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.

Most people don't put on weight because of restaurants, they put on weight because of eating too much at home. Add in a more sedentary life where you're not moving about much, and it's not rocket science.

I definitely noticed the loss of incidental steps, if that makes sense. The school run alone is about 6000 both legs, though I don't do it every day.

My brother's friend blames lockdown for everything, but I don't know how since he went to work as usual, got everything done for him by his mum and dad as usual, went to his girlfriend's as usual. I suppose there were times when he couldn't go to the pub.

But no shielding, no home schooling, no having to get set up to work from home, no volunteering, no caring responsibilities, no children, no social isolation...

Just a vague feeling of grievance, really.

Not so good at the old critical thinking there are we OP? Good at quick, idiotic judgements though, so that’s something.

People blame everything for their weight gain, lockdown, having kids, what other people are doing, shops etc

I think a lot of people eat more (and/or more "bad food") when stressed, and covid was pretty fucking stressful.

For me, I lost weight, because I found covid-worry made my previous work-related worries seem trivial, so actually whilst I was pretty scared at times early on, once I got a good working from home set up arranged I was generally less stressed. I was also extremely lucky that both DH and I worked throughout so maintained income.

I also think having being outside restricted made me more keen to make the most of the times I was allowed out!

I totally appreciate though that people lead very different lives to me, and for a huge number trapped in homes with no gardens / worrying about how furlough money will stretch, a bit of extra junk food/tv time was probably a small boost where one was most definitely needed.

The booze didn't help, friend of mine used it as an excuse for day drinking, thought nothing of drinking 2 bottles of wine a day.

But that poster didn't mention amount of time out, she just said you could only leave once a day (which wasn't strictly true, but you were only allowed to leave the house for essential purposes, so going out multiple times a day for a run would probably have had your neighbours on the phone to the police.. ). You weren't allowed to leave for "recreational purposes" (e.g., a picnic) until May, when they relaxed the rules - I remember thinking how ludicrous it was that our government were announcing we were allowed to picnic, and just how equally ludicrous it was that I was excited.

So if you were out having all day picnics prior to May of that first year, you were breaking the rules (in England at least).

I also lost weight but i can see why others put on weight.

Some areas are a lot less pleasant to walk around than others.

Some houses are a lot nicer to be stuck in than others.

Some people had much more to do than others

People deal with stress in different ways.

The entire population gained 1/2 stone on average.

People had to stay in so weren't doing the general activity that burns the cals.

I put on weight at first but then lost more later as we were allowed to get outside.

@Apple41 any reason why you dropped a really triggering thread and then vanished?

I lost a lot of weight because my stress response is to not eat (don’t recommend it). I’m not sitting here in faux bafflement at the idea that other people have different stress responses.

I have 2 primary school children and worked the whole way through in healthcare (part time though I accept and my kids could go to school on my days in work (I do consider myself lucky for that). Husband worked full time (keyworker also). I did say in my post abit earlier walks on my days off. I appreciate not all young kids can walk miles and miles but we’ve walked with our kids since they were babies (obviously in buggy/carrier) and toddlers. So everyone had the chance to go out on their free days (like weekends if not working), explore the countryside or their local town or city.

As I said, I am completely understanding to the variety of different reasons people may have gained weight - stress probably the main reason. But those people saying you couldn’t go out as weren’t allowed are wrong and I honestly cant believe how many people believed this. The one good thing about Lockdown that me and my family and friends look back on is the walks (it saved our sanity!).

Well how smug are you!

I went from working in an office with my friends, having a great social life and rarely sitting still to working from home in a tiny flat, being alone for days on end, dealing with terrified and vulnerable parents and a depressed teenager in the blink of an eye.

If only I’d been like you and put the time to good use instead of using any means necessary just to keep going every day perhaps I wouldn’t be 2 stone heavier now.

Some people had no days off in lockdown. Many parents of small children I know were working seven days a week in order to keep on top of work without any childcare. You absolutely need to stop with “we did this so other people who didn’t were thick/lazy”

We filled our days with cooking lovely meals and having cocktails at 6. We drank more than we should have. Also got a puppy who couldn’t walk far for months….so usual hour long fast trot ro7 d the block in evening became a 15 minute amble while she discovered new smells, cats, bicycles (wow) , etc….

Everyone is different.
I lost weight because I was at home all the time and had time to cook proper meals rather than being constantly on the go, constantly stressed and picking up junk food on the way to and from events. I also lived in a country where you were allowed to go out for walks so I was out every single day.
But other people were stuck in small flats in cities where they weren't allowed to go out much - depends on which country they were in, everywhere was different.
There was nowt to do so a lot of people did start eating too much and were getting no exercise whatsoever.
Then you have all the people who were very stressed/distressed by the entire situation and started comfort eating to try to make themselves feel better.

This was a brilliant combination of triggers for a thread.

Every time, I am amazed how angry I still am about the 'oh I had so much free time' lockdown slackers.

I worked about 18 hours a day and barely saw my kids, who had to educate themselves poor things. And now the economy is fucked due to the amount of money we threw at the problem.

Weight gain or loss is the least of our issues but if it came to it, better to be fat at the start of a great depression, so I guess they win, not you.

Like the majority of the population…then yes absolutely. I hope eating our sandwiches in a field on our walk didn’t spread Covid to anyone 🙄 Luckily, unlike our government, we used our common sense. And yes you could go out to enjoy walks (thats exercise) so if it took 8 hours, that was upto you.

I totally understand lots of the reasons on this thread, however the messaging should always have been much more focused on keeping fit and active, getting out in fresh air etc. There are alot of the population that were furloughed/retired etc and they saw sitting on the sofa as the best option. We had a Health Secretary determined to scare the population to death (we now see that was his tactics in messages coming out).

Yes exactly. I put on 12 lbs during lock down. This was despite the fact that I ate exactly the same, I didn't drink and I had a daily walk.
During normal life I'm walking a lot - walk to school, to work, to shops, kids activities. I do about 12000 steps a day. However during lock down I'd only do about 5000 steps a day as the kids would moan during our daily walk. Therefore I piled on the weight despite not eating any more. Amazing to see the impact walking has on my weight.

I was working (part-time) and homeschooling but also managed to lose weight. For me it was because I found being in the office so stressful I'd snack my way through the day whereas at home that source of stress disappeared. Turned out the work itself wasn't stressful but the environment had been! I also ended up going on long walks to get in exercise and rediscovered the treadmill and various youtube videos. Because I wasn't going in the office, I didn't feel so tired and drained at the end of the day (I really like spending time alone!) so I was making better meals and not succumbing to takeout. I feel like my experience was definitely the exception rather than the rule though.

I’ve mentioned walks on this thread but only to correct those saying ‘we were not allowed out’. Michael Gove needed sacking just for that mistake.

I have total sympathy with your situation as we could enjoy walks around our jobs (as it saved my mental health). I cannot imagine the stress working those hours with kids.

Oh we ignored Michael Gove and went on as many long walks as we wanted. Some weekends we walked all day across London.

The picnics thing was harder as you would get bollocked by the police for sitting down. I got told sitting in a park with my partner (who I live with) "would spread covid" 🙄

ha! I broke the rules & went out multiple times a day for exercise. Always on my own, with household members or with my one friend who was home-sharing with abusive partner (which totally broke rules too, but fk that).

I also did/do more exercise since start of lockdown than before.

But people who followed the rules, yeah, of course, easy to get bored-anxious-fatter.

Also, Covid forced takeaways to deliver to our rural location for the first time ever!