Are you plagued with unwanted pounds, despite your best efforts towards eating healthy and getting fit? You’re not alone. Millions of others across the globe, just like you, are struggling to shed weight in an uphill battle.
Here are 7 Sneaky Reasons for Weight Gain, some of these might surprise you.
1. Sucking on Cigarettes: It’s pretty common to think that smoking helps people stay thin. However, you may be surprised that this is actually a common misconception. Yes, people often gain weight when they quit smoking. But this is a result of filling a void by turning to excess food (and usually junk food), it’s NOT a result of the cigarette itself. Recent research has actually shown that contrary to the long-believed lie that smoking keeps you thin, it actually leads to weight gain. This happens by interrupting your body’s metabolic function and causing it to be insulin-resistant. Interestingly, the same is true for those exposed to second-hand smoke.
2. Working Nights. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and for some, this measure is working the graveyard shift. While it may provide a boost to your pay (third-shift workers often get paid more than others), it wreaks havoc on your body. From messing up your sleep cycles to putting you in a position that requires less movement to eating more out of boredom, working through the night is full of weight-gaining risks.
3. Having Too Many Choices: If you’ve ever eaten at a buffet, you know what happens. There are so many options you don’t know what to pick. So you get a little bit of everything. Putting yourself in a position to be surrounded by food, even if there are plenty of healthy options can be very dangerous. Even if you go with healthy options, it’s easy to eat too much of a good thing. When the options overwhelm you, stick to your guns: a small portion of lean meat and appropriate portions of a couple fruits and vegetables.
4. Overestimating Your Workout Intensity: Yes, you’re sweating up a storm when you make your way home for a shower. And your wobbly legs are the result of the squats and running intervals you just combined in a single workout. But don’t use your routine as an excuse to eat everything in your path. To maintain a healthy weight or lose weight, you can’t eat more calories than you’ll burn. Still feeling hungry after eating? You may not need to eat more. You may need to eat smarter.
5. Couch Potato: Everyone needs downtime. But if you’re not careful, you can wind up spending too much time on your rump. Between workouts, take a look at your daily routine. Do you work an office job? Does family time center around watching television shows together or playing board games? It may be time to make a change. No, don’t quit your job. But walk down the hall to talk to the person you’re about to email. And when family time comes around, use movie night to do something fun that gets all of you moving instead.
6. Snacks: To stay healthy, you’ll need to eat something between meals. Otherwise, it’s very easy to overeat and put on extra pounds. However, you’ll need to watch what you eat for a snack. It’s easy to make a snack that ends up being as large as a meal. But remember the purpose of your snack: to eat a little something before your next meal. It is not to fill yourself, but to knock the edge off your hunger. Keep your snacking light by drinking plenty of water.
7. Chasing Alcohol with Food: You go out to eat and there are no tables ready. So you grab a cocktail and hang out, waiting for an opening. Research has proven that drinking alcohol before you eat will result in you eating more than you would have otherwise. On top of eating more calories for dinner, that drink you guzzle is full of calories, which means before you even take the first bite of your food, you’ve already sucked down quite a few calories.
One of your best defenses against unwanted pounds is to participate in a consistent, challenging exercise routine.
