A four-day working week could be the best thing for your waistline and your stress levels – and significantly reducing the burden of disease on health services, according to experts.
Countries with the longest working hours have the highest rates of obesity, even though people who clock-off first have unhealthier diets, new research has found.
Now experts are putting renewed pressure on the Government to introduce a four-day working week in the UK, claiming it could be a chance to slash rising obesity rates.
Stress, take-away culture and hours spent sitting down – which make it impossible to burn energy – have all been blamed for the nation’s bulging waistlines.
But critics say it’s not sustainable to mandate a four-day week for five day’s pay, resulting in lower incomes that many simply cannot afford to live on.
Others say it merely exemplifies the complaints in today’s society aimed predominantly at the ‘snowflake’ generation: lazy, unmotivated and overly sensitive.
So could a four-day week really boost productivity, slash rates of absenteeism and result in half a million fewer obese people in Britain?
Australian researchers believe so, after finding that reducing annual working hours by just 1 per cent lead to a 0.16 per cent fall in obesity rates.
Experts are calling for a four-day working week after study links long working hours to obesity
Around two thirds of adults in the UK are considered obese – increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, certain cancers and even premature death.
The study – presented at the European Congress on Obesity, Istanbul – compared the working patterns and rates of obesity in 33 OECD countries from 1990 to 2022.
It found that countries such as the US, Mexico and Colombia – which typically have longer working hours – have higher rates of obesity compared to Nordic countries, which have fewer working days.
Of these, the UK ranked ninth for obesity rates, but 24th in terms of working hours, with the average adult clocking 1,505 hours a year.
The authors, from the University of Queensland, concluded that lack of time for exercise and work-related stress could explain the trend.
Cutting working hours by 20 per cent – with a four-day week – then could mean around half a million fewer obese people in Britain, helping more people return to work.
‘There are many ways that working hours could promote obesity besides convenience foods, which are obviously significant — for example, long hours could promote the stress hormone cortisol, which is associated with weight gain,’ Dr Pradeepa Korale-Gedara explained.
‘When people have a more balanced life, they have less stress, they can focus on more nutritious food and engage in more physical activities.’
With jobs that were once considered physically demanding becoming increasingly mechanised, and many office workers spending the majority of their day sitting down behind screens, experts say streamlining the working week could help alleviate the burden of disease.
An estimated 200 companies across the UK have already adopted the condensed working pattern with more than 200,000 employees having switched to a four-day week since the pandemic, according to official figures.
James Reeves, a campaigner at the 4 Day Week Foundation said: ‘A full day week on full pay could slash Britain’s obesity levels by giving millions the time they need to ditch bad habits and make healthier choices.’
‘It’s essential that local and national governments seriously consider the tole that a shorter working week can play in improving the health of our communities.
‘The nine-to-five, five-day working week is 100 years old and we’re long over due an update.’
A number of studies support the campaigner’s calls, suggesting that cutting the working week by just one day could bust stress, improve sleep, boost physical activity – all of which should help people maintain a healthy weight – and even enhance productivity.
One study – published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour – which tracked nearly 3,000 employees across 141 companies found that after six months, employees reported better mental and physical health, fewer sleeping problems and lower work stress, resulting in fewer working days lost to sickness.
Some 90 per cent of companies involved continued some form of a four-day week after the study period ended, given how much it benefited society as a whole.
A recent German study took things a step further and tracked stress, activity and sleep using wearables rather than relying on participant questionnaires.
Results showed that those who worked just four days a week experienced significantly less stress, as measured by heart rate variability, than those working full-time.
Even during the weekend, these participants never reached the same stress levels as the control group.
They also exercised more and got around 40 minutes more sleep a week – both of which have been shown to help support weight management.
Earlier this year, a major UK analysis of over 27,000 adults’ found that people who sleep for less than seven hours a night are more likely to eat in response to stress.
Poor sleepers are also more likely to skip meals – triggering the body’s flight or fight response which increases cortisol production – and snack more often.
Publishing their findings in the journal Appetite, the researchers concluded that better sleep – facilitated by shorter working weeks – could help curb cravings for unhealthy foods.
But even proponents of the revised structure have their doubts that a four-day week will relieve pressure on employees.
‘One of the primary sources of burnout is overload,’ Professor Cal Newport, a computer scientists from Georgetown University told BBC Science Focus.
‘But moving to a four-day week only indirectly addresses this issue.
‘There is some anecdotal evidence that reducing the work week does reduce workloads somewhat, as these new constraints make it easier for people to justify saying no.
‘But the most effective solution would be to address workloads directly and have systems or rules in place to ensure no one ever has more than a reasonable limit of work on their plate.’
Others labelled the findings ‘dubious’, given that the UK is already among the ten countries with the lowest working hours in the study.
‘For most people, a four-day week would mean a lower income and we know that people on low incomes are more likely to be obese,’ Dr Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said.
More than 11 million sick notes were dished out by NHS staff in England last year – suggesting less of us are working full-time than ever, with no signs of the obesity epidemic coming to an end any time soon.
Policy leaders have been calling for the system to be overhauled to curb long-term absence for years, which it warns is stifling the economy and creating an unsustainable welfare bills.
A government spokesman added: ‘This government will not mandate a four-day work week for five days’ pay. But through the Employment Rights Act, we’re making it easier for flexible working requests to be accepted.’
