I have gained weight due to confinement, does this affect my breathing?

Both being overweight and being very underweight is detrimental to our health and therefore influences our breathing.

To breathe, the overweight or obese person exerts excessive effort by having to mobilize a heavier rib cage (chest). Your diaphragm, due to the fat accumulated in the abdomen, cannot move properly during breathing. This causes the breaths to be shallow, so not enough air enters the lungs, little oxygen reaches our blood and we are not able to adequately expel the carbon dioxide that forms in our body.

Obesity can cause a feeling of suffocation with minimal effort, confusion, dullness and even loss of consciousness.

Because of this, it is necessary to control our weight so that it is within healthy values.

In these moments of confinement and de-escalation, where all roads seem to lead to the fridge, we have to redouble our efforts and try not to increase our weight. The inactivity that we have been forced to carry does not help to fulfill this purpose, but we must find ways to stay active either by doing sports or from home if we still cannot go out or in the event of possible outbreaks. 

Surely during these days you have increased the time you spend talking on the phone, try doing it with a wireless or mobile phone and walk around the rooms of your house while you talk.

Another way to be active is to walk around the house during the commercial periods of the program you are watching on television, do not zap and get up to walk.

Surely many of us have a stationary bike at home that works very well as a coat rack, now it's time to use it for what it was really made for, so get on and pedal. The bottom bracket can also be a good option.

Now that we can go out on the street we can start to resume our physical activity, to do this keep in mind the necessary protection measures and go out to exercise.

People with respiratory problems have to take into account their oxygen saturation and pulse rate before and after exercising, monitor their breathing and their sensation of suffocation (dyspnea) at all times.

If you have questions about how to resume your physical activity or how to start being an active person, you can contact our HappyAir Coaches through the Awareness Line, and the support of Boheringer Ingelheim. They will help you solve your doubts, they can even design an individualized training plan for you if you sign up for HappyAir.