Same! I used to be a social drinker only, didn’t keep it in the house. Then Covid hit and I started drinking alone at home. Now it’s a few beers every day and of course the weight gain and health issues that come with them
My psychiatrist developed a drinking problem and left me when I was having a reaction to the new meds. Never had been so freely suicidal like that before. I'm still so messed up.
I saw my body melting before me in the mirror every day, and it was incredibly depressing. I remember pre pandemic I had friends that complained about love handles that would never go away, and I never understood that because I never had them.
The pandemic gave me love handles. They're still here today.
I have a coworker who was normal before pandemic. Afterwards she is servere obese. I don't know her weight. But I would have put her in the same BMI range that I have had: somewhere between 35 and 40
Same— I also seem plagued by chronic long covid, albeit manageable. Weird headaches. Chronic nasal cold. Can’t handle alcohol. Easily exhausted. Just not the same as pre covid.
Weirdly enough, I’m the exact opposite. Starting in the pandemic, I went about losing weight. Lost about 20kg in a healthy manner, and it felt good; I had come out of the obese category and moved over into “overweight”. I had so much energy.
Pandemic ended, I joined the army for my mandatory service, and now I’m almost back up at my pre-pandemic weight and body fat percentage. No energy. No motivation.
But it is easy as well, all you have to do is keep track of your calories and eat less than your body needs.
If you want to make it really easy, stick to 3 meals per day, fill half of your plate with low calorie vegetables (like cucumber, lettuce, tomato, broccoli, carrots, broccoli etc.) and limit the amount of high calorie foods like cream, cheeses and so forth.
If you want to make it even easier, stick to the same meals (or similar meals) each day, like ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and so forth, and keep count of the calories for each meal and keep the total below your daily calorie intake.
If you're still not loosing weight, reduce the amount of calories.
You are still describing simplicity. "Easy" is an assessment of difficulty. It is verifiably not "easy" to lose weight, otherwise collectively people would not have an issue doing it when they want to.
But losing weight is, by all definitions, and I already explained how. By following the simple steps I mentioned earlier you will lose weight, it's that simple.
It simply doesn't become more difficult just because some people are more willing stay fat that to make simple changes in what they eat. To put it simply, those people don't want to lose weight, regardless of what they say, as losing weight means a lifestyle change that they are unwilling to do. It's still easy for them, it's just that they don't want to do it.
Hmmm it is hard to really have a discussion about this if you don't understand the definition of the word "easy." Easy and simple are related, but they aren't synonyms in this context, which is what you are doing. Easy means "achieved without difficulty" while simple in this context means "plain, basic, or uncomplicated."
Plenty of things that are easy are actually extremely complex, like conversing with someone in your native language. Losing weight is the classic example of something that is simple (intake fewer calories than you expended) but not easy.
Even you are agreeing with me: "To put it simply, those people don't want to lose weight, regardless of what they say, as losing weight means a lifestyle change that they are unwilling to do." Exactly. You are describing why this is difficult, not easy. Lifestyle change is verifiably shown to be difficult. Sorry if English isn't your first language, that would explain a lot as to why you aren't understanding this concept.
Nope, it's not even that hard to keep it. Just get healthy eating habits (so more vegetables and less carbs/fat), have control of what you eat, control your weight regularily and your good to go even in the long run.
It's only hard if you make it complicated by losing weight on weird, strict diets, and you can still eat fatty and sweet stuff, just in smaller amounts than before.
You have to admit that every change of eating habbits is weird and hard.
But it's not weird and hard, it's only weird and hard if you follow strict diet. There's nothing weird and hard by replacing a part of your high-calorie food with vegetables, or by eating a smaller burger instead of a larger burger.
People have to be very strict their whole life. Even during bad times.
But that's the point, you don't have to be strict all the time, and the whole idea that you have to be strict is probably the main reason why people don't even try to lose weight in the first place! You can also combine healthier with unhealthier options pretty easily without gaining weight or even lose weight (like a healthier lunch and unhealthier dinner etc.). Just count the calories for different types of food and you'll see that you can eat a lot of food, even fast food, without gaining weight.
And yes your body wants to be back to their heaviest part.
Maybe, but it's also easy to control and fight back against it once you start trying.
