Did COVID kick you into fitness?
EMc8800
Posts: 15 Member
Allot of people have started to keep fit, eat better and take up a healthy lifestyle because of COVID.
Mine was a mixture of COVID and an old photo…..what was yours?
Mine was a mixture of COVID and an old photo…..what was yours?
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Replies
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I gained a few pounds when Covid lockdowns began. Then Covid made me take a deep look at my health and weight and scared me into addressing it.5
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no. i joined MFP in 2012, got serious in 2015. lost 189 pounds. i actually gained back a few pounds during covid but it had nothing to do with covid, but rather a deep depression (also not covid related) but have since lost that.4
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Covid has simply been one more stress factor that caused me to eat.
I was doing really well in 2019, faithfully exercising, increasing my routine, etc. then Covid, along with some family issues ramped up stress and it's been a struggle ever since. But not 100% Covid related. I'm an emotional eater and when I foresee something coming up that's eating away on my mind, I transfer those feelings to strong 'need' of filling the feelings. 5 -
I have a history of postpartum depression, but when I had my daughter last year it was definitely the worst I had ever experienced it, and I think the circumstances surrounding the pandemic made it worse. While I wasn't totally isolated, I lacked a lot of the help and support I was used to, and my husband had a lot of pandemic-related stresses on his job too so it was harder for him to be there for me in the way that I needed. A therapist I had developed a great relationship with after the birth of another of my babies had retired, and the idea of searching for someone new to help by phone or Zoom made my anxiety skyrocket. So instead I went back to bad habits and ended up the heaviest I had ever been and was thoroughly miserable.
Sometime this past winter I realized that my thinking was definitely crooked and I was making things harder on myself than they needed to be. I still hate Zoom (I can accept it's useful in some contexts but I'm never going to use it for any kind of heavy or intense personal conversation) so I checked out of the library (once I could) a few self-help books I had seen referenced over and over again both about overeating and depression and anxiety. I set a firm bedtime for myself and dedicated reading time. I knew that my weight was intensifying the symptoms of my depression and while I couldn't control the circumstances of the world around me, I could control what I put in my mouth. I found MFP again and for the first time clicked on the forums so I could at least read and maybe post every once in a while. And I haven't shut up since.
At least for me, it wasn't COVID itself that spurred me to make those changes. Even when I was obese I had no other risk factors that made me especially concerned about personally contracting the disease, though I preferred not to and did want to do what's reasonable to prevent spread to people who are more vulnerable. But what did spur me into action was the realization that I was flirting with suicidal thinking and the way I was living was not helping me get or stay well. As I lose weight and eat well, and exercise, I find that I am much more mentally stable. Things that used to throw me off no longer do. I'm developing healthy coping strategies. I can help others. Bad news still makes me sad, but it doesn't overwhelm me with despair. These changes can help me weather a lot of bad times if I need to. So I'm very grateful for that.10 -
I think COVID has brought on stress and anxiety, if not through the virus itself but through other worries associated with it. I myself have a clearer mind, less depression and anxiety when I exercise and on top of that I look and feel better.
It’s hard motivating myself daily to hit the gym or the road, eat well and stay focussed but I feel that without it life would be allot more of a struggle.
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A cholesterol scare started the process in DEC2019, then COVID quarantines a few months later kept me going 🤷🏿♀️
🤓 Commencing a caffeine-fueled nerdy sidenote, replete with citations, in 3-2-1...There is very little media coverage on weight loss during the pandemic. Of what there is, the focus is on "post-pandemic weight loss," "losing the COVID 15" or similiar silly headlines which tend to lead to stories about people following trendy diet and/or exercise programs.
Meanwhile, according to a Harris Pool requested by the American Psychological Association's (APA)...On average, Gen Z adults who reported undesired weight gain since the start of the epidemic gained 28 pounds, while among millennials the average was 41 pounds.
Meanwhile, the 22% of Gen Z adults who reported undesired weight loss saw their weight drop by an average of 22 pounds, while the 22% of millennials who reported undesired weight loss saw their weight drop by 26 pounds on average.
Source : https://www.advisory.com/en/daily-briefing/2021/04/21/weight-gain
Note "undesired" is mentioned, for both weight loss and weight gain.
