There is no doubting that life in lock-down has disrupted all our lives in a massive way, and one of the biggest problems to emerge from this is weight gain. It is difficult to say just how widespread and exactly how much weight people have gained over the past year as there is little research confirming this at the moment. In a poll of more than 1,000 U.S. readers of WebMD, nearly half of the women and almost one-quarter of the men said they'd gained weight “due to COVID restrictions.” A separate poll of 900 international readers found more than half of men and about a third of women reporting weight gain. There has also been a stack of memes and posts circulating on social media using the term #quarantine15, indicating people have put on 15 pounds of weight during the lock-down! With all the gyms about to open again there will be many people looking to get back into shape again as quickly as possible. While this sounds like a good idea, there is a real danger to their health in trying to do this too quickly, as people ignore many of the other important factors in their attempt to exercise their way into good shape. In this article I will explain why it is a much better idea to take it slowly, and I will show you exactly how to go from “zero to hero” with your health and fitness.
When resuming back to exercise there's the over-whelming tendency to try to catch up to your previous level too fast that most often results in burnout, potential illness, excess soreness, and needless injury. The best fitness gains will occur when you maintain a regular fitness program that has a strong focus on nutrition in the beginning, and strives to achieve a perfect balance of work and rest with the workouts.
As we mentioned briefly in the introduction there is a large percentage of people around the world who have put on weight during the Coronavirus lockdowns. Here is an article I read in the Herald Sun newspaper here in Melbourne Australia today (June 16th 2020).
These statistics are quite damming, showing that there is a large number of people who have lost the plot with their exercise and eating habits.
If You Have Gained Weight during COVID-19 Look At Your Diet First
While exercise is very important to our health and we need this to add muscle and improve our cardiovascular system, it is often the foods we eat, or don’t eat, that make us fat. You cannot out-exercise a bad diet.
A great article to read on the MedicineNet website showed there was a 266% increase in confectionary eating in the last 2 weeks of March, compared to February, among its 1.4 million monthly active members. They also showed that there was a significant increase in eating carb-heavy foods like bread (54%) and noodles (36%).
Data provided by WW (formerly Weight Watchers) that records the foods people eat in an app showed that consumption of baking ingredients like flour were up 40% than prior to the lockdown!
In another poll they found that 70% of people in the U.S. and 35% internationally cited “stress eating” as a cause of their weight gain. When we’re worried or frightened, we’re more likely to seek out sugars, fats, and carbs for a quick energy boost. Comfort eating helps to calm us down when we are stressed, but if left unchecked it can escalate into a bigger problem in the long run.
In a very quick time this can progress into in a hard-to-break eating cycle that results in serious health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, as well as emotional problems, such as depression and anxiety.
Last but not least is the damage caused from excessive drinking of alcohol.
There has been countless reports showing massive increase of sales of alcoholic beverages during the lockdown. And just like the comfort eating it may ease your mind and calm you down in the short term, but if it turns into a habit it causes more problems than it solves.
Four important things happen to your body when you drink alcohol that can lead to weight gain.
- It stops your body from burning fat while the body tries to eliminate the toxic substance from the bloodstream.
- It is high in kilojoules.
- It leads to greater hunger and less satiety (the feeling of being full).
- It causes poor food choices. This is why people often crave salty foods when they drink and they can easily over-eat as your brain is not in control.
In the WebMD reader polls, 21% in the U.S. and 17% internationally blamed their weight gain on alcohol.
How do you get back on track?
Okay, we have identified where things most likely have gone wrong, so how do you turn it around? Where do you start?
By far the biggest mistake many make is trying to change too many things all at once. You want to make changing as easy as possible, with the end goal of being able to sustain it forever. If you make too many drastic changes, it feels really hard and really different, and you know it is not something you can stick to for very long. Before long you will be reaching for the comfort foods and alcohol again to calm you down as you begin to feel overwhelmed.
To help you out I have broken your training phase into four parts. The time it will take you to get in shape will vary from person to person, but I would still set a plan of trying to be in peak shape within 12 months. If you have been working out prior to starting again or eating fairly well it will be much quicker, but we will assume in this article you are starting from scratch.
