Yahoo News ‘Why I gained two stone in lockdown – and how I lost it’
Looking back at last year’s lockdown, it’s no great mystery why I put on nearly two stone. What’s surprising is that I didn’t put on more.
Like many others, we were trapped at home – wrestling work, childcare, homeschool, fear and uncertainty – and we were only allowed out of our houses for one hour a day. I’ll repeat; we were only allowed out of our houses for one hour a day. Isn’t that mad when we stop to think about that now?
It’s little wonder then that Public Health England estimate that nearly half of British adults gained weight during lockdown. In a new survey of 5,000 people, they found 40 per cent of us gained an average of half a stone. The authors of the survey posited “lockdown” and the “disruption of daily routine” as contributing factors.
My weight gain was pretty sudden. I went from being the kind of person who never stood still – if not working or exercising I was rushing about from place to place – to a housebound wreck of a woman, trying to hold it all together in a world I no longer recognised.
Toasted cheese sandwiches became our go-to lunch, sometimes served with a fried egg on top. In France they call this a croque madame, in Britain it’s known as “comfort eating”. There was also a lot of comfort drinking too, along with comfort baking and comfort snacking.
In the face of this calorific self-soothing, one hour outside of the house just didn’t cut it. I bought a lockdown bike and would occasionally go for an extremely liberating circuit of the park, or after a challenging day of homeschooling, I would put on my trainers and disappear for what was probably 60 per cent run and 40 per cent rage.
But most days, that hour of outside time was spent with the children who, at the ages of five and two, were blissfully unaware of time-constraints or calories. By the time we’d walked to the end of our road stopping to examine every ant, leaf and spider it would be time to head back again.
At the time I didn’t notice the weight gain; I don’t have any full length mirrors at home and wasn’t wearing anything with a waistband. I don’t feel too bad about it either; there are worse vices than comfort eating and for me, as for many others, I think it was a way of coping with a very difficult situation.
It was only when the world started to open up again last summer, and none of my nice clothes fitted me anymore, that I decided to do something about it. That was one motivating factor, but the main thing I was sick of was feeling tired all the time. I wanted the energy to chase my children around again, to not wake up and feel as if I needed to go straight back to bed and for each step to not feel like I was wading through treacle.
I subscribed to a health app called Noom which combines meal and weight logging apparatus with a digital coaching and a daily “syllabus” on food psychology and nutrition. I found it fascinating. I learnt about calorie density; the theory that calories are not created equal. I suppose it’s common sense that 200 calories of roast vegetables will fill you up more than 200 calories of dried fruit but I just hadn't thought about it before and it has completely changed the way I eat.
Another game-changer for me was reading Interval Weight Loss for Life by Dr Nick Fuller. He believes excess weight should come off slowly and steadily, essentially to “trick” your body into accepting the change. If you lose weight quickly, he writes, your body fights hard to get back to its “set point”, triggering hunger pangs and binge-eating in the process. I love this approach and have lost the two stone slowly and steadily over 10 months.
Some of his recommendations don’t work for me and my lifestyle: he advocates a large breakfast, a medium-sized lunch and a dinner no bigger than one of those tiny rice-bowls; a challenge for me when a family dinner is a focal and social part of my day. He also suggests eating your dinner, whatever it is, with chopsticks – to slow you down and to allow the food to register in your stomach before you reach for more. This was also a quirk too far for me.
But his most valuable piece of advice was that each meal should include one low-fat protein and one wholegrain starch, which has meant my meals have been both truly delicious (think roast chicken sandwiches, prawn curry with brown rice, scrambled eggs on German rye toast) and truly filling. I’ve learnt that good eating is about feeling satisfied rather than feeling hungry.
There have been hard times. I broke a bone in my foot during the November lockdown and not only could I not exercise, I realised how strong the impulse was to eat my way through boredom and anxiety. I’m an extrovert and, now most restrictions have been lifted, I want to drink in every bar and eat in every restaurant with all the people I’ve missed. I’ve got less time to plan and prepare meals, and so I need to be very disciplined about making time to exercise.
But I’m up and out, wearing the clothes I love again, and have the energy to play with my children in the way they deserve. To anyone else who gained weight in lockdown and wants to lose it, I’ll say this: give yourself credit for getting through lockdown, lose weight because it’s the right thing for you and lose weight in the right way for you too. After the most extraordinary year, it’s the very least you deserve.
