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Since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, the lives of everyone has been impacted. People have lost loved ones, businesses have shut down, and people have had to embrace the remote work lifestyle. But in embracing this new way of life, it has also posed another problem… weight gain.

Due to the orders to stay at home, it has caused people all over the world to gain weight. This increase in weight gain has been called everything from Pandemic Pounds to the Quarantine 15, but despite the witty nicknames, gaining weight during this time has proven to be quite dangerous.

Not only have studies shown that quarantining has been a major contributor to obesity, but the breathing complications associated with obesity make it even harder to fight off the virus once infected, as respiratory issues are one of the major complications of the coronavirus.

But where the equal danger lies is in the methods people are taking to lose the extra weight they’ve gained. You want to keep your mind and body active during this time to fight off those pandemic pounds, unfortunately, people have been turning to these unsafe weight loss measures to lose the weight fast, especially due to coronavirus vaccines becoming available in the hopes that the world will open back up sooner than later.

But still, people aren’t realizing just how long it took to gain the weight but expect to lose the weight just like that. We are quickly approaching one year since the emergence of the pandemic and that’s how long it’s taken a lot of people to put on the extra weight.

If you’re wanting to shed some of those pandemic pounds you’ve gained, don’t get overly anxious and resort to unsafe weight loss efforts… there are indeed healthier and safer methods to achieve your weight loss goals. And if you stick to these healthier methods the weight will actually come off pretty quickly… but in a safe time frame. Take a look at the unsafe ways people are trying to lose weight and the healthy solutions.

Unsafe Ways People are Trying to Lose Weight

Turning to Unsafe Diets

The pandemic has caused people to turn to desperate measures to lose weight, so much so that they turn to these diets that have proven to be quite dangerous to your overall health. The cotton ball diet, where you dip cotton balls in juice and consume them to feel full faster; The tapeworm diet, where you swallow a capsule with tapeworm eggs in it and the tapeworms eat the food you consume before your body can absorb it; And the air diet, where you consume air and soup… these are all ridiculous ways to lose weight.

These so-called “diets” may actually help you get the weight off fast, but at what cost? Your life? Some people turn to diets because they’re planned out and tell you what to do, and that’s why people like them. But losing weight is truly a mental battle… You simply need to have your mind made up to lose the weight. If you can consume a well-balanced diet, and make your mind up to stick to it, the weight will come right off.

Skipping Meals

You’ve probably heard people say “I can stand to skip a meal or two” because they know they probably consume more food than they should. But skipping meals isn’t the solution to losing weight… Simply reducing your calorie intake is.

This can come in the form of eating nutrient-rich foods, drinking full-body juice cleanses, and cutting back on carbs. In fact, watching your portions is a great starting point to slowly changing your eating habits. You, of course, can’t continue eating cheeseburgers and fries and expect to lose weight… BUT if you maybe switch from ground beef to ground turkey, leave off the cheese, and leave off the fries, you’ll see considerable differences in your weight loss journey, and you didn’t have to skip a meal.

Putting Too Much Focus on the Scale

The scale is certainly a great way to measure your weight loss progress but only if you don’t become obsessive with it. You may be eating right and exercising and see the numbers on the scale continually drop, but all of a sudden, you notice that the number on the scale is starting to increase or remain the same… This can be very frustrating when all you’ve been seeing is your weight drop. But what’s more than likely happening is you’re gaining muscle.

People tend to think that the scale is the only way to see weight loss progress but it’s not; there are other ways to tell that not only is your weight loss improving but your overall health is improving as well. If you’re getting better sleep, if your clothes are fitting better or looser, and if you notice yourself getting full faster, those are all ways to measure your weight loss success. Tape measure is also a good way to measure your progress aside from the scale so you can see real weight loss in inches.