Great results take time, there is no shortcut to getting fit. Try to enjoy the process of getting in shape instead of obsessing about the scales.
I suggest to read our articles below that provide great information relating to these topics
- How Long Does It Take To Achieve Long Lasting Fitness Results
- Why it is better to focus on the process instead of the end goal
Let’s get started on taking you from zero to hero with your health and fitness.
Phase One – “Zero”
This first phase sets the foundation of the entire program and is really all about setting good habits with both your nutrition and exercise.
Doing too much too soon can overwhelm you both physically and mentally. Remember you will still have a lot of unusual things to deal with in your life as we head out of this Coronavirus lockdown. Be patient and kind to your body and it will reward you for it later on.
With your nutrition focus on the basics like:
- Drinking water - Just a tiny 2% drop in our body's water supply can trigger signs of dehydration: which is one of the most common causes of daytime fatigue. Many people confuse hunger with being thirsty and drinking more water is a great way to avoid eating too much.
- Eating slowly - You will feel more satisfied with each meal allowing for better energy throughout the day and this also prevents over-eating helping you to maintain a healthy weight.
- Eat more vegetables – Vegetables contain an array of antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds that are very difficult to get anywhere else.
- Eating protein with each meal – Protein is a food source which promotes recovery and rebuilding of cells in your body mainly for your organs and muscles, which is why it’s important. It also helps to keep you full for longer to avoid food cravings that sabotage your health and fitness.
I would avoid trying to stick to some strict eating regime early on as it may create more stress than you need. There may be many other things you may need to address with your food and that is fine you will get to them in time. By starting with simple changes it will build up some mental reserve to take on the much more difficult tasks that will require more effort and energy to change.
With your exercise, focus on exercise technique and moving well.
Strength training will be of more importance than fitness at this stage which may surprise many people. Adding muscle is the fastest way to lose weight and get in shape and we must also appreciate that fitness methods must be earned. When people look to get in shape they believe that moving well will just happen. All they have to do is get out there and get it done and the body will fix itself. Unfortunately it won’t. And movement problems will only get worse when compounded by frequency and volume of training.
Below are two great videos to watch that explain this concept in detail.
If you can accept that you're probably not going to be as fit as you were before and you are building yourself back up again, you will be fine and see steady and consistent progress. However, if you try to cut corners and overdo it in these early stages there is a good chance you will end up with injuries because the body is not prepared for this stress from the extra activity.
To help with your exercise technique make sure you download the Free Report below that has all the pictures and instructions of the main exercises you need to know. Click the image to download your PDF report.
Walking and stretching should also be a big part of your training program in the early stages. These are both great forms of exercise to do when starting back as they are very simple and low in intensity. Many people underestimate the power of walking with relation to their strength and fitness but is has been proven to be one of the best ways to engage the core for back pain sufferers.
Working on any mobility restrictions will be invaluable at this stage, as not only does it prevent injury but it will enhance performance by allowing your body to move through a full range of movement.
Phase Two – 12 Weeks
Even though the heading here states this as being the 12 week mark, it may be much earlier for some people. For as I said earlier this will be different for each person as it all depends on how much you need to change. But as a rough guide I would say it takes about 3 months for people to have solid habits in place that will allow them to take on harder tasks.
In this phase it is important to build upon your foundations from phase one by taking on some of the bigger obstacles with your health and fitness.
The nutrition changes are usually more difficult than the exercise so we will begin there.
This is usually where I would like to take on the big challenge of getting rid of two food habits that cause massive weight gain and ruin health on every level. They are:
- Sugar
- Take-away food
Now when I say eliminate it, you do not need to be 100% perfect and you can still have the odd “cheat day” here and there, but you really do want to have a strong intention of cutting these right back.
The Friday night fish and chips dinner for example needs to be changed to grilled fish cooked at home with a salad. For many people this can be very difficult as these are usually the comfort foods that they were eating during the crisis to help them combat the anxiety and stress.
If you eat a diet that is high in sugar, the sugar gets metabolised to fat (and is stored as fat in your fat cells), which in turn releases surges in the hormone leptin. Over time, if your body is exposed to too much leptin, it will become resistant to it (just as your body can become resistant to insulin).
