Investment Banking bad for your health?

My $0.02 from a consulting point of view: you can lessen the impact but it will require strict discipline, which you apparently already have.

What has helped:

• Work out in the morning or during "lunch break"
• Keep your workouts as efficient and condensed as possible
• Systematically pick the healthiest/ best option depending on your diet or bulking/ cutting cycle - do not get tempted by comfort options
• Limit your caffeine/ energy drink/ sugar intake and stay well hydrated

It will be challenging but you can manage to maintain a decent shape. Keep it up!

It's a lot easier these days then back in my day. It's now acceptable to have a standing desk, so I've seen people do squats and lunges periodically just to stay in shape

Are you currently working or are you a student? if a student, get in the best shape of your life now while you have the time and schedule to.

Once you start working, sitting at a desk all day adjusting logos in PPT and copy pasting equations in Excel does harm your fitness level, but as long as you wake up early enough to get a work out in, you should be OK - just get used to running off of less sleep, especially your first year(s).

Since you are already tracking, adjust your macros/calories according to your activity level. You'll likely be much much less active than you are able to be now.

Lack of sleep will cause a certain amount of real brain damage...enough lack of sleep will kill you.

So you tell me if it's bad for your health.

Take a 20 year old who reads 3 hours of physics a day for 30 years. By the time he’s 50 he’ll be the frikin genius at physics

Now change that analogy to doing very bad habits (I.e stress from IB, sitting, eating seamless). Over 1-2 years it is unlikely you’ll see the effects, but continue doing this and you have a higher chance of developing some sort of heart issue...

Again everyone here is 20-30 years old, talk to some 50 year olds who did IB and many of them have health issues. No surprise

Read these articles

https://nypost.com/2019/07/08/ex-kkr-dealmaker-alex-navab-53-died-while…

https://patch.com/connecticut/darien/jpmorgan-chase-vice-chairman-dies-…

Really depends on the group and what hours you have. I'm a planner, but I'd always make gym plans the day of (or hour of), since you never know what's going to pop up.

I used to be at a large Middle Market bank working in a debt group and had relatively chill hours (9:30am - 11pm most days). With those hours, I was able to work out in the morning before work or around dinner time (6pm/7pm) and it was perfect.

Now I'm at a top BB working in M&A and I have 0 time to myself (10am - 4am most days and occasional all nighters). I always aim to work out before work at 8am but when you're running on 4 hours of sleep, an extra hour of sleep goes a lot further than an hour of working out. I try to just fit in shitty 30 minute 1-muscle workouts whenever I can, and sometimes its mid day at like 3pm. It really sucks and I'm still trying to find the ideal time to work out... but my body is definitely a shadow of its former self. It's also extremely easy to indulge in comfort food when you're constantly stressed out. Sometimes I even recommend it since your mind releases endorphins when you eat that shit, and it helps fuel you on the desk. But, it's all up to you what you decide to do. Nothing anyone says here can really prepare you until you're actually in the moment... it's like "Everyone has a plan til they get punched in the face"...

This is all great perspective that I’ve been looking for for a while - thanks everyone.

Current student in the recruiting cycle. Obviously pace/lifestyle depends on group. However, are there some banks that have standing desks? More importantly, is it even socially acceptable? I’d love to be able to stand for parts of long weeks, but would be hesitant if it meant I would be “that” guy, especially as an analyst.

If you're willing to put your workouts above social stuff, you can still mostly live that way. What often happens though is after putting in back-to-back 80+ hour weeks and finally stumbling upon your first break in a long time (that rare weeknight where you left at a reasonable hour because a deal closed or something), you're going to feel the temptation to catch up with friends or do something else more chill than hitting the gym.

Former competitive rower here (10-12 sessions a week). Did two BB internships and ultimately decided against against banking/consulting for the lifestyle impact it had on me.

Physically, even though with great discipline, it was not feasible for me to be at the level I wanted to be (Ironmans seriously) whilst in those jobs.

