Most Americans Had Unwanted Weight Changes During Stress of Pandemic, Says Study

[babylonsister]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/most-americans-had-unwanted-weight-changes-during-stress-of-pandemic-says-study

Most Americans Had Unwanted Weight Changes During Stress of Pandemic, Says Study
IT’S NOT JUST YOU
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Updated Mar. 11, 2021 7:13AM ET /
Published Mar. 11, 2021 7:06AM ET

If you’ve struggled to cope during the past year, here’s some hard proof that you’re far from alone. The American Psychological Association released a new survey Thursday—a year to the day since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic—that illustrates the enormous stress everyone has been under, and its impact on our health. Some 61 percent of respondents to an online poll said their weight had fluctuated over the past year, with 42 percent saying they’d gained more weight than they wanted to—almost 30 pounds on average. Ten percent of respondents reported gains of more than 50 pounds. Nearly 25 percent of survey-takers said they’d been drinking more than usual during the pandemic—a figure that more than doubled to 52 percent among parents with children in early elementary school. “When stressors go up, there are changes in behavior that affect our bodies,” said Scott Bea, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic. “I think those effects are going to last for some time.”

[TexasTowelie]

1. Yes, I know that I did.

I lost about 10 pounds when my foot was amputated.

[2naSalit]

5. Holy cow!

That's a major alteration! How are you doing otherwise?

That's a lot to deal with.

I hope you are faring well!

[TexasTowelie]

10. Other than dealing with the social service agencies, I'm hanging in there.

I'm pretty much confined to the apartment since I'm on the second floor and I have to a good reason to go downstairs. There is a bus route that runs by the apartment Monday through Friday so I can get to the grocery store and convenience stores, but the bus service ends early. I can call for a paratransit bus if I need to get somewhere not on the bus route.

[multigraincracker]

8. My heart goes out to you.

Be sure to follow doctors order to a T. and get healthy.

[TexasTowelie]

14. Thank you.

I'm seeing the doctor regularly.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Well, when sitting around the house and the fridge is right there...

eating from boredom is to be expected.

And, you've got all those family members you never had to live so closely with before. I remember a study years ago that showed divorce spiked amongst the retired. When nobody went to work any more, they suddenly realized they really didn't like each other that much.

[Rorey]

4. I'm so glad I got divorced before the pandemic started

It had reached a point where I was sleeping in a separate room with my door barricaded. I'm sure I would be dead if we hadn't gotten divorced.

[multigraincracker]

12. Stay safe. I had to move out of state because of my divorce.

She was a cop and I was in fear for my life. No fun but I've made it.

[Rorey]

17. That's terrifying!

I'm so glad you're okay.

At this point, my ex-husband has nothing to gain by my demise. Back then he was the beneficiary of my life insurance, and he also would have gotten all of our assets. He's a very greedy person, and money has always meant more than people to him.

I don't really worry much these days. I have cameras and he knows it. I also live on a circle at the end of a short no-outlet street, and all of the neighbors would see him. And none of them like him anymore.

He got to enjoy my family for 25 years, and now not one of them will have anything to do with him. So now he has money, but no family. Just a miserable life in my opinion.

Side note: He voted for trump.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. That's terrifying. And much too common.

[Rorey]

18. I would like to say that his personality changed

But looking back at our lives together, I am more inclined to believe that he was always evil inside and I was just stupid enough to believe that he would not be evil to *me*.

[Rorey]

3. It has been awful!

I've always used distraction in place of will-power. If I got cravings when I clearly wasn't hungry, I'd go visit someone or go shopping. Those things aren't options, so I go visit the refrigerator or the pantry.

[Hugin]

6. Yep, throw me on that heap.

30#! Yikes, not quite that bad.

Right after the stay-at-home orders came out a year ago I actually lost 20# over the next two months. Stress? Who knows. Gained that back plus 5# lost that and have maintained close to my pre-COVID weight.

