Can We Please Stop Talking about Coronavirus and Weight Gain???

Many, many people are finding that in addition to everything they are scared of right now (a global pandemic, the demise of our economy, loss, etc…) they are really, really, really scared of gaining weight during this lockdown.

It says something about diet culture and society’s expectations and pressure on women to be thin that in the midst of this whole world crisis, women are terrified of weight gain. Diet culture is so pervasive and insidious it just creeps right in there, doesn’t it…

Weight gain in times of stress and crisis is a survival mechanism. In fact, much of the literature shows that people who have BMI’s that are in the “overweight” range tend to have better outcomes and survival rates in severe illnesses.

TRIGGER WARNING BELOW: DEATH AND WEIGHT

I have seen this first hand with both my mom and stepmom. I watched them both die very young and very skinny. And when they were sick, because they had so little body fat reserves to feed off of, they went down quickly when they were ill.

My grandmother on the other hand, who was more robust outlived her own daughter by ten years. She was just sturdy and hearty. Now, I’m not saying go out and gain tons of weight on purpose, what I am insinuating is though, that if you were to get ill from the virus, your outcome and healing might benefit from some weight on your body if you happen to be someone who is very thin.

I know that for me I’m not getting much activity and I’m snacking more during the day. And that’s okay. I don’t weigh myself but I’m assuming that I’ll put on some weight and that is fine. Right now, no one has to be a weight loss hero – we just have to care for ourselves and the people we love the best we can.

I want to put your mind at ease that a bit of weight gain during this time is really NOT A BIG DEAL and even could possibly really help you.

Here are a couple of articles that confirm this fact:

I hope that this is calming to some people around this fear of weight gain.

On another note, I decided to continue offering a big discount for those who are having financial issues due to the pandemic. I am maintaining this discount for the rest of 2020. I know that many people could use both the support and the structure. Just go to recoverfrombingeeating.com for details and discounts.

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