How to Shed The COVID 15 (Pounds)
After getting fully vaccinated, turn on the jets and make your life better than ever.
OK — You’re done with your life being dominated by COVID-19. You are fully vaccinated with the booster and ready to get back to normal, keeping abreast of the news and getting additional immunization as needed, like we get the flu shot every year. Now what?
If you are like most of us, you’ve gained weight while you were staying home a lot. Your routines were thrown out of whack and you started eating more. Most people have gained 5 to 15 pounds. Worse, you probably developed habits that are hard to break. Some people with a history of severe weight problems gained a lot and are at their highest weight ever.
For those with a severe weight problem that they have never gotten a handle on, I’d suggest reading my book, The Anderson Method. Better yet, get the audiobook to listen to as you drive around. It describes the behavioral weight loss program I used to solve my own long-term weight problem, losing over 100 pounds permanently 35 years ago after 25 years of failing with diets and exercise schemes.
For those with only the 5 to 15 pounds to shed, it will be easier. Here are some ideas that may be all you need to solve the problem, along with some good news that will brighten your day.
First good news: The solution to your problem will only take a short while. You’ll have to do a bit of work and make a few changes, but it will be nothing like the harder work that those with chronic weight problems will have to do.
Read my article, Science-Based Weight Loss. That will fill you in on the basic science we’ll apply. You’ll find your living metabolic rate, the number of calories you burn per day. You’ll learn about the way that even minute habitual overeating causes weight gain, and you’ll learn about the strategy of undereating to shed those extra pounds.
Most women will have to average 1000 to 1200 calories per day for a few weeks to drop 5 pounds or so, longer to drop 10 to 15. Most men will have to average 1500 to 1800 per day to lose weight. Men lose more than women on the same amount of food and at a faster rate because their bodies are bigger. Like bigger automobiles, they burn a lot more calories per day, like big cars burn more gas. It’s unfair, but it’s a reality we need to live with to be successful in spite of the unfairness.
Don’t look for a steady diet of 1000 or 1200 calories per day to “stick to” until you reach your goal. It will get boring, and you’ll find it is impossible to “stick to” and do the normal things you like to do or eat the foods you like to eat. It’s almost impossible to go out to dinner or have drinks or go to birthday parties and stay under 1200 calories for the day. Instead, create a plan where you will average that intake per day for the week. (1000–1200 for women, 1500–1800 for men)
With my method, we develop a lifetime habit of eating austerely during the week, like “dieting” during the week, and then we eat more normally on the weekends and holidays. This is the famous 5/2 pattern I introduced 35 years ago that has become so popular. For instance, a woman who has a metabolic rate of 1800 might eat no more that 1000 calories on weekdays and then at least 1200 on the weekend days, but no more than 1800 on those weekend days and holidays. Dining out can be done within those parameters on the weekend days, even having drinks and birthday cake. That way, you don’t deprive yourself of those pleasures in life. Work hard during the week, relax a bit on the weekends, and Monday, it’s back to work.
To make it easy during the week, it’s not a bad idea to use frozen dinners like Lean Cuisines or Weight-Watcher meals for lunches and dinners, or protein shakes for breakfasts or lunches. That will make it easier to hit your caloric goals without a lot of calorie-counting.
But don’t go back to the old habit of being responsible on the weekdays and then totally out of control on the weekends. You still need to be responsible on the weekends. On the weekends, it’s important to eat the foods you like in the right caloric quantities to hit your caloric goals. The weekends are not a time to throw caution to the wind and go hog-wild. They are a time to learn how to eat what you really like in portions that will fit your caloric goals. So, you have to be willing to do the work on the weekends to learn about the foods you like and do the math.
While we don’t have to give up the foods we like to control our weight, there are some things most people do have to give up. Eating as a hobby or a pastime is something that will make anyone overweight. If we are grabbing something every time we feel like it, it’s easy to consume thousands of extra calories without even realizing it. So, snacking as a hobby has to go, and “emotional eating”, the kind of eating people do to soothe hurt feelings or relieve stress, using food as a drug. Eating may work to make us feel better or relieve sadness or boredom, but it has a terrible side-effect! We need to find other ways to satisfy those needs that don’t make us fat. I’m sure you can think of some!
The lockdowns are over, and it’s time to get back to your normal routines. While exercise is not an absolute necessity for weight control, it is necessary for optimum health and it will absolutely speed up your weight loss. So, if you had an exercise or health club routine before COVID, it’s time to get back to that. Also, during the lockdowns, people discovered that being home with the food right there made it very easy to overeat. So, if you can get back to an office or work routine that keeps you busy and away from food between meals, get that routine back in place.
The COVID panicky pandemic emergency is over. We have adjusted to be able to respond appropriately when surges occur and get our lives and our country up and running again. It may take a while, just like reaching your weight loss goal might (especially if you are very overweight like I was.) But there is light at the end of the tunnel. We can make our lives better than they ever were. If you are curious, you might read the other articles I’ve written, such as How the ‘Wheel of Life’ Can Help You Find Balance.
These past few years, life has thrown some new obstacles in our path to a better life, but they can be overcome. Some, we have overcome. Now is the time to get moving on overcoming the rest. It’s time to turn on the jets and make our lives better than ever.
William Anderson is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, the author of “The Anderson Method of Permanent Weight Loss” (paperback and Kindle at Amazon, audiobook at Audible). He was obese until his early thirties when he found the solution. He lost 140 pounds, has kept it off for 35 years, and has taught thousands to successfully manage their weight.
