Not walking - telework - weight gain

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone! I have added 45 m of walking and 30-40 m of biking. I feel better already so hoping it works. One of the posters suggested walking 30 m 3 x day which really helped me think about how to make more movement manageable.

[Anonymous]

OP, I feel you. I am 50 and this year I suddenly gained weight around the middle, during COVID. Unfortunately "little things" add up over time when your metabolism slows.

50 minute walk plus walking around a large building = 300 or so calories at least.

My basal metabolic rate is under 1000 calories (just had it tested after gaining 8 lbs during COVID), which means that even with exercise (I do 45- 60 min cardio 4x/week plus weight training 2x) I can maintain at about 1400-1500 calories. If I want to lose weight slowly I have to cut out everything nice. I put the weight on during covid for two reasons. 1) wine practically every night and 2) making a 'real' dinner every night. Pre-covid, DH traveled or I worked late about 1/3 of the time, which meant that I often made something simple for the kids, and had a salad for myself. Now,we have had family dinner every night. The dinners are healthy, but I eat things like a piece of garlic bread or a serving of pasta, which I only did part of the time. I estimate I added about 1200 calories a week without thinking about it, which is why I gained weight. and its not like I eat a lot--I do coffee with whole milk and then two meals a day, generlaly no snacks, lunch is always an open face turkey avo sandwich or an egg scramble in tortiall, dinner is a protein, salad, veg and starch, reasonable servings. But the glass of wine, the occasional dessert adds up.

That, plus not just teleworking but not walking anywhere, really =--around cities, etc. I would frequently travel for work and end up on my feet for 14 hours, walking miles in NYC, grabbing a mealwhen I could. Those trips, even with fancy dinners thrown in, usually resulted in some weight loss. I also think, though I have no proof, that doing exercise once a day for 60 minutes versus multiple times a day, doesn't help. I am now trying to get up and do walks or even 10minutes of revving up my body a few times a day. When I sit for 10 hours I think its just slowing the already slow metabolism down.

so, I would add in exercise and actually track your calories fora while. You can also get a body comp test to determine your resting metabolism and go from there.