There was an article* in the NYT a week or so ago which pointed out something most of us already knew at an intuitive level — during all the shutdowns and quarantines over the past four months, many people have gained significant amounts of fat.
The so-called “quarantine 15” simply refers to the fact that a lot of us have let their fitness slide during the pandemic. Not only have many people gained fat, but I suspect many have also lost muscle and physical abilities as well. (Readers of my fitness book will know the importance of separating out “fat” and “muscle” from the typically sloppy discussion of “weight,” as discussed in Chapter 7.)
This is understandable: it’s impossible not to feel stressed in times such as these, and that has both direct effects on fat storage through biochemical responses like cortisol, as well as indirect effects — making us seek out comfort foods and feel less energetic, hampering physical activity. Quarantine is a natural time to want to just “veg out” and wait for the bad times to pass.
Unfortunately, the “bad times” are not going to pass any time soon. We should expect for lockdowns to last another year, at least. If we are lucky, they will be intermittent and geographically targeted, but it is entirely possible they will last for months at a time and be widespread.
Fortunately, though, there is no reason for the pandemic to negatively affect your fitness. In fact, in some ways quarantines and lockdowns can make things easier.
Even more fortunately, my book already lays out how you can stay fit through the pandemic. In the rest of this post I’ll simply point out three ways in which the information in it can help you stay fit and healthy even during a full lockdown or quarantine: exercise, food, and stress.
Home Exercise
In Chapter 13, I lay out a prototypical weekly exercise routine that can be done entirely at home. I originally did this in order to help beginners minimize the barriers associated with developing an exercise habit. But it turns out that this approach is good for people of any fitness level to stay fit when they can’t go to a gym or group class.
I suspect a lot of fit people who let things slide the last few months did so because they were in the habit of going to the gym to work out. And they didn’t have back-up plans for when that was no longer was an option.
If this applies to you, I encourage you to read Chapters 12 and 13 of my book and see how you can simulate your gym routines at home. Everyone — with the exception of advanced strength trainers — should be able to do so with virtually zero new expenses. Plus you’ll save time versus going to a gym.
Food Choices
Two of the most important strategies in my advice for those wanting to lose fat are made easier by the pandemic, at least theoretically. During a lockdown, it should be easier to (1) avoid processed food, and (2) control your environment.
In Chapters 9 & 10, I explain why processed food causes overeating and fat gain, and describe how preparing your own food is the only real remedy for those who find themselves over-reliant on processed food.
While processed food is just as available in grocery stores now as it ever was, restaurant fare (often as “processed” as anything) is a little harder to get than before. And when we are all forced to spend more time than usual in our homes, making your own food becomes a more accessible option.
Similarly, the advice I give in Chapter 11 to control your environment becomes somewhat easier as well when you are in lockdown; it also becomes even more important.
It becomes easier because you spend more time in the one place where truly do have control over the food that is available. It also becomes more important, because (a) you are spending more time than ever at home, and (b) the stresses associated with living through a pandemic — not to mention a slowly simmering civil war for those of us in the US — make it more likely you will want to reach for unhealthy, fat-inducing comfort food if it’s available.
Speaking of stress…
Stress Reduction
I discuss the importance of reducing stress in the last section of Chapter 18, and provide some tips and techniques for doing so in Chapter 19. These are part of my “intermediate” level fitness advice, but even if you don’t consider yourself at that level, it is worth reading those sections during such troubling times as these.
Learning some relaxing meditative techniques (as described in Chapter 19, and to some extent in this primer), can help you deal with stress. Likewise, the importance of getting good sleep becomes even more important when your world is upside-down.
But perhaps the most pandemic-relevant advice I give in Chapter 19 is to spend time in nature, phone off and relishing the present moment. Being in nature is both relaxing and health-promoting**. It’s also a great place to be in a pandemic, as you will encounter few humans beings, and never need to be close to them.
While simply sitting or taking a leisurely stroll will be helpful in this respect, you can also combine nature time with an exercise session: briskly hiking, trail jogging, doing some sprints. Heck, I sometimes do bodyweight exercises in nature — a well-placed, strong tree branch is perfect for pull-ups.
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It’s understandable if you have let your fitness go a bit during the first months of the pandemic, but it’s important to not allow this continue for too long. I don’t think the pandemics and lockdowns are ending any time soon, and — as laid out above — there are many ways in which each of us can turn the negatives associated with lockdowns and social distancing into positive spurs for growth.
Notes
*- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/nyregion/coronavirus-tailors-cleaners-weight-gain.html
**- see, for example, The Nature Fix.