Share your quarantine success stories!

I started at 218lbs at lockdown in March last year and am around 180lbs now. Goal is to get to 165lbs which is what my precontest weight was when I used to compete.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Not a huge loss, but I lost 9 pounds (and a pant size) and trying to lose 4-5 more. I wasn't technically overweight to begin with; however, I always had this kind of ultimate goal weight in the back of mind (lost about 35 pounds in 2012). I was pretty okay with myself, but when quarantine hit, I was eating and drinking more. I could see myself headed in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. So, since I had extra time on my hands, I decided to see if I could lose those last few pounds if I put in more concentrated effort.

I hopped back onto MFP with the idea of just tracking what I ate, not to reduce calories. Pretty soon, I was eating at a slight deficit to lose at a slow rate, and reached my goal in September! I'm seeing if I can get to about 5 pounds below that, but am more focused on body recomp. If I don't, oh well.

Well when COVID hit last March I was in the mind set that if I was going to die, I was going to die happy. I started eating a pint of Ben & Jerry ice cream (my all time favorite) about 3 to 4 times a week each night. Needless to say I started gaining and gaining. I gained so much that I was using a cane to walk and knew any day that I would be progressing to a walker. I was miserable. I had an appointment with my Orthopedic surgeon on 7/16/20, for evaluation for double knee replacements. After he weighed me, 319 lbs., he told me he would not do any surgery on me until I lost 100 lbs., and I better hurry up because he was thinking of retiring. I was shocked, because I did not know I weighed that much. 7 months later I weighed myself this morning and I am now at 232 lbs. I feel better and my BFF told me she has not seen me so happy and full of energy in a long time. I go the our local YMCA wellness center 6 days a week before I go into work in the morning. My next medical appointment is 4/14/21, but I feel so much better I don't think I will be contemplating having surgery now. I just want to see the surgeon's face when I show off my weight loss progress. It helps much better to have accountability and keeping track on MFP. Everyone stay safe out there and continued success on our new lifestyle journeys.

Feb. 2020 I was at 139.2 - 12.2 pounds away from my goal of losing 100 pounds. during the lock down I have lost the last 12.2 pounds and reached my goal weight. I managed to get my exercise in by walking around the neighborhood since my gym closed down. And started home cooking everything since all the restaurants were doing takeout and a lot of them were closed. I sleep better and feel 100% better even though I miss socializing and being with my friends.

I made up my mind not to gain over the holidays and the winter and covid. It was hard but so glad I did, 40 lbs off for 3 years. Everyone kept saying they were gaining weight blaiming covid so I decided I wont go to food for comfort, go to something, anything positive.

I had lost 80 pounds when lockdown hit and was terrified of putting it back on.

The first day of lockdown I committed to a goal of closing my exercise ring three times a day and cut calories to 1900, in an effor to maintain.

Ended up losing another 15, too much, and made a decision to add five back.

Black dog of weight gain nipping at my heels keeps me in the game.

With no work, I spent pretty much all of March and April 2020 watching TV from my bed. I ate non-stop and baked myself cookies and cakes every other day.

Then, when it was announced that fat people were much more likely to succumb to COVID, I paid attention. Here I was carrying an extra 100 lbs/7 stone and would become winded climbing a single flight of stairs. Uh oh!

So on May 1, I changed my ways. I dusted off my MFP app and got serious about diet and exercise. So far, I've lost 5 stone/70 lbs. I exercise at least 30 minutes most days. It sounds odd to say, but if it weren't for the pandemic, I'd probably still be mindlessly shoveling in empty calories with a completely sedentary lifestyle.

I think the pandemic divided the world. Instead of cup half full/half empty, it divided us into “I’ll sit back and take it” versus “I’m not letting this unfathomable thing rule me”.

Happy to see some of y’all are making the switch! 😘

We (UK) went into lockdown on 23rd March 2020 and I gained a few lbs (on top of what I was already trying to lose) In July I finally got serious about it, and after a few bumpy weeks at the start and again for holiday and Christmas have managed to lose 30lbs since the restart (and 50lbs in total), dropped nearly 2 clothes sizes and a whole bmi category (woo). Mainly through diet alone, and a bit of walking when the weather as been decent (rare in the UK), slowly just plodding my way through...

I had a LOT of anxiety going into this year due to the coronavirus and realizing that it was going toward general quarantine and not being able to see anyone. I have always been a runner but can get off-track very easily (if I get sick or the weather is bad or I just feel lazy....lol it's very easy for me to just not run on a day I had planned to and then all of a sudden it's been months since a run).

