Did you or your loved ones gain weight during the Covid epidemic?

I took the opportunity to get into better shape, shed 50+ pounds after buying home exercise equipment. Kid’s a teen so gained weight just by growing, spouse stayed pat.

No I’m down since 2015 and 2021 !

Getting my cortisol levels down, reducing stress, eliminating sugary stuff, exercise, taking the right kinds of vitamins, and lots of water enabled me to lose weight during the last 2 years.

Our youngest son did. He was still in high school. It was a very depressing time for him.

My husband and I actually got in better shape. We made a plan to hike or camp at all the state parks in our home state of Wisconsin. We camp and hike at least every other weekend from spring to fall.

Unfortunately our son didn’t want to go with us because of spotty Wi-Fi.

Some people definitely did. Stuck at home. No gym.
I might have gained a little, but probably nothing to note.

Lost about 20

Most of the adults in my family lost weight because of loss of appetite, but the two teens just keep getting taller and heavier and eating everything they can get their hands on.

I just chubbed up a bit more, but aside from stuff being tighter, I don’t really care that much.

I gained 20lb or so. I blame it on a job transition that turned me into an at home office jockey.

Sorry but I’ve actually lost a few. I’m now 7 stone (talking stone so it won’t look so bad)

I’m always teetering on the edge but have managed to keep fairly stable by pulling back for a few days after I’ve overindulged.

I actually lost ALOT of weight during covid. The reason is that it changed my habits, and I established new and better ones. I wasn’t at the office tempted to go out for junk food with coworkers. I was getting up later and had my own range of foods at home instead of getting lazy and grabbing muffins/pastries at the bakery near the office for breakfast.

Unfortunately, I regret to say that I broke those good habit and have regained about half of what I lost. DOH!

Lost about 40 lbs.

I had more time for exercise and less opportunity for eating out and junk food.

Doctor was thrilled.

I lost about 7 pounds within a few months of the initial “lockdown” doing nothing much different except not eating at restaurants. I stayed that lower weight about two years, which makes sense because about 6 months ago I started eating in restaurants more again, and the weight came right back.

My dad lost 20lbs, but he did change his diet to more whole foods and less carbs.

I know people who gained also. One friend of mine who was always very thin gained quite a bit. I was taken aback when I saw her after two years. She’s only about 5 ft tall, so 20 pounds on her would be like 30 on me. I always think that’s tough for shorter people, especially with the food portions in the US.

Sorry for second post, I just reread your entire Q.

I just saw a report about weight “set point” that when you gain weight your body gets used to that weight and your body wants to stay there. They talked about it like it’s a new idea, but I learned about it a good 30 years ago. I believe it!

My grandma used to say to me as a teen, don’t get heavy because it’s so hard to lose. She was over-fed as a girl, because her mother believed people in the upper classes were supposed to look well fed. That was the style at the time.

My grandmother in her 40’s lost 20 pounds and kept them off the rest of her life. She said it took three years of feeling deprived at the table for it to feel normal. She said she had to stop eating when she had eaten enough, rather than feeling completely full. She also pictured a skull and cross bones on desserts and other high calorie artery clogging foods.

Sadly I did. I had lost a total of 60-pounds in 2016–17 and kept it all off. Then, since lockdown, I gained about 20 back. Booo.

^^ I’ll take that cookie, mister!

@RayaHope: LOL

Okay, here but don’t tell anyone…

I’ve lost about 20 pounds the last two years but not because of COVID. Two surgeries and hospitalizations over a brain aneurysm and artery bypass die to a blood clot. Pain in the ass way to lose weight. Lol. I was in a deep sleep the other day and my wife freaked out, thought I had croaked when I didn’t respond when she called out to me. Getting old is for the birds.

Down since Covid. No social life (drinking/eating) was the main factor.

This was an interesting Q.

My conclusion from this thread is restaurants are shortening people’s lives in America and they could easily be a little healthier by simply not adding so much fat and serving smaller portions and I’m not talking about fast food, because fast food you can actually control your portion easier than full serve restaurants, and I’m pretty sure the typical meal I eat in a full serve restaurant is much more calories than when I east fast food.

