Is it possible to put on weight just simply because of this?

[User15394]

Basically I’ve always been very slim to the point that people have joked in the past that I don’t eat enough or I’m always dieting. I’ve literally never been on a diet and whilst I generally eat healthily, I also have biscuits daily and chocolate and so on. My diet has never changed.

So, since lockdown, I’ve not been doing my usual run to the train (0.5 miles so a tiny run!) and my brisk walk to the office from the other end train station...which is maybe a 15 minute brisk walk at most, with a wait in the middle for a short bus ride! Now though, I go for two short walks a week and the rest I sit on my arse working.

I’ve put on half a stone for the first time in my life. I’m not bothered visually as I’m not fat but starting to wonder if this really is the reason?! Surely it’s not? I don’t know where it’s come from!

How old are you? Most people put on weight in middle age due to change in hormones

If you're not burning the calories then it's being stored as fat so yes. It might not seem like a lot of exercise but if you add it up over the time you've been home working then I expect it amounts to quite a bit!

I hope so. I've put on over a stone. I was a cleaner before lockdown working 16 hours per week plus 2 days on campus.
Since lockdown #1 I've been sat on my arse but with say 3 days of moderate exercise. In a long working day at the computer I probably manage around 1500 steps. Despite cutting back on food the weight seems to be stuck however I am now working outside the home again and I somehow managed to hit 10000 steps today without even noticing. I am hoping this weight drops a bit as a result of my increased movement because I think the 80%diet and 20% exercise formula is bullshit in my situation!

Lockdown has been around 39 weeks since the start, so 273 days.
1lb of weight gain is 3500 excess calories, so 7lb is 24500. So, since March, you’d need to use 90ish calories less a day/ eat 90ish a day more to gain 7lb in weight. My Apple Watch would log around 120 calories for what you describe so, yes, it seems entirely feasible.

You probably do more walking than you think when you are working in the office so I would say yes that's the reason.

People will come on and say you can't outrun your fork and you'd need to be training hard all day to lose weight doing exercise alone etc etc. However, I used to live and work in Edinburgh. It's quite hilly there and I had to walk to work, maybe 35 mins each way, up the hill in the mornings, down in the evenings. I didn't change anything else, ate the same etc, and still lost quite a bit of weight. I was by far the slimmest I'd ever been. I find that, for me, being active every day makes a huge difference.

I'm short and like food. Being active is important for me to maintain a healthy weight without my permanent intake of food looking like the average idea of a low calorie diet. I gained towards half a stone March-Aug and have managed to get back to my usual zone since Sept. My exercise was undulating, and it was hard to replicate my normal activity levels through formal exercise.

The DCs school is within 5 minutes walk, and I'm a brisk walker. 2-3 bursts of that brisk walk each day have a surprising benefit, and I really missed it for 5.5 months.

Although my fitness classes are back off, keeping that s hool run going has meant that I haven't fained lockdown lard this time.

Most people sneak up on weight gain by a slight excess here and there and not compensating for Christmas or that holiday.

Of course! That's probably 200 cals that you've missed burning.

Yes it is. You've gone from 30-40 mins brisk walking a day to virtually nothing, plus you probably walk less at home than in an office, depending on how far it is at work to the kettle, toilet, colleagues you talk to etc.

Years ago, I moved from a job that required me to go up and down stairs multiple times a day to one in the same building without this particular task and I put on over half a stone in a few months. A teacher friend changed jobs and the same happened to her, just going from being on her feet all day to an office based role.

Do you have time during the working day to go for a walk/run most days? I've changed from commuting to WFH and I've made a point of using the nearly 90 mins I save each day from not driving to the office for going out for a decent walk of at least an hour as many days a week as I can.

Now that it's dark so much, I try to do this at lunchtime - I'm lucky that as long as I keep up with my work, I don't need to do set hours so no-one notices or minds if I'm not available in the middle of the day, but during the summer I might go out early in the morning or in the evening. During lockdown, I've probably stayed the same weight or even lost a couple of pounds, despite probably snacking and drinking more.

Maybe a step counter would also help? If you're doing office work and no walks or exercise at home, it will be depressingly low - 2000 to 3000 steps a day.

If you are used to briskly walking and can fit in a couple of miles a day, which should only take about half an hour, you can probably get nearly up to 10k steps per day.

Pre-lockdown, I used to get in 10-12k steps a day. During lockdown, its been , more like 2k a day. Thats a huge change. It definitely has an impact and I'm looking forward to getting back to normal.

I haven't put on weight, but I'm doing less activity, so I'm noticeably eating less & not losing weight. One thing or the other had to change.

If you burnt 200 extra calories doing that and you're also eating 200 extra calories a day (3 biscuits equivalent) then yes you can gain weight from that. You've probably just started eating an extra snack or two since being at home.

From experience, yes, it’s possible. Having always been very slim with no effort on my part, I started putting weight on when our dog became old and not in the best of health, and I was no longer doing 2 brisk walks with her every day. Though I was also of an age when people do often start putting weight on, so it may have been both.,

Of course.
And I love howmanys tidy little calculation.

I used to quickly walk over 15k a day easily. Now I'm around 12k. I've put on a couple of pounds and need to rein in my snacks.