American scientists in a study involving over a million adults found that long-term quarantine and home isolation did not provoke an increase in waist circumference. Although people gained weight during this period, this increase is quite comparable to that which can be obtained at any other time.
It was logical to assume that long quarantines and self-isolation at home would provoke an increase in excess weight, as people began to move less. Many experts did not even doubt it. However, researchers from Rhode Island in the United States found that the average waist size of Americans during the period of these long quarantines, although it increased, was not at all stronger than in any other period of a similar duration. So, a year before the start of the pandemic, people gained weight, on average, 280g.
In the first year of the pandemic, which was accompanied by the most impressive duration of quarantines, this increase was an additional 90 g. The findings, tested on a huge population, disprove fears that quarantines may be the main reason for the worsening of the current crisis with obesity. Over the past decades, the proportion of people who are obese and overweight has risen sharply due to sedentary lifestyles and malnutrition.
In the UK last year, it was found that 40% of adults gained weight during the pandemic, on average, 3 kg. This was due not only to the fact that the British moved less, but also to the fact that they ate high-calorie and junk food stress. (READ MORE)