So --- I'm a midwesterner and we have wild weather but I remember last winter being really mild especially in Jan/Feb. And based on what was going on elsewhere in the world I figured, welp we're about to be locked down - might as well take advantage of the nice weather. So, luckily I also have a roommate (bc I would have gone crazy by now if I was living alone) and we started going on walks everyday it wasn't super cold or raining basically. Then I started interval running --- and then started focusing on increasing my mileage. I was 'overweight' but I feel looking back now that I really just felt like I needed to get back into running. It has been integral to my mental health this year. SO --- got up to running 5miles every other day over the summer/fall and got up to 6 miles in the fall (but added an additional rest day where I'd hike or walk instead). I then started having some knee pain that I think is associated with my piriformis/hip/IT band....something is messed up --- so I took a couple weeks off and started focusing on glute strengthening exercises but it still bothers me a little. I'm really just pushing off going to see a DO about it, though I know I should sooner rather than later. But at this time I'm able to run 4.5-5.5. miles with only a little bit of uncomfortableness.

I am now focused on meeting a mileage goal for the year I'v set myself - running a 5K with a friend in the beginning of fall and running a 10K+ with another friend sometime in the fall too. Wish me luck!

But, through the whole getting-back-into-running thing this year I've lost like 35lbs. I'm probably the smallest I've ever been in my adult life actually which is wild.

westrich20940 wrote: »

I had a LOT of anxiety going into this year due to the coronavirus and realizing that it was going toward general quarantine and not being able to see anyone. I have always been a runner but can get off-track very easily (if I get sick or the weather is bad or I just feel lazy....lol it's very easy for me to just not run on a day I had planned to and then all of a sudden it's been months since a run).

So --- I'm a midwesterner and we have wild weather but I remember last winter being really mild especially in Jan/Feb. And based on what was going on elsewhere in the world I figured, welp we're about to be locked down - might as well take advantage of the nice weather. So, luckily I also have a roommate (bc I would have gone crazy by now if I was living alone) and we started going on walks everyday it wasn't super cold or raining basically. Then I started interval running --- and then started focusing on increasing my mileage. I was 'overweight' but I feel looking back now that I really just felt like I needed to get back into running. It has been integral to my mental health this year. SO --- got up to running 5miles every other day over the summer/fall and got up to 6 miles in the fall (but added an additional rest day where I'd hike or walk instead). I then started having some knee pain that I think is associated with my piriformis/hip/IT band....something is messed up --- so I took a couple weeks off and started focusing on glute strengthening exercises but it still bothers me a little. I'm really just pushing off going to see a DO about it, though I know I should sooner rather than later. But at this time I'm able to run 4.5-5.5. miles with only a little bit of uncomfortableness.

I am now focused on meeting a mileage goal for the year I'v set myself - running a 5K with a friend in the beginning of fall and running a 10K+ with another friend sometime in the fall too. Wish me luck!

But, through the whole getting-back-into-running thing this year I've lost like 35lbs. I'm probably the smallest I've ever been in my adult life actually which is wild.

How many miles are on your shoes? My wife is a much more of a runner than I am and she will often complain that her back and knees are sore only to check her shoe miles on runkeeper and realize she's due for a new pair.

First part of 2020 (March - Sept) I gained about 30 lbs. Stopped working out completely July - November due to illness and ate whatever. Got back on track with diet and exercise in November - started with walking the dogs again every day, then in January started stationary bike again, then February started weights again. So far have lost 20 of the 30 I gained. So after falling off track first lockdown my success story started in second lockdown and is to be continued.

After putting on about 10 lbs in the previous 6 months, when the lockdown started it only took from March to June for me to add the COVID 19. When the Y reopened in July (with strict social distancing rules in place, I was literally the first one in the pool. Nine months later, I'm down 50 lbs - and 5 pounds lighter than I've been in my adult life

At the start of the lockdown last March I was already at home recovering from spine cancer so for me it was great to have more company as my two teens starting doing school at home and my eldest daughter came home from college for a few months. My goal for 2020 was to come off my Oxycodone and OxyContin (long acting and short acting). I went from 40mg long acting twice a day to tapering off to 10mg twice a day by the end of 2020. Jan/Feb of 2021 I finally came off ALL opioids and it was much easier than I anticipated. So started tracking and finally got back to the gym this week! I have already lost 5.5.lb in the past couple of weeks. I lost 30lbs the year before being diagnosed with cancer. I was at a healthy 140lb and a size 4 and weight training 3x a week. So I have gained the 30lb back during recovery and aim to get back to where I was this year, just even stronger!

Thank you FABRICWOMAN, I have a great husband and kids who have all given me so much support and love. Also excellent medical care for which I am extremely grateful.