What has been hitting me hard, though. Is a very real reduction in my activity level. I used to religiously do 5+ miles a day with upper body excursions every other day. Now, maybe 1 or 2 miles. I still do the ub, but, that never added or subtracted anything.

Y'know what they say, the big gear in weight management is your resting metabolic rate. Don't eat to exceed that. I've been trying.

[Rorey]

9. I do so well for the first part of the day

I've also been trying to stick to my rule of being done with food after five. It's that middle part of the day that is difficult, from about 11 a.m. until 3:30. Now that the weather is starting to get better I'm hoping to be able to get distracted by projects, rather than sitting on the sofa watching a movie every single day.

Two of my sons have done great through this thing because they're both addicted to working out, and they're competitive with each other. Both built home gyms in their garages at the beginning of this thing. I wish I could find a way to be more like them.

[Hugin]

22. I find the best means of weight control is talking about it constructively with others.

Sadly, that's also one of the most difficult forms of weight control to find.

What started me out on this whole process was thinking of what I eat as fuel. When we buy gas. (or in modern times charge up a car) We fill up the tank to what it will hold. (How many calories it takes to keep us alive for a period of time based on our metabolism/activity level) If we try to keep putting in gas after that point, it's only going to spill out on the ground. (or in the weight analogy, our body stores the additional calories as fat) A waste of gas and money. (and harmful to the environment, no?)

So, I start there. How many calories does it take to get through twenty-four hours? Well, conveniently enough, the FDA says for the average person that would be 2000. Recognizing that it's going to vary around that number based on if I'm daydreaming or cutting lumber from, let's say 1500 to 3000 calories/day. But, most of the time it's 2000.

Okay. I know how big the tank is. I know from reading the convenient labels how much each thing I eat contributes to what my tank will hold. But, I GET HUNGRY, DARN IT! So, for me, I find the best way to proceed is to eat small amounts of calorie contributing items several times during the day. A bit here and a bit there. Never exceeding my daily total.

DARN IT! I'M STILL HUNGRY! (because, I'm only daydreaming today and my stomach is accustomed to having a certain volume of food, but, I don't need the calories.) So, what I do is switch out some of my grazing which would contain calories with a few which contain much fewer to attain the volume and not gain the calories. There are many items which provide this. One of my favorites is pickles. They give a salty satisfaction and volume which is mostly water.

The real trick for me was teaching my stomach who was boss. It took around a month of pushing through and was a marathon. But, once I had achieved a consistent reduction in the volume of food my stomach was expecting the hunger cravings subsided and the pattern became second nature.

[2naSalit]

7. I gained weight...

but not a whole lot, just one size up for my jeans. I don't feel well when I gain more than ten pounds so I can usually find something else to distract me. I made up a rule for myself decades ago that says I can only eat when actually hungry but I have to eat when I am hungry. The good part is that I rarely eat junk food, I have unusual eating habits anyway but I'm rarely ill.

[Rorey]

16. I won't buy the worst things

I haven't had ice cream in a year because I live alone and have no will power. I also haven't had a potato chip in a year. I just can't have either in my house.

My problem is portion control. I'm really trying to work on preparing only what I should have, instead of enough for a couple of meals. If I can only make it more difficult to just grab something, I think I'll be okay.

[2naSalit]

20. I find that I do well...

When I establish little rules for myself to remind myself that I have to do certain things, like eat. I can forget to eat for up to two days, then I have a hunger attack and am then too hungry to cook. I try to keep something around that I can quickly consume to occupy my stomach while I prepare something more substantial. That snackish thing is often hummus and crackers or something I can nibble on for a few minutes while I figure out what to make for an actual meal. Sometimes I just nibble all day but there's a rule: has to be mostly fruit or veggies. I eat one meal a day on average, unless I'm going to do some kind of labor during the day then I'll have breakfast, so I try to make that somewhere in the later part of the day.

