Weight loss and Covid

[DavetheCat2001]

Having piled on a fair bit of weight over the last couple of years, a lot of which was down to poor MH and an unhealthy amount of alcohol consumption, I have cleaned up my act.

Kicked booze at the beginning of this year, started running again and cleaned up my diet.

All was going well until Covid hit me last weekend. I've obviously been isolating, but day 6 now and still v much positive.

So all my hard work building up my running stamina has had to stop.. gutted about this as I was beginning to see a real difference and felt my fitness coming back.

Anyway my question is, anyone out there with bloody Covid, who is still managing to lose weight by good diet alone? I am eating healthily.. not calorie counting as never have, but I kind of know what portion sizes work for me etc.

I do have some weights at home which I used to lift many moons ago, but am not feeling up to it at the moment with the Covid

Sorry this is so long and thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

Main thing to avoid is what I did, sitting on my couch sulking and eating all the chocolate. I've got straight back into running after and I have lost some speed but am still getting out consistently, just need to take it steadier until my exercise heart rate settles down

Cut out lunch and crap.

I've lost a stone in the last month by having a good breakfast of about 400 cals (porridge and banana)

Skip lunch - fast until about 6pm

Then eat a big tea of about 1000 cals

Nothing more.

A few treats at the weekend

I did a lot of jogging on the spot. Not as good as a treadmill but better than nothing. I also tried hard to eat less as I felt crap anyway. So soups, smoothies etc.

It's only 10 days and then you can get straight back to walking even if you don't feel ready to run yet. It took a while after my first illness to get back into running but when I had it the second time at no time at all.

You'll be back to it, this is just a blip.
I did have some chocolate while ill, and a share bag of crisps all to myself just to cheer myself up.

Feel better soon.

I totally get that having to self isolate is frustrating as it puts a stop to your exercise schedule, but honestly I completely sacked off the diet as well and ate what I wanted for comfort. My resting heart rate is still high a week after finishing my isolation period and exercising every day since then, so my body is obviously still under stress. I wouldn’t try to cut calories as well, instead just try and eat well and rest as much as you can so you feel up to getting back out there.

Be kind to yourself! This is just a blip. It happens. Yes you can lose weight with diet alone but it's not much fun in my experience. Try some light exercise. I really rate Lucy Wyndham Read's youtube videos. She has all sorts including some very short (3 minutes!) workouts. Lots of seven minute challenges and lots of indoor walking workouts. Once you feel up to it, she even has a running challenge:
www.lwrfitness.com/beginners-running-guide/

Setbacks are frustrating but you'll get there. Hope you feel better soon.

I've just finished my isolation after having covid. I was a bit poorly with it, so was not up for indoor workouts.
You won't really loose very much in the way of fitness in 10 days. Don't forget before a big race people taper right down to virtually nothing and don't get less fit in that time.

Having said that I went for my first post isolation run yesterday and it was tiring and I was going slow. I think this is because the body is still recovering and covid is a respiratory condition.

Diet is still 80% of weight loss so totally possible to loose weight without exercise. I'm just not sure that when you're ill it's the time to restrict - you need to look after yourself.

Thanks for all the posts, very interesting to read other peoples experiences.

I've actually been ok with keeping my diet healthy.. can't taste much anyway so chocolate would be wasted on me at the moment!

Look after yourself. Rest as much as you need to and eat healthy food. Don't stress about weight loss - that will come at some point. When you are ill you need to allow your body adequate resources to recover.

That said, Covid made me ravenous but also ramped up my calorie consumption so although I ate quite a bit (and treats as it was Christmas and I hadn't lost sense of taste) I did not actually put on weight.

What I did find was that it was pretty tough getting back to exercise - I got fatigue really badly during and afterwards. I've only felt back to normal in the last couple of weeks.

Hope you feel better soon.

Eat healthily, lots of it (no processed food or chocolate etc) and don't worry about calories while you're sick. There'll be plenty of time for that soon enough

Thanks for all the posts.

Just weighed myself and I have actually managed to lose 9lbs since January 1st.

My last alcoholic drink was NYE, took the majority of January to just focus on staying dry, then began addressing my diet towards the end of Jan. Realised I was mindlessly just eating whatever and whenever I wanted and very mindlessly.

Started running again in February, which was going well but Covid has buggered that for now.

I am still being careful to eat good food and not fall into the crisps/ cheese mindlessly.

So despite feeling rubbish with the Covid, am pleased with the progress.