However the curious observation remains: weight gain during this time was more common and more pounds were put on whereas weight loss was possible yet fewer pounds were lost.
Hopefully, there will be more researchers who are curious too.
Curious enough to explore uncovering some potential reasons why and how a segment of the population was able to have desirable weight loss during this time.
One study, published last month, suggests "that high self-control is resilient to disruptive circumstances and can facilitate positive behavioral change even in adverse contexts."
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-021-02066-y
In fact, a citation in the above study leads to a 2011 publication titled "High trait self-control predicts positive health behaviors and success in weight loss."
^^In sum, for the folks who lost weight on purpose during the pandemic, it may have been due to a matter of you having self-control despite adversity.
In my case, I've always had a tendency to be the rational one in the room when the 💩 hits the fan. Weird? Yes. But it came in handy over the past few months and now I need to learn how to leverage these results for the long-term, not only for health but other areas of my life.5 -
I had already lost 30lbs when Covid hit, so Covid didn't get me into shape.
But I certainly was able to focus a lot more on myself and I had more time to exercise, since I was working from home full-time.
I think my weight loss journey gave me something to focus on during those stressful times. I'm down another 35lbs since March last year.
I'm actually worried about going back to the office on a more regular basis, that it will make my current exercise frequency harder to keep up.5 -
Working from home as a result of covid allowed me a work life balance I had never experienced before. I used to commute 15 hours a week and I've directly transferred these hours to exercise. Also, as I'm in the house all day I'm not eating out and have a much healthier diet. I think this is the first time in 30 years that I'm a healthy BMI.
I'm nervous of things returning to normal and slowly going back but I've had my work contract amended to be remote working. I hope as a society we keep some of the positives from Covid.
Also on a separate note I have found covid even through extensive lockdowns here in Ireland to be more social than previous - OK so it's not nights out but I meet friends far more regularly now for walks and other activities - previously we just didn't have the time.4 -
Allot of people have started to keep fit, eat better and take up a healthy lifestyle because of COVID.
Mine was a mixture of COVID and an old photo…..what was yours?
To the extent that COVID has people pursuing better health practices, that's great . . . but I sure see a lot of "joke" memes about getting fat, overeating because of stress, not fitting in one's work clothes after not having to go the office for months, drinking more alcohol, etc. That makes me think there's a counter-current to pursuing health during the pandemic, though I have know way to know the proportions of people involved.
I started to be active after cancer treatment in my mid-40s, after sedentary/overweight prior decades that probably contributed to my getting that cancer in the first place. After treatment, I realized that if I ever wanted to feel strong, energetic, healthy and happy again, I was going to have to work at it. From there, I gradually increased exercise activity, with big positive results for my quality of life within a few years. I became the near-mythical pretty-fit fat person: Low resting heart rate, good cardiovascular performance; even some age-group race medals.
I still stayed overweight/obese for another dozen years or so, until I was 59; at the point, I couldn't delude myself any longer that my very active exercise schedule was enough for health. My blood pressure was borderline high, my cholesterol/triglycerides very high, and then - as a sort of last straw to convince me - I had gallbladder adenomyomatosis, a thing that's neither stones nor sludge, but can be associated with gallbladder cancer. When they removed it, the pathology report revealed that it was an ugly, thickened thing, cholesterolized, with actual holes in it. (No malignancy, fortunately.)
By the time of the surgery, I'd started losing weight. That reinforced the need. In just under a year, O lost from class 1 obese to a healthy weight (at age 60), and have stayed at a healthy weight since (now 65), keeping about the same activity/exercise habits throughout.
Getting active was a big quality of life improvement. So was reaching a healthy weight. Doing either is better than neither IMO (and they're more distinct than many people believe, think). Doing both is pretty excellent, IMO - very worthwhile.
For me, the pandemic made it easier for me to lose a few pounds within the healthy range, because there were fewer restaurant and social temptations. That's about it.1 -
A cholesterol scare started the process in DEC2019, then COVID quarantines a few months later kept me going 🤷🏿♀️
🤓 Commencing a caffeine-fueled nerdy sidenote, replete with citations, in 3-2-1...There is very little media coverage on weight loss during the pandemic. Of what there is, the focus is on "post-pandemic weight loss," "losing the COVID 15" or similiar silly headlines which tend to lead to stories about people following trendy diet and/or exercise programs.
