when they got more sleep, they lost 3.1 pounds of fat, whereas during the short sleep
period, they lost only 1.3 pounds of fat. Those who got more sleep reported less hunger,
which makes sense: When they got enough sleep, their ghrelin levels stayed the same. On
the 5-hour nights, their ghrelin levels rose by 9 points.
Since ghrelin also promotes the retention of fat, researchers theorize that a lack of sleep
explains why the nonsleepers held on to body fat. This happens because the dietunfriendly hormone reduces the number of calories you burn off and increases glucose
production.
Leptin is a hormone, made by fat cells, that decreases your appetite. Ghrelin is a
hormone that increases appetite, and also plays a role in body weight.
Levels of leptin -- the appetite suppressor -- are lower when you're thin and higher when
you're fat. But many obese people have built up a resistance to the appetite-suppressing
effects of leptin, says obesity expert Mary Dallman, PhD, from University of California
at San Francisco.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caroline-j-cederquist-md/sandy-weightgain_b_2100796.html
http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/111609p38.shtml
http://study.com/academy/lesson/lipogenesis-process-function.html
http://foodcitations.com/why-are-call-center-agents-getting-fat/
http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketogenic-diet-plan.html