And when you become leptin-resistant, your body can no longer "hear" the messages telling it to stop eating, burn fat, -- so you remain hungry, you crave sweets, and your body stores more fat. Leptin-resistance also causes an increase in belly fat, sending you on a vicious cycle of hunger, fat storage and an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.
For more help on this phase read the articles below. At the bottom of the article there is also a great report on Nutrition you can download.
With your exercise everything remains the same with your strength, walking and mobility workouts. You should notice some strength gains already by this stage and be progressing your program accordingly.
The biggest difference at this stage is where we introduce interval training for the first time. This is where you break your exercise session into short segments that alternate high intensity with a rest period in-between. For example 10 sets of 200m sprints with a 1 minute rest between each set.
Scientific researchers found this type of exercise works because it produces a unique metabolic response. Intermittent sprinting produces high levels of chemical compounds called catecholamines, which allow more fat to be burned from under your skin and within your muscles. The resulting increase in fat oxidation is thought to drive the increased weight loss.
The best part of this training is you don't need very much time to do it as a great session might last only 20 minutes!
Below are two great videos to watch with some ideas of how this works.
Phase 3 – 6 Months
If you have made it this far you are doing great and will notice massive changes in your energy, strength, and overall physical appearance. But you must not get complacent as you are not yet finished.
There is still many things you need to focus on if you want to reach your overall goal. Many of the habits you have established can be easily broken if something goes wrong in your life again, which it will as life is always changing.
This phase is where you begin to look at STRESS and how to use different strategies to keep this under control. Just as you have been using a program for your exercises to make you physically stronger, you can use this same approach to improve your mental health. For example, you could start with practicing meditation or Yoga, or even simply making time to do something fun every week.
By trying different methods and strategies to control stress when things are good in your life, it will make it much easier to get through the tough times when they come, and avoid falling into the trap of losing the plot again.
Learning to meditate isn’t the easiest skill to start learning even though is seems like doing nothing so it should be easy. One reason why it feels hard is because it’s the process of developing our focus but because of our fast paced multiple devices culture we lose our ability to focus on one thing for an extended time-frame.
Our trainer Kim Logan (pictured below) who is very skilled in the art of meditation recommends starting with guided meditations, because they help keep your attention and give gentle reminders throughout the practice. Whether that’s from YouTube, podcast, or an app on your phone, there are many to choose from that can help you get started. Her favourite app that taught her how to meditate the best and keep a routine with meditation is called “Smiling Mind”.
You can read more about this in her article – Meditation for beginners
What about exercise for this phase?
In this phase you should be starting to exercise with much more intensity and vigour. Your strength workouts will progress to 60 minutes in length and you could add some additional interval training sessions depending on how you feel.
You must be very careful of over-training at this point and allow enough time for recovery as the intensity of your training increases. This is where many people who get the “exercise bug” make a big mistake and train hard, too often, leading to illness or injury. This is the worst thing that can happen as it will derail your plan.
You must appreciate that recovery is just as important as the training itself. More training is not better, good quality training is. Watch the video below to see more on this.
Lastly what things you do you need to focus on with nutrition?
By now you should have most things in place and now it is a matter of refining some of the more difficult things to do. If you are happy with your weight at this point you just need to stay on track with the things you are already doing. However, if you feel you need to lose a bit more then I would start by looking at carbs and fats.
Most people will need to eat less carbs, and more of the good fats!
A classic mistake people make with the quality of their food is avoiding fat. You cannot get fat by eating fat! You are more likely to get fat from eating sugars and highly processed foods. And interestingly it is the low fat products that often have high levels of sugar.
When I say more fat I mean high-quality healthy fats such as saturated and monounsaturated. You can divide fats into four types:
- Saturated fats, from animal fat and tropical oils
- Monounsaturated fat, such as olive oil
- Polyunsaturated fat, such as omega-3 and omega-6 fats
- Trans fats, such as margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressings etc.
The healthy fats are foods like olives and olive oil, coconuts and coconut oil, butter, nuts such as almonds or pecans, avocados, grass fed meats.
The bad fats are foods cooked in or containing corn oil, soy oil, canola oil, safflower oil sunflower oil. These are the fats you need to avoid. These are often processed foods like margarine, potato chips and many of the take away fast foods of hamburgers and fries.