Meanwhile, according to a Harris Pool requested by the American Psychological Association's (APA)...On average, Gen Z adults who reported undesired weight gain since the start of the epidemic gained 28 pounds, while among millennials the average was 41 pounds.
Meanwhile, the 22% of Gen Z adults who reported undesired weight loss saw their weight drop by an average of 22 pounds, while the 22% of millennials who reported undesired weight loss saw their weight drop by 26 pounds on average.
Source : https://www.advisory.com/en/daily-briefing/2021/04/21/weight-gain
Note "undesired" is mentioned, for both weight loss and weight gain.
However the curious observation remains: weight gain during this time was more common and more pounds were put on whereas weight loss was possible yet fewer pounds were lost.
Hopefully, there will be more researchers who are curious too.
Curious enough to explore uncovering some potential reasons why and how a segment of the population was able to have desirable weight loss during this time.
One study, published last month, suggests "that high self-control is resilient to disruptive circumstances and can facilitate positive behavioral change even in adverse contexts."
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-021-02066-y
In fact, a citation in the above study leads to a 2011 publication titled "High trait self-control predicts positive health behaviors and success in weight loss."
^^In sum, for the folks who lost weight on purpose during the pandemic, it may have been due to a matter of you having self-control despite adversity.
In my case, I've always had a tendency to be the rational one in the room when the 💩 hits the fan. Weird? Yes. But it came in handy over the past few months and now I need to learn how to leverage these results for the long-term, not only for health but other areas of my life.
They mention Gen Z and Millennials; did they happen to say anything about Baby Boomers? If not, let me say I gained 30# last year. I felt terrible, in a lot of ways. I finally got back to it and lost 25, got to a challenging part with those last 5 ridiculous pounds and now stay on the straight and narrow 5-6 days a week, so haven't weighed myself in a couple of weeks, fearing the news. 
My head isn't in the best place ATM. But once I can get on top of that again, I'll be back to forward-ho! 5 -
A cholesterol scare started the process in DEC2019, then COVID quarantines a few months later kept me going 🤷🏿♀️
🤓 Commencing a caffeine-fueled nerdy sidenote, replete with citations, in 3-2-1...There is very little media coverage on weight loss during the pandemic. Of what there is, the focus is on "post-pandemic weight loss," "losing the COVID 15" or similiar silly headlines which tend to lead to stories about people following trendy diet and/or exercise programs.
Meanwhile, according to a Harris Pool requested by the American Psychological Association's (APA)...On average, Gen Z adults who reported undesired weight gain since the start of the epidemic gained 28 pounds, while among millennials the average was 41 pounds.
Meanwhile, the 22% of Gen Z adults who reported undesired weight loss saw their weight drop by an average of 22 pounds, while the 22% of millennials who reported undesired weight loss saw their weight drop by 26 pounds on average.
Source : https://www.advisory.com/en/daily-briefing/2021/04/21/weight-gain
Note "undesired" is mentioned, for both weight loss and weight gain.
However the curious observation remains: weight gain during this time was more common and more pounds were put on whereas weight loss was possible yet fewer pounds were lost.
Hopefully, there will be more researchers who are curious too.
Curious enough to explore uncovering some potential reasons why and how a segment of the population was able to have desirable weight loss during this time.
One study, published last month, suggests "that high self-control is resilient to disruptive circumstances and can facilitate positive behavioral change even in adverse contexts."
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-021-02066-y
In fact, a citation in the above study leads to a 2011 publication titled "High trait self-control predicts positive health behaviors and success in weight loss."
^^In sum, for the folks who lost weight on purpose during the pandemic, it may have been due to a matter of you having self-control despite adversity.
In my case, I've always had a tendency to be the rational one in the room when the 💩 hits the fan. Weird? Yes. But it came in handy over the past few months and now I need to learn how to leverage these results for the long-term, not only for health but other areas of my life.
