This tallies with Google Trends data, which shows worldwide Google Searches around weight gain have hit a five year high. They reached the peak interest score of 100 in April, May, and June.

And complaints about weight gain hit an 18 month high on social media in May 2020, according to our Consumer Research platform (which searched for English-language mentions of weight gain from January 1 2019 to June 30 2020).

When we investigated what was driving weight gain conversation on social media from March 1 to June 30, we found that mentions were focused on the effects of quarantine:

• Eating more because of lockdown: 599k mentions
• Finding it hard to eat healthy in quarantine: 272k mentions
• A lack of exercise in lockdown: 221k mentions
• Feeling emotionally low because of quarantine: 152k mentions
• Snacking more because of lockdown: 115k mentions

This weight gain conversation then gave way to a different kind of chatter. Conversation about dietary choices, like gluten-free, sugar-free, veganism, and vegetarianism saw upticks in May and June. We indexed the volume of mentions in the chart below to easily compare conversations over 18 months – for each trend, the month which saw the highest mention volume got an index score of 100.

Vegetarianism – abstaining from meat – had the largest conversation increase in the last two months. Mentions were focused on a healthier lifestyle, helping families adjust to the change, and protecting animals. Discussion around veganism also rose, for much the same reasons.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we also saw that mentions involving sugar-free diets increased in the last two months, driven by consumers trying to resist sweet tooth cravings more than they would have earlier in lockdown.

Conversation about gluten-free diets has also gone up, but these mentions have generally been rising over the last year. This indicates a general rise in consumer interest, as opposed to a reaction to Covid-19.

Concern about weight has morphed into discussion about new, supposedly healthier diets. It will be interesting to see if these changes slow down, or if even more people convert to different eating habits as time ticks on.

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Brandwatch Response Team