Average person gained 29 pounds during the pandemic

Hi- I just saw this from CBS News. They did a survey, and say the average person reports that they have gained 29 pounds during the pandemic. I have gained some weight, but not that much. In the comments afterwards, lots of people said they lost weight because they quit going out to eat. I never went out to eat that much, so that does not affect me. I think people are more stressed out though, and when stressed out, they turn to food. Also most gyms are only partially opened. Here is the link to the article. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/most-am ... 44579.html

Went up 15 and am now down 20. At some point being unable to fit into a suit jacket on Zoom became problematic. Now that I'm down to an acceptable weight nobody's being that formal on Zoom anymore.

NFriday wrote:Hi- I just saw this from CBS News. They did a survey, and say the average person reports that they have gained 29 pounds during the pandemic. I have gained some weight, but not that much. In the comments afterwards, lots of people said they lost weight because they quit going out to eat. I never went out to eat that much, so that does not affect me. I think people are more stressed out though, and when stressed out, they turn to food. Also most gyms are only partially opened. Here is the link to the article. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/most-am ... 44579.html

29lbs on average seems like a lot and turns out thats the case.

The actual result is that of the 42% that answered that they gained more weight than they expected, 29lbs was the average gain. The median for this group was 15lbs, which lines up a little closer to what I'd expect.

While it's a smaller % of the surveyed group, I'm surprised at the results of the population with undesired weight loss. The average and median for this group was 26 and 12lbs respectively. That's fascinating to me.

spinynorman99 wrote:Went up 15 and am now down 20. At some point being unable to fit into a suit jacket on Zoom became problematic. Now that I'm down to an acceptable weight nobody's being that formal on Zoom anymore.

I found getting fully dressed every day kept things from getting out of hand. If I wore stretchy pants and nightgowns only, I would have likely gotten into trouble.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:I found getting fully dressed every day kept things from getting out of hand. If I wore stretchy pants and nightgowns only, I would have likely gotten into trouble.

This! I've never gone to the stretchy pants as I knew it would end badly, albeit comfortably. Jeans every day. If they started to get tight, I knew I needed to do something.

I began exercising, walking , and cooking my own meals and lost 81 pounds. Eliminating fast foods, fried foods, ice cream, sugar, and carbs definitely helped.

CSD

chicagostyledog wrote:I began exercising, walking , and cooking my own meals and lost 81 pounds. Eliminating fast foods, fried foods, ice cream, sugar, and carbs definitely helped.

CSD

I lost about half what you did (incidentally, congrats on that), and part of that loss was due to readjusting routines as a result of the pandemic: I went from eating restaurant food about four times every week to eating it once per week (if that). That alone accounted for much lower caloric intake. I also found myself thinking more about the food I ate at home, and I've radically reduced the amount of fried food, meat and sugar, because I believe I was eating too much of that (delicious) stuff.

Hi- You can still avoid restaurants and still have an awful diet. Granted if you quit eating in restaurants, you have a potential to have a much better diet, but there is still lots of stuff at the grocery store that is bad for you such as chips, pop, and cookies. Lots of people eat when they are stressed out.

I attended the Zoom session with Vivian Howard last night though, and she mentioned that where she lives there are lots of people that treat meat as a minor component in their diet, as opposed to the main component because it is too expensive otherwise. They also eat a lot of beans such as red beans and rice. I used to eat a lot of beans, and I need to do that again to see if I can lose some weight, and lower my cholesterol.

I wear a lot of sweat pants around the house, but when I go out, I put on a pair of jeans, but there is a pair of Levis that I got a couple of years ago, at the Hadassah resale shop in Deerfield, that I cannot fit in right now. I only paid $3 for them but still I don't want to have to buy more clothes.

I'm very much a stress non-eater, so I'm going the other direction

NFriday wrote: I used to eat a lot of beans, and I need to do that again to see if I can lose some weight, and lower my cholesterol.