They mention Gen Z and Millennials; did they happen to say anything about Baby Boomers? If not, let me say I gained 30# last year. I felt terrible, in a lot of ways. I finally got back to it and lost 25, got to a challenging part with those last 5 ridiculous pounds and now stay on the straight and narrow 5-6 days a week, so haven't weighed myself in a couple of weeks, fearing the news. My head isn't in the best place ATM. But once I can get on top of that again, I'll be back to forward-ho!
The last year was stressful for you beyond the pandemic though @ReenieHJ so perhaps a touch more grace for yourself and how much you've been there for your sister.
As for the Harris Poll, the APA published a 9-page PDF report that includes the following graphic...
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That's really interesting @MaltedTea, thank you for sharing that. And it looks like I scored higher than your average boomer.
But notice the difference with parents and essential workers. I've got to think so much of that, especially with essential workers, was stress driven eating.
(Way off topic here but A former daycare mom shared on FB the other day, a whole bunch of different foods and goodies she'd brought in to the ER department of the hospital where she works. Such a sweet thoughtful thing for her to do that I hope many people are doing now, in appreciation of our essential workers who have endured this crisis.)1 -
At the beginning of 2020, I was undergoing therapy for a binge eating and an overspending disorder. I had put myself in a nonpriofit run debt repayment plan and was going to go back into my clinic run obesity program. The obesity program closed down. In March the first covid cases in my state were less than an hour from my town. I made a list of the factors that resulted in a poor outcome if I got covid. I was over 55, obese, chronic kidney disease stage 4, suppressed immune system from kidney/pancreas transplant in 2009. Weight was the only one that I could change.
I-started severely restricting my food intake to the point that black spots were in front of my eyes and walking. Just 10 minutes at first cuz I was too out of breath to go further. Realized the restrictive eating was unsustainable and stumbled upon mfp. I had joined in 2015 but never used it. Now I set up a current profile, weighed and logged my food and read as much as I could on mfp. Stickied articles were the most helpful. I couldn’t relate to anything in the success forums. Started lifting some dumbbells that I had until the free recreation center reopened after started lifted restrictions in june. Kept on weighing and logging and exercising as best I could. Each morning would come and I would look in the mirror and state my 5 long term goals.
My long time boyfriend of 9 years died suddenly of covid in December. I didn’t use food to cope but quietly grieved the loss. Still stayed with mfp.
I have currently lost 81.4 pounds and maintained since April. Mfp featured my story in one of their victory blogs. That was hugely stressful and feelings of what if I’m an imposter and gain it all back surfaced. Plus I am very shy in real life and worried about people who may know me reading it.
To this day I do not see the size that I am relative to other people and vividly remember what it felt like to be so much heavier and how people treated me. Don’t think those feelings will ever go away.
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..what was yours?
Absolutely Covid!
Before Covid, I wasn't concerned about losing weight or becoming healthier. I couldn't climb a flight of stairs without becoming winded and needing a five minute rest. I wore a US size 24. For the first month of the shut down, I sat on the sofa and indulged in comfort foods, baking and eating entire cakes and batches of cookies.
As the facts about the scary new virus emerged, I realised that I was seriously at risk and might not survive an exposure. So I got serious about diet and exercise. At first, it was all I could manage to exercise for a mere 3 minutes.
15 months later, I've dropped 84 lbs/6 stone and can keep up a fast paced cardio workout for 40 minutes without laboured breathing. And I love exercising! My blood pressure is now 100/60 and I wear a US size 10-12.8 -
Nope, but what it DID do is have me focus on me when I could no longer be at my gym and train clients. I ended up losing 40lbs because I trained myself.
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
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I found fitness in 2016. I loved it and attended the gym pretty much daily. I had a PT for boxing pad work.
What I didn't have was a plan. I just did what I felt like. I knew I wanted to be able to do a push up and a pull up so I looked up exercises and did those. But in a random fashion, based on what I felt like on any particular day.
Lockdown hit me hard. I had a bit of exercise equipment at home - basically one 10kg kettlebell and miscellaneous resistance bands. I half-heartedly tried some of the zoom classes my gym put on. Didn't like them. So I stopped exercising and felt sorry for myself.