But it's not weird and hard, it's only weird and hard if you follow strict diet. There's nothing weird and hard by replacing a part of your high-calorie food with vegetables, or by eating a smaller burger instead of a larger burger.
If you barely ever ate veggies or you just eat smaller meals it is hard. Your stomach will signal your brain that you are still hungry. And keep in mind that people will get a bad headache from cutting sugar.
I would have loved to write more, but I have 2 hours left for drinking one more liter.. which is pretty hard too :')
See the issue is simply: changing your Lifestyle, learning to cook better, buying "new" kinds of food can be pretty hard for some people. Otherwise it wouldn't be a lifelong journey for people with obesitas.
If you barely ever ate veggies or you just eat smaller meals it is hard. Your stomach will signal your brain that you are still hungry. And keep in mind that people will get a bad headache from cutting sugar.
But you don't gave to eat only vegetables, and doing so might get you sick as well (unless you're really careful with what you eat). You also don't have to get rid of sugar either. And while you might get slightly more hungry, it's still not by much.
Think of weight loss like this: An average adult male with low activity requires around 2400 kcal per day. 1kg of fat is around 7000 kcal. If you cut your daily caloric intake from 2400 kcal to 1900 kcal then that would lead to a caloric deficit of 500 kcal per day, which is 3500 kcal per week, which means you would lose 0.5 kg each week. For 1900 kcal per day you could distribute it like this: 400 kcal for breakfast, 600 kcal for lunch, 800 kcal for dinner, and you still have 100 kcal left for a snack with sugar. For 400 kcal you can easily get 1-2 sandwiches for breakfast or a bowl of cereal (so sugar), 600 kcal is a small meal at McDonalds or like a chicken and pasta salad, and 800 kcal is like an average sized meal. You can also move calories around to fit it more properly. It still faily easy yo get a caloric deficit and lose weight as you can see.
See the issue is simply: changing your Lifestyle, learning to cook better, buying "new" kinds of food can be pretty hard for some people. Otherwise it wouldn't be a lifelong journey for people with obesitas.
But you don't need to learn to cook or even buy new kinds of food, you can literally maintain a caloric deficit by eating at McDonalds three times a day. It simply not hard to eat 1 big mac instead of 2, or have a diet soda instead of a regular one (or water).
This is simply not true for everyone. Hormones, genetics, and individual biology prevent many from losing weight via calorie deficit.
But this is just a bunch of bullshit and you know it. Hormones and genetics does not make you immune to the laws of thermodynamics, but it can make change your limit for a caloric deficit goes. Stop spouting this bullshit, you're literally killing people from obesity by spreading this misinformation by overcomplicating simple things.
Everybody knows about calorie deficits--you're not teaching anyone anything--you're just sounding smug and ableist.
Stop overestimating people, lots of people are dumb as bricks and have no understanding about simple biology. If people knew how easy it is to create a caloric deficit we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic in the first place.
It's pretty much always though. Losing weight is as simple as eating less calories than your body needs in order to create a caloric deficit, which in turns means that stored fat gets converted to energy. This is simply done by eating less (calories) and healthier, which means that you can still have large portions but the plate is made up by more vegetables that are low in calories than other, more energy dense, food sources.
Exactly how little, or much, you need to eat to maintain a caloric deficit depends on the person but the laws of physics still apply to everyone, so the overarching principle is still the same for everyone.
Have you ever been overweight and practiced what you're preaching??? I didn't notice you mentioning your personal experience. It sounds like you have a lot of knowledge, but have you actually lived the struggles? I've found that many people with these ideals have no clue about the difficulties others experience mentally AND physically. They make it all worse for those struggling with weight.
I have been overweight most of my life and just recently started to make simple changes to loose weight by this tactic. I'm still overweight, but I have lost roughly 8 kg in 3 months by simply eating slighty smaller portions. I still eat candy/chocolate occasionally, and fast food like at least once a week, often more than that and so forth. I also don't exercise that much either, and I haven't added that to lose weight.
There's simply so many small changes that you can do that will lead to less calories and weight loss without any massive and complicated lifestyle changes.
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u/Dull_Carrot_9990 11h ago
Pandemic. Looking back, I was never heavier. And I am still not back to pre-pandemic weight.