First year OTR major weight gain

Ahmen to that.

I always lose 15lbs when I’m at work, then the over eating and drinking comes into play on days off.

 

how do you put on 145lbs in a year and not really notice??

 

The first year is the hardest because you're new to the truck and not set up yet for healthier eating. As such, I'm guessing you bought a lot of your meals at truck stop fast food places which caused the weight gain. Also being new, might have been snacking a lot without realizing.

You can get crock pots that plug into cigarette outlets, if your truck doesn't have a fridge an electric cooler or (expensive) portable chest fridge/freezer can also plug into a cigarette outlet. If you have an inverter, depending on its' capacity, you could add a microwave, electric skillet, and other appliances.

Drink water instead of soda. Focus on proteins instead of sugars and carbs. Meat, cheese, eggs, fish. Tuna packets are easy to keep in a truck and don't need refrigeration. Preparing your own meals is both healthier and far cheaper than buying it.

Exercise when you can. Lots of rest areas and truck stops have trains at or near them ( Truck stops with hiking trails! For dogs and their truckers. ). Can also walk the perimeter of nice rest areas, park at the back of truck stop lots and walk to the building, park properly at shippers/receivers and walk to the office. Lots of little ways to get exercise.

 

I park near the back of the truckstop which means I have to walk more.

 

It's hard to confuse 145 with 20 lbs of weight gain. That being said. It's simple. Stop eating junk from the truck stop. Make healthy food choices. Park in the farthest spot. So you're forced to walk. Little things will fix it.

 

I'm just not normal. I actually lost 45 lbs during my 1st 6 months or so. I have, unfortunately, gained about 5 to10 lbs of that back in the last year and a half. IDK. I do know one thing I stopped doing years ago is drinking calories. With the exception of coffee and the sugar I put in it, I only drink water most days.
I will have an orange juice or Gatorade on occasion. But, not very often.
Unsure how much that effects things. It was something I changed years before I started driving. I think the 'secret' to my weight loss in the beginning was stress. After that first six months, my stress levels went down quite a bit.

 

Easy, No White Food, stick to Green food and meat. Lost 100 pounds last year, and I do eat from McDonalds, Del Taco, Taco Bell. Just have to think about what your putting in the pie hole. No sugar sodas either, Limit fruit, No Bananas as earlier suggested.

 

My weight generally stays in a range. The only time I've gone above that range is when I had knee surgery. I was a stone's throw from 300. Threw on the emergency brake, now I'm sitting on the low end of my usual range, and doing my best to get lower. 220 is my fighting weight. Hoping to get there again.

My message to you would just be to only shop at grocery stores, and stay out of fast food.

 

It's hard to stay in shape OTR. I see the general advice in here of going on walking trails, yeah that's great and all but you tell me how much you're going to feel like going for a walk in the park December - February in Iowa, Wyoming, Wisconsin, PA, etc. etc.

The thing that I struggled with the most is that OTR sometimes I would just get so tired towards the end of my shift and so to stay awake you just get some sugar in you to push through the final hour or two to get to parking. Cookies were my weakness in that regard.

Another problem is that you get bored driving. So if you're a smoker you smoke and if you're a non-smoker you eat. That's just how it is. You can try to get some crushed ice or something and munch on that, maybe that would help.

You really do have to stay disciplined, it's an uphill battle. You are not going to go for leisurely walks on the walking trails in half this country December - March when it's cold as hell up north, it's just not happening. Parking in the back of the parking lot furthest away from the building helps. I never used a pee bottle unless it was an emergency so that meant I usually walked in and out of the truck stop at least 2 times each night I parked. And then once in the morning again.

Another problem that I ran into OTR was a lot of shippers and receivers want you to sit in the truck while you wait to get loaded. So you can forget about exercises there as well.

If you have someone to talk to on the phone that might help with your boredom driving so that instead of eating you'll be talking to someone and that will keep you distracted. Definitely get a fridge that plugs into the cigarette lighter and try to stock up on food from Walmart, that's what I did. I still gained about 15 pounds the 2 years I did OTR driving. Not much compared to some people but definitely not healthy.

I think the biggest thing that people overlook is just how many steps you get AT HOME WALKING AROUND THE HOUSE. That is exercise that you don't even think about. Walking from the living room to the kitchen to your bedroom then downstairs and then back upstairs. All of that really adds up. I never noticed how MUCH exercise somebody gets just by walking around the house compared to sitting on the bed in the sleeper birth the whole time when your shift ends.