Anyone whose job is far from home knows the hassles of long commutes. Even traveling a few hours could be frustrating in the midst of traffic, plus the reality that there's not much to do during travel except wait, especially if you are the one driving your own vehicle (which is often the case). I'm sure at some point these long travels made us feel precious time being taken from us, especially if there arises a situation that needs our immediate presence.

In reality, long travels are part of daily routines for many of us. And a lot of commuters have found ways to get used to it. But research discovered that becoming obese is one major problem of commuters due to lack of physical activity and the stress involved during these long travels.

The problem

Based on a new study, daily long commutes may steal your health and fitness. Christine Hoehner, an investigator from Washington University, explained that long commutes can take away your time to exercise. People who take daily travels expose themselves to stress and may lose interest in exercise, which could lead to easy weight gain. Records show that the increase of workers (in the US) who commute using their private vehicles increased from 41 million to 112 million between 1960 to 2000. And the daily travel time and sitting behind the steering wheel became longer, too.

The following are findings of new study of scientists who gathered data from over 4,000 long commuters who described their activities for the last three months. What did the scientists discover? The long commutes didn’t only discourage the commuters from exercising, they also suffered the following problems:

• increased chronic stress
• weight gain
• poor fitness levels
• high blood pressure
• poor cardio respiratory fitness (CRF)
• increased body mass index (BMI)
• increased belly fat

And these are great contributors to heart problems, diabetes, and even cancer. Now, before you start to think of quitting your job and looking for one that is just around the corner or perhaps transfer and move closer to your workplace (which others don’t have the option), according to Hoehner, there are solutions that can lead to more exercise.

The solution

The commuters should find ways to apply physical activity, like walking or performing short exercises during work breaks. If you need a little help in deciding what short exercises to apply during work breaks, a good option is trying a simple but complete fitness program. The new trend of fitness programs today are shorter but more effective workouts and a lot of natural fat-burning foods, that are useful to people with time-crunched schedules.

Moreover, the employers can also help their employees in this problem, by giving them time to exercise in the office. A healthy employee can always deliver more accomplishments than one who has become sickly due to lack of exercise as a result of too much daily long commutes.