Postman/ postwoman
The average postseason must walk upwards of 25k per day whilst most British average less than 8k steps. Surely this extra walking must keep the typical postie in excellent physical health. I am trying to think if I’ve ever seen a overweight postie and I can only think of one who was more stockey than anything. Made me think if walking 20k steps day would be enough to keep most people trim

48 comments

  1. Both the ones I see round here are fit as fiddles. I’m sure walking has a lot to do with it, a lot of people are very sedentary. I do believe you can’t outrun a bad diet, but walking 9-10 miles a day is certainly a good level of activity and you’d really have to be eating and drinking a lot to negate that.

  2. How many roads do you think each individual postie is delivery to to hit 25km a day?

  3. I think also the type of person who wants to sign up to a job that involves lots of walking is more often someone reasonably fit, or at least not significantly overweight, in the first place.

  4. My old postie was overweight, but then he was fairly new, and if the generation who drive vans round the route.

    Whereas my current postie parks the van at the bottom of the village and walks round, unless there’s loads of parcels around Christmas time

  5. I feel like PO might aim to hire fit people where possible due to the job requiring so much walking and it being such a hassle when someone calls in sick at 3am with an hour until the shift starts since overweight people generally take more sick days

  6. My postwoman runs her whole route. And my husband once saw her ride her horse bear back through a hedge to get out the way of passing vans. She’s a beast!

  8. A friend in London did his first week as a postie, 45k step days and two dog bites later he decided it wasn’t for him

  9. OR – overweight people are put off being post-persons because of the amount of walking required?

  10. speaking upon experience of over 16 years now

    the average postie walks around 23,000 a day in 4 to 4 1/2 hour slot

    you can have belly posties such as myself but it’s more core strength and bulkiness of us.

    the only overweight people are probably management roles as they are sitting at the office staring at a pc screen tracking your every move…….

    #StandByYourPost

  13. We have a number of posties in our running club and all are very capable runners. I have no doubt the daily steps etc are really helpful.

  14. I’m a postie, While the walking is obviously good for you and I’m in ok shape ( walk 10 miles a day) i do think your body gets used to it so less calories are burned overtime.

    Last year I went a bit silly on things like just eat and started putting on weight. The quote “getting fit starts in the kitchen” really is true.

    In the old days it was even more active as on a lot of rounds you would cycle out 2/3 miles before even starting. Then that back again.

  16. My old postie was quite overweight, he literally used to drive his van between each house, even when they were next door to each other.

    The new one drives up the street and grabs a big stack of mail, delivers it to each house, then hops back in and drives a bit further up the street, rinse and repeat.

  18. My postman is overweight & what you’d describe as round – great set of legs though.

  19. You can undo an hour of exercise in a minute of eating biscuits. I’ve seen a few fat posties.

  20. One of my neighbours is a postie and he’s pretty chunky, so yes.

    He had a funny story about lockdown and weight loss — when London shut down, loads of people thought “I’m home all day, I need to keep fit … I know! I’ll order a large set of weights!!”

    The result of course was that Mount Pleasant mail centre was packed to the gunnels with dumbbells wrapped in brown paper, and a large proportion of staff were off with bad backs from having to move these ridiculous things around haha. Poor posties 🙁 Think of them before ordering huge heavy stuff.

  21. Guessing it also depends on diet and metabolism but 25k steps per day would keep the weight off.

  22. Aye I used to work for RM there were a good few fatties. Probably not as many as the general population but still some. Diet has more affect on body fat than exercise, you can’t out train a bad diet.

  26. I’ve seen a few. Being overweight doesn’t mean somebody is incapable of walking 5-8 miles or more daily. Walking tends to tone and define more than anything else when combined with a poor diet.

    It is possible to be fat and fit just its usually said by people who barely walk anywhere, and are definitely not fit.

  27. Kid from my school got a job as a postie after leaving. He was one of those tall, naturally husky guys who isn’t *fat* because the weight’s distributed across a large frame

    He stayed around the same build for the last thirty years, so you could argue the exercise stopped him getting fat **or** that it didn’t help him lose weight

  28. I’m about 2 stone overweight and I walk around 20K steps a day.

    My problem is that when I get home after work I have serious food cravings so end up eating dinner and then snacking on nuts late at night.

    I need to find something less calorific to snack on. I probably eat around 800 calories of nuts at 10 pm most nights.

  29. The postie who delivers to my work is a big fella. He’s got that Tony Soprano build.

  31. Sadly your body just gets used to it. Doesn’t even feel like exercise now. Plenty of overweight blokes in my office. That said they are still probably fitter than most, trim legs etc.

  34. Our postie is a delight but is also 100% James Cordon’s doppelganger, so yes. To confirm the other question is this thread, no I’ve never seen him wear non-shorts.

  35. My exes dad is a postman and is morbidly obese, he was doing between 20,000 to 30,000 steps a day. Exercise isn’t a simple answer to weight loss by any means.

  36. No. I’ve also known of a few postmen who were very successful amateur racing cyclists because it was a job that provided basic fitness and gave them time to train as well

  37. never seen an overweight one, but always wonder why some wear shorts mid December

  38. My grandad was! He worked as a postman for a good thirty years and was well known all over my city xx he didn’t even eat that bad tbh it was just his natural physique although he couldn’t resist the occasional packet of Midget gems 😅

  39. Yes.

    My postman was overweight. He also used to come in the newsagents I worked in, stinking like something had died, and buy a lot (*a lot*) of porn. Aside from the fact that he once knocked over and broke a milk bottle on my doorstep and didn’t bother mentioning it, he was alright.

  40. Yeah, we had a postie growing up who was affectionately known locally as ‘Fatty Fudge’.

  41. Yeah I’ve got a local postie who carries a fair bit of weight. He seems to chip about as much as others that weigh far less than him though

  42. Loads of overweight posties in our office, probably 25% of them….Greggs and coffees, chocolate etc before the round plus snacks in between each bag ….

  45. My dad was an overweight postman (technically obese I think) for many years. He has muscular legs but has always eaten terribly so was still noticably overweight.

    He’s semi-retired now due to foot problems and T2 diabetes but I think over the years the amount of cycling/walking in his job decreased as there were more parcels carried by vans.

  46. Look up the studies done with postal workers in regards to health. It’s pretty impressive.

  47. My neighbour became a Postie a year ago he does 25k steps a day eats like a horse and has lost about 4 stone. The first stone came off in a month.

  48. No. You’re right. Just makes the point about how walking is good for health and fitness. Another good reason to dispense with cars wherever possible.

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