Dealing with stress during the pandemic has caused many Americans physical changes – some have gained unwanted weight, and others have lost weight unintentionally. The American Psychological Association’s Stress in America pandemic survey surveyed 3,013 adults in the US and found that the majority, 61%, said they experienced unwanted weight changes.
Forty-two percent of American adults said they had gained more weight than they intended, and that amount, according to them, averaged 29 pounds. Ten per cent said they had picked up more than £ 50. Weight gain leading to obesity can put people at higher risk for serious diseases due to coronavirus.
More women (45%) reported weight gain than men (39%), but men reported a higher average gain of 37 pounds, compared to women’s average of 22 pounds.
The study also outlined the data by age group and found that 48% of millennials reported weight gain. This group reported the highest weight gain of 41 pounds. Just over half of Gen Z adults reported unwanted weight gain, with an average gain of 28 pounds.
Dr Angela Fitch, vice president of the Society for Obesity Medicine, told CBS News she finds the numbers reported by millennials striking.
“As a specialist in obesity medicine … I certainly find it worrying,” Fitch said. “But you can see where that may be the case. I mean, it’s been a very challenging year on several levels.”
Fitch, a co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center, said she saw patients in the center struggling with weight due to the pandemic. “I have had a lot of patients say that they have gained weight, that I saw before the pandemic and that weight loss is going well,” Fitch told CBS News.
While self-reported surveys have often proven to be less accurate than studies in which researchers measure participants, other research is to track evidence of weight gain in the pandemic era. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that participants in a heart health study whose weight was monitored from February 1 to June 1, 2020, gained about 1.5 pounds a month after states imposed pardon orders last spring.
Fitch said that if further information backed up the self-report of the participants in the APA survey, and Americans really gained that many pounds, “it’s going to be an important issue for us in the United States.”
“I have not seen any data on this yet,” Fitch said. ‘So, I do not know if we can report anything better than this [survey]. “
The survey found that groups most affected by weight gain were among those who experienced additional challenges during the pandemic: parents and essential workers. About half of each group reported unwanted weight gain, while parents reported an average increase of 36 pounds and essential workers an average increase of 38 pounds.
“We have seen many of our patients who are nurses who express it quite a bit, that they have gained weight due to the stress and because it is difficult to eat in the hospital now – take off your mask to drink, to eat, “It’s a challenging situation. It means you may not be able to eat so healthy or skip meals and then eat more in one sitting,” Fitch said.
The survey also found that 18% of participants reported unwanted weight loss, shed an average of £ 26.
Weight changes were not the only problem reported in the survey. Many people also said that they experience unwanted changes in sleep patterns and increased alcohol use. Sixty-seven percent said they had more or less slept than expected since the pandemic began, and 23 percent drank more alcohol to deal with their stress.
Fitch added that drinking more alcohol definitely attributes to higher calorie intake. “That, being more at home, eating more out of stress and stress in itself is a known factor in weight gain and obesity,” she said.