Resturaunts aren’t interested in folks eating healthy @JLeslie. They serve what people want and fat and huge portions is it.
We are responsible for what we eat. Not the resturaunts or all you can eat places.

@JLeslie An easy way to deal with the large portions is to ask them to bring you a take home box when they deliver your food. Before you begin to eat, put half your meal in the box, and eat the other half in the restaurant.

When it’s available, I order off of the senior menu, and sometimes this means I don’t need a take home box.

^^^ or the kid’s menu.

@snowberry Most people don’t have the control. In my case my control comes and goes.

@JLeslie The Americans most prone to obesity are not eating in the kinds of restaurants that you patronize.

Restaurants are not the cause.
https://www.seacaa.org/post/the-link-between-poverty-and-obesity

I don’t think its restaurants either. some of it is behavior sure, but it’s mostly food that is available and affordable just happens to be calorically dense and nutritionally poor. It’s all high carb, high sugar and to a degree high fat. If you’re poor, especially in this inflation it’s hard to shop the perimeter of the grocery store and for many, you can just about forget fresh vegetables or lean meat from the butcher counter. You’re resigned to bulk packs of raman noodles, hot dogs, white bread, pasta, frozen potatoes and things like that.
Then there are the living conditions that poor people face. Without going into a lot of detail, it’s not very conducive to exercise for various reasons. There is the culture and behavior aspect that keeps this cycle going too. You can be born into a culture that teaches these unhealthy behaviors and also teaches behaviors that keep someone poor.

@canidmajor Your link implies cultural and social norms are more important than anything regarding obesity. I am not excluding availability of healthy unprocessed foods in minority communities as being a problem (I care about it as a social problem in general) but your link says men and children across all income levels basically have similar weight averages.

Plenty of middle class families eat primarily processed foods, and I would say the majority of the US eats in restaurants or eats prepared foods much more often now than 50 years ago.

Women being thinner in higher classes is probably partly social norms regarding vanity, including white women tending to want to look thinner and many minority women perceiving curvier as more desirable and more “normal” or “average” weight, because of what they see around them.

Food portions have increased, it’s a fact. When you were in your teens and twenties do you ever remember being served a portion like what the Cheesecake Factory serves? Now, at least Cheesecake Factory has a lunch menu and a lighter menu. I guess portions are also bigger at fast food too if you order the larger size, but full service restaurants don’t often have a choice of single or double hamburgers, it’s usually just the larger size.

If we exclude the poor and just look at the middle class, then what is causing their obesity? I care about the poor having access to healthy food, but they are only a portion of the obese people in America today. This link from the CDC might interest you, it has statistics for children who are overweight across ethnicity and income in the US.

You have railed against restaurant choices often in the past, @JLeslie, and claimed again and again to know what “most” people are ignorant of.
I am simply calling bullshit on your assumption that you are privy to the lifestyles, motivations, and circumstances of “most” people.
Don’t like restaurants? Don’t eat in them. It is unlikely that you are forced to do so.

And hijacking a Q about conditions during the pandemic to, once again, rant about restaurants, your dissatisfaction about them, and your disgust with fatness, is just a bit disingenuous.

And I’m out.

@canidmajor If you think I went off topic and that’s a terrible thing then why are you engaging with my initial comment about restaurants and even adding links? Your comment is about obesity in general, mine is about specific circumstances during covid, which is what the Q’s about.

@Blackwater_Park I think it’s more than just restaurants regarding Americans being overweight, I said as much. You’re dwelling on the poor like @canidmajor, a noble cause, but the middle-class eat a lot of that food too.

This Q is about gaining or losing during the pandemic, not weight problems in general. Some people specifically worked at losing weight during the first two covid years. Some people ate more and exercised less during those years. Some, like me, simply were eating in restaurants less and not much else was different.

