
When you lose weight, you’re more likely to get the virus
Weight gain is more common in obese people, new research suggests, even though they’re not as likely to develop the virus.
The study, published in The Lancet, compared the health and well-being of people in the United States and England.
The researchers compared participants’ weight status and health to those of non-obese adults who had never been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
In general, people who are overweight or obese were about six times more likely than the rest of the population to have acquired the virus, the researchers found.
That means that for every 100,000 people who were overweight or had obesity, a third were infected.
In England, the proportion of people with the virus was 20 percent higher than that of the general population, with almost 4 million people infected.
Among people who had the virus in the UK, it was only about 5 percent higher.
“Our findings suggest that, despite the increased prevalence of obesity in the US, people in countries where obesity is a risk factor are still less likely to be infected with coronaviruses than people in Europe,” lead researcher and epidemiologist from the National Institute for Health Research, Dr Ramesh Chandra, said in a statement.
In addition, the study found that the prevalence of the coronovirus in people who developed the virus is higher in countries with more physical activity, such as the US and the UK.
People who are obese have a higher prevalence of infections than the general US population, and that has been a cause of concern in the past.
For instance, earlier this year, the CDC issued a recommendation to cut back on sedentary time and reduce physical activity.
But Chandra said that obesity is just one factor contributing to the rise in the virus among the general public.
The risk is even greater for people who do not smoke, and who are at risk for developing complications like heart attacks and strokes.
“We need to be mindful of how to balance these two factors,” he said.
“The virus does not discriminate between people who smoke, who are physically active, who exercise or who are not.
It does discriminate between those who are morbidly obese and those who do exercise and exercise regularly.”