A small study estimating the health consequences of prolonged on-site shelter requests amid the coronavirus pandemic suggested that Americans gained about £ 1.5 a month.
Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco published a research letter at the JAMA Network Open on Monday, 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 found that although weights were actually decreasing (losing weight) before the pandemic, they increased significantly as the shelter in order was established,” wrote Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at UCSF, in part to Fox News in a statement sent via email.
Nearly 8,000 weight measurements among the 269 participants revealed “steady weight gain at a rate of 0.27 kg every 10 days”, about 0.6 pounds, regardless of location or comorbidities. “These results translate into approximately 1.5 pounds of weight gain each month,” wrote the authors.
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“Our study was not equipped to determine the specific reasons why individuals experienced weight gain while on-site shelter, but it is reasonable to assume that much of this was related to a lack of physical activity and possibly more constant access to food while working on House.” Marcus continued, adding later, “We don’t realize the amount of exercise we do by simply going up the stairs to a meeting instead of clicking the next zoom link or crossing the street to grab a coffee instead of going down the hall to our kitchen. “
The corresponding author warned that the participants were not fully representative of the general population.
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They “were particularly interested in health and took the trouble to weigh themselves regularly – so it is possible that our findings substantially underestimate the magnitude of the real effects of weight gain among the general population,” wrote Marcus.
The researchers called for strategies to reduce weight gain, such as promoting healthy eating and ways to increase exercise as governments continue to respond to the pandemic. Marcus suggests creating a habit of physical exercise in your daily schedules, “treating this period of exercise as a commitment you can’t miss”.