For a week.
I realised that I felt mentally SO much worse if I didn't exercise. I forced myself to do it every day. Sometimes I was literally in tears as I did it, because I hated lockdown so much. But after achieving the exercise session I felt better.
When the gyms reopened in July 2020 I took up a lifting course which I had just started when lockdown hit. I obtained weights for home (so far as I could, given the general shortages) and I signed up to a plan with the trainer. When the second lockdown hit in October I was well placed. I had a plan, I had zoom support, I had things to aim for. On the first day our gyms opened again in December 2020 I did my first full push up!
We were locked down again in early December and stayed locked down until April. But I had a plan, I had support, I had things to aim for. By then I had a barbell and a decent amount of weights.
My exercise habit has got so much more focused and rewarding due to Covid. I also drastically cut down my alcohol consumption following doing dry January in 2021.5 -
Being perfectly honest - I've always been a runner and have been still into it off and on through adulthood. I had a pretty bad spell of depression at one point that was sort of in fall/winter/spring. I absolutely love Fall weather and found myself getting really down on myself for not getting out and enjoying it instead of laying in bed.
When I first was hearing about Covid in China...I started getting really anxious and basically just thought -- it'll be here and we're gonna be stuck inside. The park near me stopped charging ppl and closed down some roads within the park to make more room for people getting outside (the regular trails were like the gym in January, lol). But when the 'stay in place' orders were going on in my neck of the country I said to myself that as long as the elements didn't make it horrible, I'd go outside for a walk every day so I wasn't just sitting inside all the time (I was already working from home). So, once I was back in a little shape walking everyday, I started adding in intervals of running and then kept going. Now I run a 10K 3-4x per week, in addition to walks around the neighborhood and hikes. Not only did I lose 30lbs, but my mental health is significantly better - and I find myself feeling capable of handing situations that previously - I don't think I would have been able to deal with well before. So now, my motivation for running/working out isn't necessarily even directly tied to my weight --- it's more tied to my mental health and my desire to make progress.
So...my job went remote in March --- and we came back in person that August (I work in a school...lots of schools stayed remote, mine went back in person with social distancing/masks/etc...with remote options for students). I'm short and 30lbs is visually significant on me and it was a little weird to come back to people who hadn't seen me for the entirety of my weight loss. I didn't like all that attention but it's passed now. I know I see a lot of other people talking about weight gain during covid, which is also super understandable but it was the opposite for me. I'm glad that at the start I knew I had to do something to combat the mental struggles that would come...I'm so much better for it. My biggest take away from the whole experience if I think specifically about how my physical health and mental health have gone this past 1.5 years is that I feel so much more *capable*. And it feels great.5 -
Nope, Covid added 15 extra pounds, but I'm am committed to losing them now and have made good progress. Plus, I needed to lose 15 pounds before Covid. So I have my work cut out for me. I just had to get into the right mindset and do it!4
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I lost weight and got into fitness in 2013 and was kicking *kitten* for years before COVID hit. It actually took me out of the game. Gyms closed, no cycling events or races, some of my favorite cycling paths and trails closed, etc. Put on about 20 Lbs.3
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I lost 75, and had reached goal, then COVID hit.
I was determined not to put it back on. Gym and yoga studio both closed, but I live adjacent to a great urban bicycle path.
I set a goal of turning my move rings 3x a day any way I could manage, and cut my calories down a couple hundred. I figured this would keep me on track.
I had already been training for the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage walking trip (cancelled, of course) but ended up walking and running even more - about ten or fifteen miles a day. It was glorious to get out of the house without a mask, and the few people on the trail, well, we all gave each other wide berths.
After a couple weeks, my much loved yoga studio introduced zoom classes. It was such a pleasure to continue classes with familiar instructors and other students.
We heard a local fitness warehouse had gotten new stock and I got a recumbent bike, instead of the Peleton type I went in looking for. I love that bike and use it every day.
I ended up losing an extra 25, which was too too much, so I’ve put a few back on, on purpose.
If we shut down again, my trainer, who owns our gym, has given keys to the handful of us she knows will “wipe every damn thing” so we can continue to use the gym.8
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