“How Much Weight Did We Gain During Lockdowns? 2 Pounds a Month, Study Hints” (New York Times):
… a very small study using objective measures — weight measurements from Bluetooth-connected smart scales — suggests that adults under shelter-in-place orders gained more than half a pound every 10 days.
That translates to nearly two pounds a month, said Dr. Gregory M. Marcus, senior author of the research letter, published on Monday in the peer-reviewed JAMA Network Open. Americans who kept up their lockdown habits could easily have gained 20 pounds over the course of a year, he added.
Many of these people were losing weight before shelter-in-place orders were issued in their states, Dr. Marcus noted. “It’s reasonable to assume these individuals are more engaged with their health in general, and more disciplined and on top of things,” he said. “That suggests we could be underestimating — that this is the tip of the iceberg.”
Rachel Dolezal could be included as Black:
3.5 percent identified as Black or African-American; about 3 percent identified as Asian-American.
What was the precise mechanism by which we went from fat to obese?
An earlier study by U.C.S.F. researchers looked at daily step counts, as tracked by smartphones, among nearly half a million people in nearly 200 countries. The number of steps people took declined by 27 percent a month after the World Health Organization declared the pandemic.
The concern about exercise also extends to children, who are known to pack on unhealthy pounds during the summer recess months when they are not in school. The risk is even greater for Hispanic and Black children than for white children, said Andrew G. Rundle, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, author of a recent paper that expressed concern that school closings would exacerbate existing racial health disparities.
Of course, here in Maskachusetts schools for white children are generally open while schools for Black/Hispanic children are generally closed (see Competitive white suburban parents quite happy about school shutdown).
My own recent efforts to diet with hushpuppies at Southern Soul Barbeque, a short walk from KSSI (St. Simons Island, Georgia, which also has an on-field hotel).
But why walk or waddle when you can drive? This car from Avis had ample horsepower (485, which is more than 2X the engine in a Cirrus SR20) for accelerating even the heaviest American into a low Earth orbit.
(There is no surer way to feel stupid than driving a Dodge Charger around a sleepy golf resort! It might have been smarter to take a crew car from the FBO.)
The coronavirus will never make it through our layers of blubber!
Related:
- Faith in the Church of Shutdown not shaken by weight gain
- Weight Gain 4000 (South Park): “Follow your dream. You can reach your goals. I’m living proof.”
- If you’re virtuously vaccinated… one free donut per day for the rest of 2021 from Krispy Kreme
- Public health, American-style: Donuts at the vaccine clinic
In Soviet Union all publications always included a quote from communist leaders: “As comrade Lenin said, we must pay special attention to quality of manufactured goods…”. It’s quite amusing to see that every American publication nowadays also has mandatory references.
Especially from March 17 and May 31 2020 when virtually everything was shuttered in my state, I noticed that folks were walking at a more leisurely pace than when they were walking purposefully to a destination. The phrase “running to catch a bus” comes to mind as few folks were commuting, in a hurry to get to work, appt, etc.. So apart from the truly disciplined athletes, this left a lot of more sedentary folks by nature burning fewer calories when they were walking, as they were mostly walking in circles, or up & down the same road/route in an absented-minded way. Of course, there was the whole baking phenomenon during lockdown mentioned in the WSJ when “banana bread recipe” was at one point the most popular Google search. And this one was really good: https://www.food.com/recipe/best-banana-bread-2886 Almost as good as a Martha Stewart lemon-poppy seed pound cake recipe I used, too, during the first few months of COVID. Guilty as charged, but in my defense we had houseguests fleeing the plague in NYCity, staying with us in Delaware (following 14 day quarantine in a nearby condo) — until early June when Delaware’s numbers were considerably worse than the UWS of Manhattan, so they returned to the UWS after the riots there wrapped. The tea loaves and other baked goods were always shared my my millennial son and his gf but had that not been the case, the weight gain would have been more like the average American???
As of this morning, Angela Merkel notes that we’re “in a New Pandemic”:
https://www.barrons.com/news/we-are-in-a-new-pandemic-due-to-virus-variant-merkel-01616466604
“Essentially, we have a new virus…it is much deadlier, much more infectious and infectious for much longer,” the veteran chancellor said at a press conference in Berlin [then ducked behind the curtain, howling and cackling with joy.]
Now that everyone has packed on the pounds during lockdown, here comes Act II with a new, deadlier virus and more lockdowns.
Separately: you might have felt stupid, but that’s because you’re a sensible, modest Engineer type of person who thinks that well under 200 horsepower in a car is perfectly adequate to move someone down the road stuck in Uber-enhanced traffic (in the pre-pandemic times). But I celebrate this: it’s a $43,000+ car with 485 horsepower that weighs well north of 4,000 pounds and still manages 25 MPG on the highway on Car & Driver’s 75-mph “real world” economy loop. It goes from 0-60 in 3.8 seconds, and the interior has “…more rubberized materials than the set of an adult film” but is well-organized and functional, with plenty of storage space and “excellent” rear-seat legroom.
I remember back in the early 1980’s when renting a car from Avis (HQ: Parsippany, NJ) you could choose between various gas-guzzling boat anchors that struggled to get 20 MPG or do 0-60 in under 12 seconds, with any luxury or driving excitement. Or you got a little econobox wheezer that you could get out and run next to. This is progress!
And “sensible, modest Engineer type of person” isn’t meant as an insult. Alas, I spend all my recreational and utilitarian time behind the wheel driving an 11 year old Ford Escape Hybrid that develops under 200 horsepower, weighs about 3700 pounds and does 0-60 in about 10 seconds. I spend an inordinate amount of time and attention trying to game the hybrid system and regenerative braking to maintain >32 MPG or so.
Now that gas prices are inching back toward 2008 levels of $4 per gallon as people get out and drive more, it’s a good thing we’re seeing Act II of the New Pandemic to force new waves of lockdowns and tamp that demand back down.
I wonder how all the big, rosy economic growth forecasts for this year are going to pan out if we’re all locked down again a month from now?
And of course we now have this: “‘Slow Walkers’ at Higher Odds for Severe COVID-19” [1]. Thus, the more you lockup sociality, the deadlier you make COVID.
I’m waiting for a study that will show the dumbness effect on society — not just kids education — this lockdown has caused. All the free handouts and teachers refusing to attend classes will set a new standard of what we will expect from government and how teachers will response to “danger” in the future. I’m sure if I look it up, I will find that more teachers/students die from school shooting, school labs/workshops, sport activates, field trips, school events, etc. then from COVID.
[1] https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210317/slow-walkers-at-higher-odds-for-severe-covid-19
I am pretty much OK, at highest boundary of my weight range, maybe 10 lb heavier then pre-pandemic but I managed not to go over into sick territory by working out. Although I do not get significantly more sleep due to extra project that I started I feel much better then when I have to sit in a car and commute in traffic for several hours a day. Yes, I attribute extra 10 pounds to not having to rush, I used to on purpose include 300 yards straight uphill brisk walk in the daily rush
But yes, my resolution to go to 0 fat body weight remains just a resolution.
Speak for yourself…
In a year of partially-paid time off (Airline employee), the child-rearing, mountain biking, surfing, swimming road biking, hiking, running, and walking (most always with no face covering, maintaining the requisite distance is easy) resulted in it being tough to keep weight on.