Background/purpose: COVID-19 lockdowns have increased unhealthy habits across populations. Yet, little is known about COVID-19 implications on people enrolled in lifestyle interventions. We examined how people with overweight and prediabetes or obesity coped with COVID19 in daily life while enrolled in a weight loss intervention.
Methods: Fifteen participants enrolled in a time-restricted eating intervention were interviewed about their experiences with the intervention and COVID-19 in daily life. Interviews were conducted by phone or faceto-face with safe social distance. The interview guide was semi-structured, and data analysis was inspired by an explorative thematic analysis approach.
Results: Six participants did not report significant COVID-19 implications on daily life. For the remaining nine participants, COVID-19 was intrusive to daily life structure. Four participants were not able to adhere to the intervention, while five participants were able to adhere to it most days. However, eating became unhealthier and almost all participants exercised less.
Conclusions and implications: Findings emphasise that weight loss interventions should be designed with a greater focus on daily life structure, including directions for organising eating and exercise activities to the COVID-19 situation by using some of the numerous developed virtual
opportunities. It is vital that the responsibility is not solely directed towards the individual as our results indicate difficulties in taking individual healthful choices. In this light, policy makers and governments need to take a broader public health responsibility by guiding and supporting people in adjusting dailns:y life to COVID-19 and recommending strategies encouraging healthier activities to minimise further health consequences.