To wonder why people blame lockdown when talking about weight gain

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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 used to walk to work every day and walk on my lunch break. Suddenly I was stuck in my house trying to juggle work and children, catching up on work while they were in bed so no time to exercise.

I lost 24lbs during lockdown as like you OP I had more time to exercise. I did couch to 5k too and having a target / the exercise to do gave me something to focus on. So many people gained as they sat on the sofa every night drinking alcohol and eating snacks.

I did all my steps in the living room too, Leslie Sansone is a great walk to get steps in for those stuck inside with kids. They can even join in too!!

Oh you had more time to exercise? Lucky you. Many people suddenly had less time to exercise. How is it that some people are too self-absorbed to understand that other people’s lives are different to theirs? I don’t get it.

I was in great shape during lockdown. Used that time to do a load of exercise at home and took up running. I did drink a lot in the evenings though, but didn’t really eat any more than usual.

“Why didn’t other people do what I did? Oh I’ll just assume they were thick and lazy, that’s easier than thinking hard thoughts”

Many parents were stressed with children off school so gained weight.

I was working In the pharma industry at the time so working very long hours. I live alone so my social life disappeared. I had no buddy to exercise with, so I lost the motivation. I drank too much

Are you joking?!
-Parents who normally had some free time to go to gym or workout now stuck at home trying to keep kids from going crazy with boredom
-Boredom and anxiety can both cause overeating
-Food habits shift when routines are broken.
-People who commute to work burn A LOT of calories, esp using public transport. Now they are stuck at home, moving very little, and probably eating more

It’s great you had more time to think about food and exercise. Lots of people didn’t. I hated lockdown, it was hell.

Absolutely. I find it almost unbelievable that, after more than 3 years, some people still haven’t grasped that different people had vastly different experiences of lockdown. It’s very, very easy to understand. How thick/self-absorbed can you be?!

There's a real reluctance from some quarters to accept that. Some of it is stupidity, as you say, but I think there's also a dollop of denial in there at times.

I think a lot of people don’t like complicated things, it’s too hard. They reject that and want things to be simple.

In the job I was going up to lockdown, I often walked 5-10 miles a day. During lockdown I sat at my desk for 8-10 hrs a day, maybe more, and did site visits by FaceTime. Other time was spent home schooling. I was too exhausted to cook properly. Blasted tiers meant I really couldn't go very far to exercise (we are right on a county boundary, are were not strictly allowed to go in the "nice" direction as that is a different county).

As others have said, I didn't have time to exercise or meal plan. I was homeschooling 3 kids, breastfeeding a baby who was up 3 times in the night, working from 9pm until 1am to get my hours in (because I was "lucky" and my employer / study was flexible) and waking up each day disappointed I hadn't died in my (very little) sleep.

Frankly a bit of extra timber was the least of my issues 🙄

Because many other people’s experience of lockdown was different to yours. I am a very physically active person usually but during lockdown I had to spend 8 hours a day sitting at a table homeschooling 4 young children (being very young they needed an adult to homeschool them, they couldn’t do it independently). We went for our allowed once daily walk and I tried to do some exercise in the garden……… but I was nowhere near as able to be as active as usual. Plus the added stress of being struck inside with four very lively young children led to much more wine and snacking in the evenings than usual haha. I put on 2 stone in 2020/2021 and as soon as life went back to normal again I quickly lost it again.

Loss of routine
Poor mental health
Banned from going outside

It's not rocket science

Oh I dunno - perhaps because I live in a two bed flat with no garden, all exercise classes were closed, people were judging others for using local parks for exercise, I went from walking 3 miles a day on my commute to WFH and my job became insanely busy and stressful- in the first few months of covid we were working 18 hour days on a 24/7 shift.

There wasn't a whole lot of time for more exercise or healthy home cooking.

How is it hard to imagine how others experience might be different to yours..? I can think of so many factors which could lead to weight gain over the lockdown period (and equally for those who managed to gain time and create new habits, I can see how it would have been a great time for losing weight). This really isn’t a “how is that even possible” scenario tho. Some people will have had a hard time during the lockdowns. More sedentary, anxiety and depression increasing, juggling home schooling with home working, missing families etc etc. so many drivers of weight gain!

People had very different experiences of lockdown. I’m surprised you weren’t aware of this. Some people had loads of extra time while some people had more to than time allowed so didn’t have time to exercise. Some people were able to save while so people had significant financial worries and weren’t able to afford healthy food.

There's the obvious mathematics of weight gain (more energy in than out) but that ignores the psychology aspect. We are human beings with a head and a mind, not machines.
I worked for the NHS during covid. For the majority of that time I worked 1 on 1 or alone. I live alone. It was hard. 2 days before lockdown I had been attending boxing classes. They stopped. At work 4 times a day I would go to the canteen to buy a latte just to have some human interaction. I didn't have more free time. In the evening I would return home. I don't have a garden and my hobby/interest had gone. Around me friends family and colleagues were dieing. Id come home and flop. I ate differently and moved less.
People's experience were very different. I knew someone who renovated her home and gave the garden a make over. Lots of 'smug' couples. I also know people who mourned their dead and became mentally ill.
People tend to gain (or lose) weight when they're stressed. I don't see how hard that is to understand

That's lovely that you were able to do that. Some of us worked full time though, whilst trying to home school kids, had to use time at weekends to make up hours we'd lost during the week, and if we did go out for a walk we had to take young children with us who couldn't walk for miles and miles..

Mmm, the concept of comfort eating is pretty well known.

I didn't miss a single day of work during lockdown, had just started a high pressure intensive project which instantly moved to WFH. I spent so much time indoors working I developed a Vitamin D deficiency. Lost practically all daily activity of walking to work, around shops, at weekends etc.
I'd lost weight previously but it all came back plus an extra stone. Surely it's obvious some people had less time than others.

I did not realise until lockdown how much walking I did in my commute. Turns out 10-15k steps a day.

I was WFH and incredibly busy during lockdown so I did not have time to exercise instead

Usually I walk regularly - commute (walk to the station), school run, after school activities. At work I am up and down stairs between appointments. I will do 10-18k steps depending on the day. Working at home cuts that massively.

I would go for a walk before work/lunch time but DCs would ask to come and at 1 and 4, we didn't go far or fast!

Plus at work I am too busy to go to the shop, so eat what I packed. At home it takes a few seconds to grab a biscuit from the drawer!