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With curbs on our ability to get out and about freely, we all feared piling on the pounds during lockdown.
But it seems you had more chance of putting on weight if you were a woman.
Experts say they were still more likely to bear the brunt of childcare – and were therefore stuck indoors more looking after the family.
Men, on the other hand, generally ‘carried on as they were’.
Researchers analysed data on 938,000 British adults and found Covid curbs had a ‘differential impact’ on the sexes.
Women were 44 per cent more likely to go from overweight to obese, with 13 per cent of women doing so compared with just 9 per cent of men.
Researchers analysed data on 938,000 British adults and found Covid curbs had a ‘differential impact’ on the sexes (stock image)
Professor Thomas Yates, who worked on the University of Leicester study, suggested that many mothers were relied upon to take care of home schooling and were less able to go out and keep active.
He added: ‘I suspect lockdown had a differential impact on many women’s lives compared to men.
‘Men pretty much carried on as they were – they just worked from home instead. Meanwhile those school runs, supermarket shops, those types of things that are potentially getting women out of the house more often – they suddenly stopped.
‘And then you have to deal with home schooling kids and just a very different way of living, which was probably quite stressful.
‘So not only was it reducing activity levels and changing diets, it was stress and mental health problems probably playing into that as well.’
Asked why men fared better, Professor Yates said: ‘I suspect it is more because men are probably quite good at carrying on pretty
