^^ OP should dress up as a cheeseburger and french fries

I dated a nurse for almost 5years and I asked her about this once, as I had noticed the same thing when I met some of her co-workers. At least half were obese. The fact is that nurses and CNA's are the ones doing all the dirty work when it comes to patient care. There is no safe or proper way to lift a 300-plus pound person when cleaning bedsores, helping them out of bed, etc. This leads to lots of freak muscle and tendon injuries in the upper body, which can leave you injured and idle for a considerable amount of time. This means weight gain. It's quite common in this career field. Some hospitals have machines that assist in lifting people but most do not.

Regardless of physical disposition these people are doing a hard job. What do you do, I,A? No doubt you have a business making knit caps for chimpanzees or some other variation of Portland Bullshit (tm).

Fast food doesn't build muscle, the gym does.

I used to work in a hospital here in town, and I can say that Iceprez is right on the money with this one. I would also add that most nurses work 12 hour shifts, which makes scheduling gym time and other activities more difficult. Finally, you would be shocked to see what kind of food was generally available at hospitals until very recently. OHSU, just in the last half decade or so, has finally been adding some legitimately healthy options to the menu at the campus eateries. Hell, until just a couple of years ago, the healthiest options at the VA Hospital came from the Burger King on the first floor.

Of course, none of this explains every overweight person in the hospital, but I'd be willing to bet that these factors explain much of the deviation from the obesity rate in the population at large.

They're not preaching, they're working. Put in your own fucking IV line if you don't like it.

@Todd, well said. When I read your comment, I instantly wished that I had said that.

I've worked in medicine for over 20 years. An unscientific observation of mine is that all of us in this line of work have an addiction to offset the stress of taking care of people that are at their worst (because you don't end up in the ER, OR, ICU because you're having a good day). You'd be surprised what goes on: exercising to excess, eating too much, drugs, alcohol, religion. Usually a combination of these things.
So on the surface IA, they aren't a perfect projection of the healthy life that we are supposed to be examples of; but let's see how you are after years of suctioning brains out of ears from gunshot wounds to the head, taking care of dying babies, meth heads, transients and etc. You might just be a fatty too.- from a 155lb beer drinker that rides his bike too much.