On top of this, you get so little time out of the office, you are gonna want to spend it having a social life (and I felt an insane urge to blow off steam every week due to the stress)..

If it's an athlete's lifestyle that's important to you, you will be swimming heavily upstream in banking/consulting. I switched to tech and am currently in the best shape of my life (altho I make less than my fellow interns currently at MF PE or HFs). Happy with my decision.

Lazy and out of shape people use the hours as an excuse to get more out of shape. Eat well and workout in the AM and you'll be fine.

the worst part about investment bankers is you have an uncontrollable urge to tell everyone you're in investment banking and equate every single part of life to banking. take a quick tour around WSO, you'll find threads asking what're the best sunglasses, pants, socks, dildos, credit cards, watches, water bottles, vests, therapists, hitmen, ladyboy delivery services, and apps for "bankers." it's all so tired and douchey and unnecessary.

bankers are not a different species. some are good, some are douchey (just like literally every other job). there are 24 hours in a day, no more. make your choices and live with it. you choose to be a banker and work 15 hour days sometimes, well then no, you probably can't have a 2 hour workout and meal prep all evening.

Keep a desk cycle in your cube so you can pedal while you work. Maybe your shredded calves can make up for the binge drinking and long hours the job entails.

https://www.amazon.com/DeskCycle-Under-Exercise-Pedal-Exerciser/dp/B07B…

Any job in IB could affect that health routine you mention. You just have to find balance and routine. It also depends on who you work for.
Do your homework on the place in that regard before accepting to see if they're a company with a healthy office initiative.
I was extremely lucky, as the 1st firm I worked for had some intelligence in regards to work life balance/ health. There was an Equinox gym right outside the office door and management would be there on lunch, so after I saw that I felt comfortable going on my lunch break, although it would often mean staying at the office a bit later. I would meal prep and when I didn't bring food, I'd know where all the healthy places were so I could quickly grab something.
So what you're looking for is possible in IB at the right place and if you prep. Hoping with the health/ wellness initiative trickling through the country, it finds it's way as a norm in IB (may take a LONG time though).

I would suggest a morning routine like the following:

1) know when you need to be at work, let's say it's 9:30am

2) from that, count back 2.5 hours (or how much ever time you need for getting up, hitting the gym, shower, eat, commute to work); in my example it would be 7:00am for you to get up

3) from that, count back 5 or 6 hours (depends on how much sleep you need to function properly for work, while probably still feeling crappy) to get to your go-to-bed time, i.e. 1 or 2am

4) from that, count back what ever time you need from work to bed, and that's the time by which you would need to leave the office, in order to accommodate a productive gym session next morning

I have applied the above pretty much quite consistently throughout my 3 years in IB and PE (with 80-90 hour work weeks most of the time), and was able to keep a considerable amount of my pre-IB gains. Before I joined IB, I was a quite serious lifter, with 300/400/500 LBS on my bench/squat/deadlift. Unfortunately I couldn't keep that level of performance (although I barely lost any strength on the bench), but compared to my other IB colleagues, I still look like Steve Rogers from Avengers (body-wise). The good thing about the above mechanism is that it makes the whole thing rule-based, rather than will power and motivation-based, which in turn makes it easier for you to stick to it.

But at the same time, it also means that there will be weeks where you can barely hit the gym more than 1-2 times a week because you are working until late every day. But it still is 10x better than doing nothing and getting fat.

It also depends on how heavy you lift already. It goes without saying that you need more sleep to recover from sets of 400 LBS squats, than if you are doing 30 minutes of treadmill. You need to listen to and be honest with your body, when you are trying to follow a high-performance training routine while working in IB. Don't listen to the BS out there that say "you just need to hustle and push more" - running constantly on 5 hours of sleep or less, while lifting heavy in the gym, is the quickest way to the emergency department.

If the logistics make it easier for you to hit the gym in the evening while at work, then do that. I personally always found extremely annoying to have to skip a planned gym session in the evening because some urgent work stuff came up (which happens quite often). So I stick to the more predictable morning routines.

