A small study estimating the health consequences of long-term shelter orders amid the coronavirus pandemic suggested that Americans gained about 1.5 pounds each month.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, on Monday published a research letter in the JAMA Network Open, based on the results of 269 participants in 37 states and Washington, DC in the Health eHeart Study. They analyzed data from participants’ Bluetooth scales, such as a Fitbit, to track weight measurements from February to June 2020.
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“We have found that, although weights were down (before losing weight) before the pandemic, it increased significantly when shelter took over instead of order,” Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at UCSF, wrote in part to Fox News in an email statement.
Nearly 8,000 weight measurements among the 269 participants revealed a steady weight gain of 0.27 kg every 10 days, about 0.6 pounds, regardless of location or comorbidities. “These results translate into about 1.5 pounds of weight gain each month,” authors wrote.
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“Our study was not equipped to determine the specific reasons why individuals experienced weight gain during their shelter, but it is reasonable to assume that much of it is related to a lack of physical activity plus possibly more constant access to food while they work at home, “Marcus went on to add,” We do not realize how much exercise we get from walking up the stairs to a meeting instead of clicking the following Zoom link or going for coffee across the street. instead of in the hallway to our kitchen. . “
The corresponding author warned that the participants are not fully representative of the general population.
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They ‘were particularly interested in health and made an effort to weigh themselves regularly – so it is possible that our findings significantly underestimate the magnitude of the actual weight gain effects among the general population’, Marcus wrote.
The researchers called for strategies to reduce weight gain, such as promoting healthy eating habits and ways to promote exercise, as governments continue their pandemic response. Marcus suggests building an exercise habit into daily schedules, and “treat the time to exercise like an appointment you can’t miss.”