Since I finally found a place to live a couple years ago, I have been glued to the news, the pandemic made that even more intense. This Biden admin will take some getting used to, I have found so many things that I have neglected over the winter that I have plenty to do and the willpower to get them done. And it's only 51 days in!

[Phoenix61]

27. I buy ice cream by the pint.

The regular size container doesn’t last much longer than the pint. I splurge and eat it in one sitting but then it’s gone and I feel indulged.

[Rorey]

30. I LOVE ice cream!

I really miss it, but I just can't risk buying it. I mean, I'll literally eat it instead of a nutritious meal, so I just have to leave it in the store.

[greenjar_01]

11. Unwanted weight changes

That's one way to put it, I suppose.

[arlyellowdog]

13. Bless you, bless you

My millennial kids refuse to hear me bitch about my weight struggles because they don’t want their children to have body image problems. Damn it, if I cared how I looked I wouldn’t be cutting my own hair. I’m a 71 year old widow who keeps hearing that Covid loves the overweight, plus heart, etc. So today I cut out my last indulgence: Metamucil with sugar and got plain husks power. Thank you, I just needed to vent. The struggle is real.

[Rorey]

19. Yes, it's not about vanity

It's about feeling good. I know that I feel better when I keep my weight in check. I hope I can get to that point again soon.

I've decided that I'm going to get my first haircut in a year in a few weeks. I get my second dose of Pfizer on Monday.

I wonder how far out salons are making appointments these days. Gotta remember to call today.

[mopinko]

21. i finally started putting it back on. i lost 30 lbs last summer.

i had a crazy chain of events that all go back to the pandemic. trouble w neighbors who were trapped rats. they were passing the time by blowing off m100's. .
my hens not only stopped laying, half of them tore their feathers out.
and the maskholes. omg.

on top of horrible weather for farming, and various other bs. money issues directly caused by the plague.
yeah, i have not been fun to be around.

[Bettie]

23. Weight is not a measure of worth

nor is it a measure of morality.

We all got through this the best way we could.

[dsp3000]

24. I've been drinking way too much, gained too much weight. i'm not sure if its due to the pandemic

first time parent raising twins without much help from anyone, seeing my spouse go in and out of the hospital twice for mental health reasons then when we finally had them in daycare in jan 2020 only to have them be sick half of the time, and then the pandemic shut down daycare. we're really happy to have good jobs and they are healthy, but the stress of raising 2 year olds is destroying my mental and physical health.

[bullwinkle428]

25. My exercise addiction kept my eating addiction in check.

[Luciferous]

26. I gained 15 pounds at the start of the pandemic,

but now I've lost over 30. I would like to lose about 20 more but I'm trying to focus more on how I feel and not the number.

[luvs2sing]

28. For months, it seemed..

It was either too cold or too rainy to go out and walk, so I walked a constant path between the sofa and the kitchen. I only gained five pounds, thank metabolism, and I lost it as soon as I could get out and walk a few miles every morning. I didn’t go crazy with the baking like lots of folks did because it’s not unusual for me to bake in normal times. But I plowed through chips and pretzels and nuts..all those salty, crunchy, stress-eating favorites.

[Wicked Blue]

29. I call it the Trump Ten

and it's gotta go!

[AwakeAtLast]

31. Don't hate me

But I actually lost weight. Not as much eating on the run. Once school started back up, in person, my schedule was crazy and exhausting. I gained it back from too much drive thru quick meals.

January 7th I started having South Beach Diet delivered and I follow that, plus drinking 80-100 oz. of water a day. It takes the place of drive thru and I'm by myself at night because my husband and daughter work 2nd shift. It's all done for me! Haven't had soda, ice cream or fried food since then. I have one cheat food a month.

I've lost 18 pounds!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. I'm down about 35 pounds from last year.

Want to take off another 10 or so.

I was on a cruise last March, and was determined not to gain weight from all the food while on it. I was successful, came home after nearly three weeks at exactly the same weight as when I set out. But I still weighed more than I should, and so just cut way back starting in the summer. It feels very good.