Forget about meal prep. It's completely idiotic for IB. All you can probably do is to spend 10 minutes making some scambled eggs in the morning, if at all.

And after I joined PE, things got a bit better on average. I find myself going to the gym 3-4 times a week most of the time. There are periods in PE that are worse than IB, but on average it's better. So you might also consider that.

I gained like 30-40 pounds while working in investment banking (from eating out for every meal, drinking everday after I left the office, and generally being miserable). It's really hard to eat healthy when you haven't slept well in days and the only thing you look forward to in life is a few beers and a burger at the end of the day. I had a gym membership but hardly ever went. I have since dropped all that weight after leaving investment banking.

During my exit interview I said "I just want a job where I get home early enough to cook and go to the gym everyday"

Investment banking was terrible for my physical and mental health :D

I'm in management consulting, but here's a few things that may be applicable to those in investment banking too.

Working out * Plan your workouts in the mornings before you hit the office, as it's the only few hours of the day you have almost full control on * Plan to do 2/3 morning sessions + around 2 in the weekend, alternating cardio & lifting, and you'll be more than fine * Optimize your sleep: try to have some quality sleep (invest in a really good mattress, make sure you're sleeping in the dark, set the room at a slightly chilled temperature, limit coffee intake in PM hours) while guaranteeing a minimum quantity (minimize your morning/evening routine time, don't spend 45mins on Instagram/FB while in bed, etc) * Develop a very opportunistic mindset around working out: you're getting into a profession where things will constantly change and very little is under your control, so if you have the opportunity to hit the gym (e.g., you're having an easy night and no 8:30am meetings scheduled tomorrow morning), take advantage of it cause your next session may be blown up by some unpredicted stuff * Prepare the gym bag and book the Uber/cab already the night before, it's a small trick that creates an obligation to work out the next morning (at least it works for me)

Nutrition

• Drink lots of water; it comes at no cost and no need to explain the benefits
• If possible, meal-prep during the weekend and bring your food for lunch
• If eating out, stick to healthy options (it's really easy to eat healthy nowadays, as long as you keep an eye on things): salads with no/little toppings, fish, chicken, low-processed carbs like wholewheat pasta / bread, all kinds of veggies, potatoes, sweet potatoes etc are all good options
• Stay away from snacks, substitute them with fruit (any kind of fruit will be infinitely better than processed snacks)
• Avoid desserts, fried stuff and highly processed carbs like normal pasta, pizza, etc
• Try to eat at normal times: avoid having lunch at 13:00 and dinner at 23/24:00 as I see many of my colleagues do, as it's very easy to binge-eat if you're starving
• Download "MyFitnessPal" on your iPhone to quickly check nutritional facts on foods, if you're unsure about something

It's unquestionably bad for your health for so many reasons.

• High-stress environment

• Long hours with less than necessary sleep (you may learn to cope, but you age)

• Lots of time in front of a computer

• As you get more senior, more wining and dining prospects, PE, management meeting/presentation dinners, closing dinners, firm outings...

• Too much time on airplanes in uncomfortable seats

VP/Director is probably the worst spot (of course I may say the same if I ever make MD). You end up starting a family, your kids are always up early, regardless of how late you are cranking on / reviewing a pitchbook or some stupid ad hoc analysis that was requested. You are traveling much more regularly, but still have to get plenty of work done with shitty plane and hotel WIFI.

So you learn to work in Ubers and Black Cars to/from the airport (not just talking calls, I'm talking drafting positioning b/c your junior bankers' are zombies and deepest thought of the day was "will this MD be in today?".

After a year of this, your wife hates you because she thinks she is jealous that you are sleeping in nice hotel beds without crying children. And she also realizes all of those vacations she dreamed of taking with all of that money you are banking are never going to materialize because you don't have time to plan them or take time off.

And so, although you may not age as much physically aside from lack of muscle toning, increased waist size and gray hair, inside, your body goes from feeling like a spry 30-year-old to a 60-year-old on meth addict in just a couple of years.