A study on lockdown weight gain

[Garlic]

There has been a lot of interesting speculation and observations during the last 6 months. Most of us know somebody who has gained a bunch of weight because they were stuck at home snacking for months. But one company has actually conducted a study on it and the results confirm what we all thought...

https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/lockdown-weight-gain

The data was published in July and already back then many people reported a 3.5KG (7.7lbs) gain since March!

Eating habits are some of the hardest to change, I bet most of those people have continued gaining since then. And now we are headed into winter, many will continue to gain, as it is the time of year people typically gain weight.

[extra_m13]

good stuff, sounds accurate, now i wish my lady keeps those 3.5 kg and adds another now that the holidays are coming, thanks for sharing

[slowburn]

I do wonder how the map they presented correlates with poverty.

[Garlic]

1 hour ago, slowburn said:

I do wonder how the map they presented correlates with poverty.

How do you think it correlates? More or less WG with poverty during lockdown?

[slowburn]

6 minutes ago, Gaelic Steve said:

How do you think it correlates? More or less WG with poverty during lockdown?

My suspicion is that poorer areas had higher weight gained. (I do think there's a correlation between poverty and larger size, and I'll go further and say that growing up poor may somewhat influence development of a desire to gain.) The areas nearer London showed less weight gained, but I'm not familiar enough with general poverty by region in the UK. 

[cheddar]

The correlation of obesity with poverty has a lot more to do with the limits it puts on education, access to good nutrition and healthcare (etc) than anything else. And all three of those things have been affected by the pandemic. I highly doubt that being poor makes you want to be fat, lol. Though if you are around people of a similar weight or higher, it will tend to become more socially acceptable.

[Garlic]

6 hours ago, slowburn said:

My suspicion is that poorer areas had higher weight gained. (I do think there's a correlation between poverty and larger size, and I'll go further and say that growing up poor may somewhat influence development of a desire to gain.) The areas nearer London showed less weight gained, but I'm not familiar enough with general poverty by region in the UK. 

I have to walk through a poor area to go shopping quite often and I see the same people. I find this mainly holds true with women in poor areas. I’ve seen a bunch of women gain tons this year while their boyfriends continue to walk around looking like beanpoles.

[Guest You have a belly]

12 hours ago, cheddar said:

The correlation of obesity with poverty has a lot more to do with the limits it puts on education, access to good nutrition and healthcare (etc) than anything else. And all three of those things have been affected by the pandemic. I highly doubt that being poor makes you want to be fat, lol. Though if you are around people of a similar weight or higher, it will tend to become more socially acceptable.

In low income areas of the UK and elsewhere it's hard to see a thin woman. I guess that goes a long way into normalising obesity. 

[cheddar]

Yep. There's a bucketload of academic research into the relationship between obesity and poverty. However, trying to discuss it in depth tends to end up being 'Too Political' for some people on the forum, so I'd rather dive into it, lol. Needless to say, there's a whole range of factors that make it nigh impossible for people with limited means to actively manage their diet & lifestyle, and consequently, their weight.

I don't want to celebrate that fact because for most of these people, it's unintentional and painful (either emotionally or in associated health impacts), without the pleasure that folks here might extract from that experience. Sure, some might experience an 'awakening' of preferences or such, but we know that ain't anywhere near the majority, lol. Probably the most important factor for this site is consent and people in this 'fat trap' can't, by and large, which kinda sucks.