How I Finally Fixed My “Business Travel Belly” After Years of Airport Food and Client Dinners
Most people think the reason business travelers gain belly fat is airport food or hotel meals. I thought that too… until a colleague explained what was actually happening to my metabolism after 40.
Written By
Kathy Evans
We’ve all been there.
Sitting in the back seat of an Uber after a long day of meetings, exhausted and uncomfortable, wishing you could just get back to your hotel room, slip into something more comfortable, and finally take a breath.
You got to the airport at the crack of dawn… grabbed coffee and a quick breakfast… ran through client meetings all afternoon… finished with a late dinner and maybe a glass of wine with executives… and by the end of the night your stomach is bloated.
So you quietly unbutton your blazer just a little bit so you can breathe.
Hi, my name is Kathy Evans, and I’m a regional sales rep who travels constantly for work.
For years, the nonstop travel completely wrecked my body, my energy, and my confidence.
People tend to romanticize business travel, but the reality is very different. Between the shitty diets, always looking for safe bathrooms, and the constant need to feel attractive and confident, it can really take a toll on you mentally.
I realized I wasn’t alone. Over the years I’ve run into a ton of women dealing with the same issues — even keeping notes of bathrooms to avoid awkward situations with clients, or restaurants with sleazy douchebags that try anything to get in your pants.
One of my close friends — someone I first met at a conference years ago — told me once:
“I spend my day on my butt in my car with no microwave, so I eat a lot of fast food.”
And honestly… that described my life too.
Another woman I’ve become close with told me once: “I travel often for work and have 10+ hour work days. That is what led me to gain 12+ pounds over the last 3-4 months.”
Once I turned 41, I started noticing something else. I kept asking myself how much longer I could really live this lifestyle. Eventually all this fast food and lack of rest was going to catch up to me. I was relying on coffee constantly, and my mental clarity just wasn’t as sharp as I wanted it to be.
I tried dieting, but trying to stick to a meal plan while traveling 50% of the time is hard. I mean, traveling with a cooler full of pre-made meals isn’t exactly convenient when you’re flying. And it wasn’t just the dieting part. I actually enjoyed the fast and easy meals because they fit my schedule… I just wished they were healthier, or that I didn’t feel like I needed to eat so frequently.
Eventually, I learned about something called thermogenic resistance.
At the time, I didn’t know any of that. I just knew traveling made it harder and harder to feel comfortable in my own clothes and in control of my day.
My mom — who spent years as a top saleswoman for a Fortune 500 company — used to say: “Most business travelers don’t gain weight at home… they gain it at the airport, in their hotel, or during back-to-back meetings.”
And looking back… she was absolutely right.
So what did I do to get rid of my belly fat while traveling?
The moment that really made me realize I needed a solution happened after a long client dinner one night.
We were heading back to the hotel in an Uber when I discreetly unbuttoned my blazer just so I could take a full breath.
One of the executives next to me — a guy who’d been on the road even longer than I had — noticed my discomfort and gave a knowing laugh. “The Business Travel Belly, right?”
I laughed it off, but inside I was thinking, yeah thanks dick for noticing. I felt like my body was failing me… and now people were actually noticing. “It’s not just the airport food, Kathy,” he said, his tone turning serious.
“I mean, it doesn’t help. But after 40 your body’s ‘burn switch’ basically gets stuck. My doctor calls it thermogenic resistance. All that stress and irregular sleep tells your metabolism to go into hibernation mode.”
He reached into his laptop bag and pulled out a small bottle. “I started taking this a few months ago. It’s called CitrusBurn™.
It’s not one of those jittery stimulants. It just nudges your system back into its natural fat-burning rhythm so you aren’t fighting your own biology every time you sit through a client lunch.” I was skeptical.
I’d tried the “miracle pills” before, and they usually just left me shaky with all the caffeine I already drink… then had me crashing by 3 PM. But as we were sitting there I realized something. He was in his mid-40s, constantly on the road like me… and somehow he always had more energy than anyone else on our team.
I’d never even seen him drink coffee.
And honestly… I’m always looking for an edge being a woman in a male-dominated workplace. So I figured if he was using it, I was at least going to look into it.
So I decided to try it. And let’s just say… that conversation in the Uber ended up being one of the most helpful travel tips I’ve ever gotten.
And it all happened because a colleague noticed me unbuttoning my blazer.
I remember the first week I started taking it while I was on the road. I started my day like normal — coffee, eggs, and toast. When lunch rolled around I thought about eating, but then I realized… I wasn’t even that hungry. For the first time in years I didn’t feel like I needed to snack between meetings.
I still had energy. I wasn’t hangry. And to be honest, I just felt more motivated. Only a few weeks later is when I started noticing the scale going down and my blazer fitting better. I wasn’t doing anything extra or removing anything from my lifestyle.
The thing that helped me the most was simply not feeling hungry all the time and being able to give presentations with 100% sincere confidence. If you travel for work and struggle with the same “business travel belly” I did, you can read more about the metabolism trick he showed me here.