@JLeslie I know I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again. The average American does not eat out at a restaurant enough for it to affect their weight. Even if they ate out once a week, which is a lot, it would not affect them. A person would have to eat out almost daily to make a difference.

@Jonsblond We can disagree. Plenty of people seem to agree with you. I do agree that once a week might not affect most people’s weight. I eat out once a week usually, and it’s probably an extra 500 calories a week.

This link says over 50% of Americans eat out once a week or more in a restaurant. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1085326/dining-out-habits-in-the-us/ this might not even be including take-out from restaurants. Do people count McDonald’s or Chili’s take-out when they answer these things?

I have friends who eat out every day and they are thin, they control themselves and what they order, it’s not impossible, and I wouldn’t be surprised if half of NYC eats restaurant food 5 days a week, and they are thin, but it’s not just me saying people typically eat more calories in restaurants, plenty of experts agree. What I don’t know for sure is if that influenced weight loss during covid.

I don’t understand why people don’t want to hear restaurant food usually has a ton of fat and calories and big portions. That’s simply reality regarding restaurant food, not something I made up and not opinion. Some people cook with just as much butter and oil at home, and serve huge portion, and so for them there’s very little difference.

I lost some weight during the shutdown and since. During the shutdown, was months at home without going in to work and that helped. When I was working, which was primarily in an office, it was breakfast, lunch, then sitting in the afternoon and being bored and hungry and eating some candy or fruit or whatever was available, and then dinner. Lunch was sometimes provided by the job, and that would be something luscious that I would never make at home. When I went back to work a few days a week, we worked until midday so I was not eating lunch at work.

On my “home” days, breakfast and lunch became one meal because it was later than the work day breakfast. I retired a year and a half ago and it’s still that way. I may drink coffee until noon and not eat breakfast, or eat breakfast and not lunch.

Lots of people around here were getting out and walking and doing nature hikes during the shutdown. I think that was the case all over. The news had lots of stories about people going out and enjoying parks and walks. I live in an area where there are lots of lakes and places to hike.

As far as restaurants, Lucky Guy can talk about how much even just a few hundred calories per week means as far as weight gain per year. He talks about that a lot (not restaurants, per se, but calories becoming pounds).

Most of us don’t need as much food as we think we do.

I didn’t gain or lose weight. I’m really lucky in that I stopped dieting when I was about 16 and never worry about my weight anymore. I’ve weighed roughly the same my whole adult life, give or take ~12 pounds. I believe I’m on a healthy weight at both levels. I’m not overly thin, and I also don’t carry much fat. Just a thin layer spread out evenly. For warmth! :)

I used to be really upset about some of my features. For example, at certain angles, I have a double chin. It’s only recently that I’ve realized that’s just the shape of my chin and the skin folds of my neck. I don’t need to worry about it, and no amount of starving myself would change my appearance. In fact, many (most?) undernourished people look similar, when photographed from a certain angle. Now I try to compare myself to my older dog. He’s a great weight, lean, sleek, and athletic. But he has an impressive “mane” of extra skin around his neck. For canines, the theory is that they’ve evolved to have excess skin folds around their trachea so they’re less likely to be killed in a fight. Maybe it’s the same for humans? In any case, I think it’s super cute in him, and I’m learning to accept myself more and more by thinking of doggie double chins.

It’s heartbreaking how many people fret about their perfectly healthy weight. When I was thirteen, I thought I was fat. Looking at pictures of myself now, that’s ridiculous. I was not a single pound overweight. Just steeped in diet culture :/

I recommend reading about intuitive eating to anyone not completely at ease with their body. I read “The F#&@ It Diet”, but there’s probably better ones too. These books teach you how to heal from disordered eating and what the biology of diets is. For example, @RayaHope: did you know that when you eat fewer calories than you burn, your body goes into a “famine mode” that makes it cling to calories?

@longgone That’s why I need to exercise even more to make sure that don’t happen! Some days I don’t even eat anything until late into the afternoon, so I won’t be hungry all day. I still have a lot of energy and love to keep moving.