The New York Times-20080127-Bringing Home the Bacon- And Keeping Off the Weight

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Bringing Home the Bacon, And Keeping Off the Weight

Full Text (1144  words)[Author Affiliation] As told to Patricia R. Olsen.

WHETHER their workplaces are superhealthy or stocked with candy at every turn, employees who are struggling to lose weight must deal with challenges at the office. Three workers tell of their battles, temptations and successes.

Going for the Burrito

Steve Madden, 44, is editor in chief of Bicycling and Mountain Bike magazines at Rodale in Emmaus, Pa.

People assume that the editor of magazines relating to health and fitness is going to be perfectly healthy and fit. Someone who meets me at a work event will look at me and say, I thought you'd be. ... A little skinnier? I say. And he'll say, Well, yeah. People are always telling me I need to lose weight. Right now I weigh 198 pounds and am 5-foot-10, which is big for a serious cyclist. I'd like to weigh 180-something.

It's the life space I'm in. I have a long commute and three young children who keep me busy. I eat late at night, and I love wine. I have a terrible sweet tooth, too.

It's a constant struggle to lose weight, even though I rode 4,451 miles last year. It seems to be something in my physiology. It's something you're born with. Lance Armstrong chose his parents wisely.

At lunch, I ride with cycling champions from a training center near our building, and they are constant reminders of my weight. Our associate publisher, Joao Correia, lost 50 pounds recently in his quest to make the Portuguese Olympic team. (He has dual citizenship.) He wants to keep his weight down to perform well on rides. I can't make the sacrifices. I'd rather have cookies at night and not ride as fast.

The Rodale cafeteria has only healthy food. I have a salad and a bottle of seltzer for lunch. But I'm enough of a contrarian that if we go out and everyone else has a salad, I want the burrito.

It's all relative. When I'm in this building, I'm the fat kid. When I take my children to the pool in my town, I look like Tarzan. My weight has become part of my shtick. The shorts my colleagues and I wear have www.bicycling.com printed on the back. I joke that my shorts are so big they could say www.bicycling.com with the editor.

Apple Slices, Not Doughnuts

Kathy Burkleo, 59, is a customer service representative at Logos Bible Software in Bellingham, Wash.

Last June my doctor told me I had high blood pressure and had to lose weight. I decided to start the South Beach diet. I didn't say anything to anyone at work initially. As of mid-January, I had lost 49 pounds.

We have a corporate culture of food. Someone brings in doughnuts about three days a week, or we might get an e-mail announcement that there are treats in the executive kitchen. Every other month or so we have a cook-off, with chili one month, curry another and soup another. In December, there's a holiday bake-off. When we have a salsa competition, people taste all 20 varieties, which means that anyone judging will eat at least 20 tortilla chips.

I love tortilla chips. I love dark chocolate, too. I just love food. But I'm determined. My co-workers noticed when I lost 10 pounds, which was an incentive to keep going. The company buys lunch for us a lot, and often it's pizza. When I first started losing weight, I just ate the topping and my salad from home. The last time we had it, I ate an entire slice. But I paid for it: I plateaued for a couple of days.

I don't deprive myself totally. There's usually a candy jar in my area, and I grab a piece occasionally. But losing weight is so rewarding that I resist temptation more often than not. I feel better now.

There are 29 steps on the stairs to our department on the second floor. I used to have to stop halfway and catch my breath. Now I can run up. As I lose weight and my clothes are too big, I get rid of them.

Some co-workers ask how I did it, as if there's an easy answer. They have to want to lose weight. One morning, a guy in his 20s had eight doughnuts. He said he would never gain weight. I told him that someday it would catch up to him. Then I ate my apple slices and a couple of almonds and string cheese.

Planning to Lose 25 Pounds

Marcelo Aller, 34, is national athletics account manager at Polar in Lake Success, N.Y.

We manufacture and sell heart rate monitors and other physical fitness performance products. Before I started this job two and a half years ago, I was always active. I played college football, and I've worked as a personal trainer and managed health clubs. Now I'm in front of a PC much of the day, or I visit schools and talk to students. I can't always get to a health club.

My colleagues think I look fine, but it's become more of a challenge to become lean. I'm 5-foot-8 and weigh 218, and I want to lose 25 pounds. I'm not an endurance athlete, like a small cyclist or a runner. I have a typical, square football-player build. Sometimes it's more difficult to regain a hard body; my metabolism has changed with age.

I have a degree in physical education, so I know about the human body. My problem is not eating regularly. If I don't eat every three to four hours, I don't get my metabolism going and I have a tendency to overeat later in the day.

I think everyone has that problem. I try to eat a balanced diet of protein, carbs and fats. I also limit starches and eat complex grains instead of simple grains. But I need to be better about serving size.

People tend to rationalize why they can't lose weight. I tell them, first, figure out your fitness goal. Next, determine where you are now. Then measure your body fat.

As I work toward my goal, I hope to lose 10 or 12 pounds of fat in the first six to eight weeks and gain some muscle. I plan to work out three or four times a week. I'll use a heart rate monitor to make sure I'm working at the intensity I need to burn enough calories. For cardiovascular work, I'm going to run and bike.

I work out with athletes who have an advantage over me because of my build. They humor me on their recovery days, when they go slower. On those days I can keep up with them.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Steve Madden, the editor in chief of two bicycling magazines, says he has a terrible sweet tooth. (PHOTOGRAPH BY WARREN WESTURA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)