The other big problem we see with many diets is eating too many breads and pastas. Now I do not believe we need to avoid these foods altogether as they can still be a part of a healthy diet. You can still enjoy a meal with bread every now and then. Unfortunately, many people eat way too much of these foods. It is not uncommon to see someone eat a meal based entirely around breads and pasta all day. For example, they might eat a cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and then a bowl of pasta for dinner, with possibly a pastry for dessert!
This is simply way too many carbohydrates in the form of grains and should be replaced with a more balanced form of eating with mainly meats and vegetables.
Any time you eat a meal or snack high in carbohydrates it generates a rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rise, the pancreas secretes the hormone insulin into the bloodstream, which lowers the glucose. Insulin, stimulated by the excess carbohydrates is responsible for all those bulging stomachs. Even worse, high insulin levels suppress two other important hormones -- glucagons and growth hormones -- that are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle development.
Try to change your meals to include more vegetables as your carbohydrate source as they are loaded with more nutrients and vitamins and not converted into glucose like the grains. This is why we advised you to do this right at the start in week one to make it easier at this point in your program.
Phase Four - 12 Months Later
If you made it this far you are undoubtedly in the best physical and mental shape you have ever been. Your strength workouts would consist of a mixture of intense circuit training and advanced methods to develop maximal strength and power. Your fitness will be at an all-time high as your interval workouts continue to improve.
This phase is all about learning how to stay in shape and constantly challenge your body with new and exciting workouts.
You should be able to increase your training volume slowly if you have implemented some of the recovery principles in phase 3. You should be well in tune with how your body feels and recognise the value of recovery principles for training harder.
You are a finely tuned machine trying to get every bit of potential out of your body.
With your nutrition you may be evolving into more structured eating methods like the Keto diet and intermittent fasting that require a lot more planning. You will not feel like you are on a restrictive diet but this is your new lifestyle as it makes you feel good.
When this happens you begin to notice key changes like.
- You naturally gravitate toward healthy foods for they make you feel good.
- You eat a chicken salad because it tastes great not because it is low in calories.
- You choose seafood rather than a pasta meal at dinner as it gives you more energy and tastes better.
- You enjoy planning your weekly meals.
- You don’t fear eating desserts or treats as they are just an occasional part of enjoying life.
These are all signs that you are beginning to change your identity to the person who is healthy. Your whole life has changed forever and you know exactly what is needed to stick to this new lifestyle.
This is when you have made it!
Unfortunately it takes this long to learn all the lessons needed to not just get in shape, but how to stay there.
For More Help with Nutrition or Exercise Workouts
As I only briefly explained many of the things you need to do there is a lot of additional information about nutrition and exercise program provided in the two reports below. Both of these reports complement each other and provide everything you need to know about getting in peak physical condition.
Summary
As you can see there is a lot more to getting in shape than trying to workout 7 days a week and counting calories. Great health and fitness results take time and there is a lot of mistakes you must make along the way to truly understand what it takes. The COVID-19 lock-downs have exposed the weakness in many people’s approach to health, and shows how easily the best program can be broken if good habits are not in place. When you begin a new exercise or eating program to lose weight, get fit, or improve your strength, make sure you set the time-frame to complete the job to be a minimum of 12 months. Even if you achieve your goals within 6 months, know that it is not complete until you have been in shape for at least a year. If you have this goal in mind you will know the secrets to everlasting health.
And you will know exactly how to go from "zero to hero" with health and fitness.
For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 300 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily. You can also subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter by clicking here.
If you live in Melbourne and feel you need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualised program.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 15 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References:
- Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute
- Movement - By Gray Cook
- Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
- Back Pain Mechanic - by Dr Stuart McGill
- Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
- Low Back Disorders - by Dr Stuart McGill
- Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance - by Dr Stuart McGill
- Core Stability - by Peak Performance
- Athletic Body in Balance - by Gray Cook
- Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
- Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
- Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
- How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
- Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
- Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
- Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
- Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
- Precision Nutrition
- Nutrition & Physical Degeneration - By Weston A Price
- Big Fat Lies - By David Gillespie