To wonder why people blame lockdown when talking about weight gain

[Apple41]

Always been overweight however I lost weight during lockdown due to having time to excerise and cook well. I keep seeing people blame lockdown for their weight being higher and don't get it. Obviously gyms were closed but so were restuarants.

I put on loads of weight. I lost my job and we could only leave the house once a day. I drank way more than I had previously as there was nowhere to be.
DH didn’t put on weight but his fitness fell as he was doing 14 hours a day working online.

Got depressed and comfort ate.

I dont blame lockdown, but I do recall saying to husband all our treats to brighten the time were food/alcohol related. Loads of local food companies did deliveries etc.

I made more cakes/ treats with my children due to time. Our meals didn't really change it was the extras

I lost weight too, OP! (Turned out I had cancer.)

Your habits changed and it resulted in a change to your weight. Quite simple really

Because I sat inside and ate. I ate constantly.

I lost my job. DH lost his job. No income, stress through the roof. 2 kids to deal with (one neurodiverse). It was frankly hell inside our house . The idea of having 'loads of time' to meal plan and create amazing meals is a joke frankly.

Pretty sure had I been single, good income still coming in, I would have been meal planning and working out like a beast. But I wasn't. 2 stone weight gain.

I baked at home instead of going out to the cinema, see friends etc. I exercised both before and during lockdown, but lockdown meant in general I moved a lot less, no commute, no going out to meet people etc. That makes a difference over time. If you live in London you can easily be walking an hour a day just due to commute, plus going out to get lunch etc. That was gone.

You had more time. That's great for you.

I was juggling a job that was even more complex and demanding with trying to homeschool and look after 4 children. DH and I pretty much survived on 5 hours sleep a night for long stretches (his job was also incredibly demanding due to COVID)

I think a lot of people gained weight during lockdown but not because of lockdown.

They knew what they were doing and they knew what the consequence of overeating would be 🤷‍♂️

No shit Sherlock Its habit forming.

Meanwhile the abusive alchoholic underneath me gets a free pass. He can bang on his ceiling and call me a cunt through my flat floor and be classed as a vulnerable adult yet there is no record of anyone behaving like this while under the influence of a Krispy Kreme.

I lost a stone and a half during lockdown. I was walking much more on my one walk a day and much quicker than I usually walk as didn't have anything or anybody slowing me down.
I purposefully didn't bake much and I wasn't earning so all treats went out the window and only essentials were bought.
I didn't intend to lose weight but I did and it has all gone back on now thanks to bloody menopause 🙄

Because I worked in a company that saw demand soar during lockdown. I went from working 40 hours a week, being in a routine, getting breakfast and lunch at the office canteen and doing a 2km walk in my lunch break near the office to regularly doing 60+ hours a week, helping kids with school work and my usual exercise options closed. I ate anything that I could grab (like biscuits) to fit everything in.

This !

And being psychologically abused emotionally blackmailed and gaslighted by the Government is not conducive to having the huge mental strength it needs to lose weight.

People’s experiences of lockdown differed greatly. Working from home for me meant less exercise, there were very few options for getting out with the kids locally here because play parks were out of bounds, and I dealt with the massive stress of trying to work without childcare by mainlining toast and chocolate.

Even if not eating and drinking more, much less moving about, walking to and from public transport

Lots of people didn’t have spare time during covid. Lots of people aren’t overweight because of restaurants.

Working balls to the wall with no childcare in a really stressful front line job, couldn't go out/gym etc too exhausted to cook, lots of takeaway offers and comfort food

Anyone else remember the two young women who were hassled by police for meeting up for a WALK after getting coffee

I went from walking at least an hour a day during my commute + lunchtime walk + post work errands + walking to friends’ houses and going on trips etc and staying active, to being locked in a tiny bed sit 23 hours a day. And like others I was working more because demand stayed the same but everything took a lot longer to do. It was awful.

Because people are different to you

I lost weight during lockdown due to having time to excerise

What an odd thread. I neither lost weight nor gained it, but it's weird that you can't see how people's experience of lockdown will have varied massively. You had more time - loads of people had less, they were home schooling or managing small children and then working all evening to catch up for example. People were stressed, gyms were closed, people were erroneously made to believe that by law they could only leave the house once a day.

Because my commute went from a 1.5 mile walk, so 3 miles a day on my work days, to walking from my bedroom to the dining table.

Lots of people don’t officially do exercise, but manage 10k steps a day just from their normal lives. Most of that stopped.

I typically covered 5 miles a day between my commute and a massive office, which abruptly reduced to about 500 feet.
No team sports
Full time working with a 1 and 3 year old, so had fuck all time to cook fish fingers and chips let alone anything else
Stress eating
Boredom eating
Depression and anxiety fuelled eating

Do remember that many of us had distinctly different experiences of that time. Maybe scrape up a bit of empathy.