COVID Weight Loss

bpotts44

Had Covid for 10 day course. So much nausea I really couldn't eat much. I lost 9 lbs in the 10 days. The fever alone was probably burning 1000 calories a day. I'm starting to get my strength back. Do you think I should continue my calorie deficient now or go on a little diet break?

NorthCascades

Go on a diet break, eat lots of nutritious food. Just follow your appetite for a few days. Give you body a chance to absorb as much goodness as possible.

Sorry to hear what you went through. I'm also glad it wasn't worse!!

russellholtslander1

If the body loses too quickly, it usually bounces back some on it's own.

People tend to micro-manage things way too much, instead of simply letting things which happen, blend into the rest of what is happening.. just like you don't starve yourself to undo a bad meal.. you don't need to over-compensate for unexpected weight loss.. odds are that if you stick with what you WERE eating, you will lose slower, until your body heals itself... 9 lbs. in 10 days sounds like a lot, but in a month.. it will be averaged out more.

I would just continue on, and your body will do what it needs to. You may want to take it easy on exercise for a week or so, until you are back to 100%, but you need to decide.. maybe ask your doctor? You should be talking to one anyways. I doubt they would suggest gaining 9 lbs. if you are not at a maintenance healthy weight, but they might, and you should listen to them, instead of the different opinions you will get from people here.

Hope whatever you decide, you feel better soon, and everything gets back to normal soon.

kshama2001

I lost about 10 pounds in @ 2 weeks when I had Anaplasmosis (a tick-borne disease similar to Lyme.) I just continued my deficit.

I eased back into exercise and didn't push myself .

AnnPT77

This tweedle-de-doo about following your feelings and your body will tell you what you need to do? Well, it might. Or not.

Personally, I wouldn't roll the dice when it comes to recovery. I'd go for a little diet break. What's the worst that could happen from that, vs. what's the worst that could happen staying in a deficit in circumstances where it's possible you need more calories to recover?

Get good nutrition. Eat at maintenance. If you feel great after doing that for a week or two or so, time enough then to taper calorie intake back down again.

kshama2001

AnnPT77 wrote: »

This tweedle-de-doo about following your feelings and your body will tell you what you need to do? Well, it might. Or not.

Personally, I wouldn't roll the dice when it comes to recovery. I'd go for a little diet break. What's the worst that could happen from that, vs. what's the worst that could happen staying in a deficit in circumstances where it's possible you need more calories to recover?

Get good nutrition. Eat at maintenance. If you feel great after doing that for a week or two or so, time enough then to taper calorie intake back down again.

Well, going from undereating to the point where you are losing almost a pound a day to eating at maintenance can be a huge jump. I didn't log every day when I was sick, but one day I did and ate only 744 calories. So going to maintenance would have been over a 1000 calorie per day jump for me.

AnnPT77

kshama2001 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

This tweedle-de-doo about following your feelings and your body will tell you what you need to do? Well, it might. Or not.

Personally, I wouldn't roll the dice when it comes to recovery. I'd go for a little diet break. What's the worst that could happen from that, vs. what's the worst that could happen staying in a deficit in circumstances where it's possible you need more calories to recover?

Get good nutrition. Eat at maintenance. If you feel great after doing that for a week or two or so, time enough then to taper calorie intake back down again.

Well, going from undereating to the point where you are losing almost a pound a day to eating at maintenance can be a huge jump. I didn't log every day when I was sick, but one day I did and ate only 744 calories. So going to maintenance would have been over a 1000 calorie per day jump for me.

Phase up of volume/calories makes sense, if the deficit has been major: I wouldn't argue with that. What I'm arguing with is the idea that after being quite ill, calorie and nutrition deprived enough to lose 9 pounds, the right answer is to go back into a deficit unless the feelz override, not "overcompensate" by eating more. I suspect, as OP says, the disease resulted in some extra calorie expenditure. Healing takes calories and nutrition, too.

Heck, I even think it would be fine to use perceived hunger as a guide to phasing calories up to maintenance over a few days, rather than immediately eating to the point of feeling overstuffed (if that's how OP would feel). But advice to go back into a deficit, unless/until one feels bad? That's not a good recovery strategy from a major illness - one that's known to have potential long-term consequences - IMO.

(I also realize that some of the 9 pounds can have been dehydration, etc., rather than fat loss. Hard to tell.)

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jogman

I had a similar experience with COVID. I just went on a little break until I re-hydrated and got back to roughly where I was before (weight and exercise ability). Still ate nutritiously just more of it.