Do Most People in Biglaw Gain Weight? Forum

[jtabustos]

How possible would it be to maintain roughly 10-12 hours of workout/recreational sports time each week in biglaw?

[eerie_erie]

Wake up at 5 am like Amelia Boone, Skadden attorney.

[OneMoreLawHopeful]

There seems to be a disconnect between the topic and the question here.

Looking at the biglaw attorneys I know, it's pretty easy to stay fit and work biglaw. But staying fit usually only means an hour of exercise a day, with a day off per week. That's six hours a week, not twelve.

If you wanted to pull off twelve...well, something's got to give, and it might be your social life, but it would be physically possible.

[09042014]

The ones I've met are surprisingly not fat. Probably skinny fat.

But it's prob the coke.

[Rahviveh]

There seems to be a disconnect between the topic and the question here.

Looking at the biglaw attorneys I know, it's pretty easy to stay fit and work biglaw. But staying fit usually only means an hour of exercise a day, with a day off per week. That's six hours a week, not twelve.

If you wanted to pull off twelve...well, something's got to give, and it might be your social life, but it would be physically possible.

Do most offices have gyms in the building?

[LaBarrister]

Your children will have to quite being so selfish, asking you for that one hour that they see you per day, so you can have a nice morning jog. Children... they'll never understand. Typically slapping them around will help with the back talk. Or you can ship them off to boarding school for calling you while at work, trying to remember what your voice sounds like.

Or you could just get fat and overweight. Quite honestly, if you shoot for one, the other tends to tag right along. So it's like killing two arteries with one cheeseburger. A win/win.

[OneMoreLawHopeful]

There seems to be a disconnect between the topic and the question here.

Looking at the biglaw attorneys I know, it's pretty easy to stay fit and work biglaw. But staying fit usually only means an hour of exercise a day, with a day off per week. That's six hours a week, not twelve.

If you wanted to pull off twelve...well, something's got to give, and it might be your social life, but it would be physically possible.

Do most offices have gyms in the building?

Many do, but in most "downtown" areas it won't matter too much. On an associate's salary you can usually afford to go to the gym you want, and two blocks isn't a big deal.

[SaintsTheMetal]

Why would BigLaw get any fatter than any other corporate drone? biglaw isnt gonna make you put in 100 hour work weeks every week. Unless it is, you'll have free time. Obviously, you'll have to give up some things you did every day in college, whether thats video games, drinking, watching TV, exercise, eating, whatever.

On a side note, you can *definitely* be jacked as shit on WAY less than 12 hours of exercise. 6 or less if you're smart and efficient. Eating right is the more time consuming part. Cook turkey/chicken in large batches and portion it out in tupperwares. Whenever you don't have time to cook one of your 5-6 meals of the day, just warm up one of these thing. Take 2-3 to work with you. Maybe have your girlfriend do it.

[Lasers]

There seems to be a disconnect between the topic and the question here.

Looking at the biglaw attorneys I know, it's pretty easy to stay fit and work biglaw. But staying fit usually only means an hour of exercise a day, with a day off per week. That's six hours a week, not twelve.

If you wanted to pull off twelve...well, something's got to give, and it might be your social life, but it would be physically possible.

Do most offices have gyms in the building?

Many do, but in most "downtown" areas it won't matter too much. On an associate's salary you can usually afford to go to the gym you want, and two blocks isn't a big deal.

i don't know of a big law firm that won't subsidize a gym membership if they don't have a gym on their premises.

[iMisto]

i don't know of a big law firm that won't subsidize a gym membership if they don't have a gym on their premises.

shuuuut uuuuuuuuup.

[jtabustos]

I apologize for the original wording of this thread title. I changed it to reflect my question's intent without hopefully sounding offensive. Apologies to everyone again. I know the original version sounded very childish.

To the point of the thread, I actually find that I don't lift weights that many hours or days a week. My routine has been Tue./Thur. nights for lifting (with two friends) at about 1 hr. 15 to 1 hr. 30 minutes each session. The rest of those hours - the 8 or 9 remaining hours of sports/workout - are from intramural basketball, practice and pick-up.

For those who lift, I think you guys probably know that half of the time is probably spent resting between reps and also chatting with your friends or partners (or waiting for others to finish machines). Lifting shouldn't have to take up so much time unless you're really shaping every part of your body and doing so seriously/competitively.

I had a slight basketball addiction, however. lol. I laugh, but it was a serious addiction in some ways and a psychological problem (like wanting to prove myself through competition). ...Spent too much time playing and my grades suffered. The way I played, too, was emotionally unhealthy.

I was part of several teams and also played a good deal of pick-up each week. ...Still too much time/week though. So, I know whatever I do with my career I'm going to change that. Already haven't played for several months.

But basketball aside, I think what I was getting at was also just wanting to still lead a physically healthy lifestyle if I worked in biglaw. Have heard many stories of people in biglaw not eating, sleeping, or exercising right or enough. You know...just wanting to get a sense of whether a person can have enough free time to take care of themselves. Are people often so physically exhausted that they end up not taking care of those areas like exercise, eating right, etc.? It seems the work hours would make your mind/body extremely tired and so wonder if biglaw associates can really balance in a healthy lifestyle under those circumstances?

[cinephile]

Do you eat when you're bored? Do you eat when you're stressed?

If the answer to both of these questions is no, then you'll be fine. If the answer to either is yes, there's no hope for you, unfortunately.

[IAFG]

Do you eat when you're bored? Do you eat when you're stressed?

If the answer to both of these questions is no, then you'll be fine. If the answer to either is yes, there's no hope for you, unfortunately.

I vomit when I am stressed. Perfect!

[exitoptions]

My biggest problem is all of the free food and lack of will power.

[alex.feuerman]

How possible would it be to maintain roughly 10-12 hours of workout/recreational sports time each week in biglaw?

CAVEAT: NYC biglaw

Everyone I've met in biglaw with, like, TWO exceptions, is crazy skinny. I talked to a couple of female attorneys about this and they said it's because they never have time to eat / forget to eat / lose their appetite.

So no worries there!...

[somewhatwayward]

A lot of summer associates gain weight bc of all the extravagant meals out. I didn't though - I actually lost weight bc I'm picky and I forget to eat when I'm busy. The associates were generally skinny.

My firm has their own gym in the building so you never have to leave....

[BeenDidThat]

I'll answer both questions:

How possible would it be to maintain roughly 10-12 hours of workout/recreational sports time each week in biglaw?

That's probably not a realistic amount of time to devote to working out unless you: (1) are single; (2) don't care about socializing other than at the job or when working out; and (3) are willing to cut sleep on work-heavy weeks to maintain your workout schedule.

Do Most People in Biglaw Gain Weight?

You can generally see the writing on the wall with law students. People who have a tendency to eat uncontrollably, people who only work out when they have tons of free time, and people who are relatively more susceptible to workload-induced mental instability tend to have weight issues later on. You can also get a sense of it by seeing who has gained weight in law school. If you can't stay healthy during law school, you're gonna have a real tough time with it in Biglaw.