Doc says I have a 17.5% chance of stroking out in next ten years unless I lower cholesterol, so I've re-learned to enjoy beans (not that I ever disliked them; I just used to eat other stuff I liked more). Rancho Gordo helps a lot by providing many unusual varieties.

I just checked, and the Tillamook ice cream that is free tomorrow is 55% fat, and so I think I will pass on that as well as the free donuts at Krispy Kreme. I pass on most of the free stuff at Jewel, because it is usually unhealthy. On one of the Facebook groups I post on, I also posted this article, and the moderator of the group said that she gained 10 pounds after the pandemic started, and then she had ankle surgery, back in December, and lied on the couch watching tv while she was recovering, and gained an additional 15 pounds.

AlekH wrote:I'm very much a stress non-eater, so I'm going the other direction

Same here. When I was really stressed about it (last year, starting around this time), I lost around 20 pounds in a month and a half. Almost literally, the only thing I ate for about six weeks was various Italian beefs that my wife went out to get. I was a mental wreck, and that and beer/wine got me through the day. I only ate dinner. I couldn't eat breakfast or lunch.

Anyhow, I'm in a good place now and have been for months, so all that yuckiness is behind me. That said, with the mental recovery, the weight I lost came back, plus about ten pounds (so I did gain that 30, I guess, if we're starting at my low point), but has leveled off now ten pounds under the start of the pandemic, and will hopefully continue to slowly ease down a pound every couple of weeks. (I could use being down another 20.)

My plan is to go back to my original weight: 5 pounds, 11 ounces.

I smell BS--maybe a perfect example of 'fake news'...

I turned the pandemic--and a serious auto accident 2 weeks before lockdown--into a better approach. Eating cleaner, yoga, exercise, very little alcohol. I've only lost about 5 lbs but It feels like 20. Just hard to lose the gut at this age.

[Just realized WhyBeeSea already said almost everything I just typed up. Oops. Leaving this here in case anyone saw the original post with the actual statistics.]

spinynorman99 wrote:My plan is to go back to my original weight: 5 pounds, 11 ounces.

HA HA HA! Funniest thing I have read in a while.

Even though bars are not been fully open, alcohol consumption has gone up. They had an article in the Chicago Trib today about how Chicago was much more likely to fine restaurants and bars that violated COVID restrictions that than collar counties were. The other counties mostly looked the other way when they saw a bar or restaurant was fully open.

I definitely gained a little weight March-May. Way more alcohol, not going to the gym, and craving comfort foods. I tried running again, but the knees again told me that wasn't happening. Got things back together in the May/June time frame. Less alcohol, bought an eliptical for the house ( getting it upstairs and together was interesting) and settled into a better cooked food routine.

Truth be told, I am substantially overweight. Despite being in lockdown for over a year however, I've drooped 15 pounds.

Sure I drink as much booze or more than pre-pandemic, but good home cooking with its easier portion control appears to have had an effect. Plus, the bride and I go downstairs to exercise more regularly than when we went to our respective offices every morning.

Down 15# the first 6 months, up 15# the last six months.

I found the 29# claim to be dubious.

Wow, lots of yo yo dieters on this board. up/down.

Im pretty much the same weight (ie just as slightly overweight as always) but will admit my alcohol consumption is way up during the pandemic.

But "29 pounds per person" gained seems like a ridiculous stat what does that even mean? If a huge guy gained 56 pounds and a small woman gained 5 pounds would that even out ("average") to 29 pounds "per person" in their calculation?

I suspect that, in their calculations, if 2 huge guys gained 200 lb, 2 scrawny folks lost 10 lb each, and 3 average schmucks gained 9 lb each, they would call it an average of 29 lb.

Perhaps one of the few instances where the mode is the most telling statistic.

As WhyBeeSea said above, the article didn’t actually say that the average person gained 29 pounds.

They say 41% of the people in the study gained an average of 29 pounds