Are you also among one of those who are wondering why your favourite jeans don’t fit anymore? Why your love handles are becoming bigger despite all your efforts to maintain your weight? Or are you the one standing on the bathroom scale and freaking out why the hell this number on the scale is escalating each passing day? If your answer is yes for any or all of the above questions then you need to look in to these 10 underlying causes for weight gain :
1- Not Drinking Enough Water
Whether you are trying to shed those extra pounds or trying hard to maintain your current weight, water plays a key role. Not drinking enough water causes dehydration, which can confuse the signals to the body, so you may think that you are hungry. This can occur at all times day and night. You can get into a vicious cycle by eating more, which places additional strain on your body and can cause weight gain.
Studies also show that drinking water increases the amount of calories you burn. Another study of overweight women examined the effects of increasing water intake to over 1 litre per day. They found that over the period of 12 months, this resulted in an extra weight loss of 2.2kg without making any lifestyle changes.
You might have heard many times that we should drink 8 glasses of water daily but this number is completely random. The actual recommended water intake depends on your body weight and type of activities you do. The first step to determine knowing how much water to drink everyday is to know your weight. After knowing your weight multiply it by 2/3 (or 67%) to determine how much water to drink daily. For example, if you weighed 175 pounds you would multiple that by 2/3 and learn you should be drinking about 117 ounces/ 3.5 litres of water every day. Now if you stay very active or sweat during day then little more to keep yourself hydrated and well functioning.
2- You are Stressed
Stress could be one of the culprits in weight gain. While it can make you have less of an appetite at first, long-term “chronic” stress actually boosts your hunger. Cortisol is a hormone released when you are stressed that causes your body to store fat. Your pituitary gland releases a hormone called “adrenocorticotropic hormone” and this activates your adrenal glands to release cortisol. These increased levels of cortisol hormone may also help cause higher insulin levels, which causes drop in blood sugar and in return you crave sugary, fatty foods.
There are many factors in live that can cause stress, it could be your kids, job, financial issues, workload or even weather you can not eliminate these factors from your life. Rather you should focus on how to minimise your stress and get relaxed. For this you can have some quality time with yourself, listen to music, go for a walk get some fresh air, or practice yoga/meditation.
3- Skipping breakfast
Not having breakfast within 30 minutes after waking up can cause your metabolism to slowdown. Since you’ve fasted overnight. Your body needs fuel, and your metabolism needs to be jump-start with food.”
Eat healthy breakfast to prepare your body for upcoming challenges of a day. Some of the healthy breakfast choices can be whole-grain cereal with fresh fruit also don’t forget to add some protein in your breakfast like yogurt, cheese, egg, soy …
4- Eating too little
Like eating too much, sometimes eating too little could also be a root cause of all evil. Even the body functions like sleeping, eating and breathing even needs energy which comes by break down of food. So it means even in resting position our body needs a specific number of calories to function well. Although this number varies depending on age, gender, activity level etc. but generally speaking it is recommended that an adult women should take at least 1200 calories and an adult man should take 1800 calories per day.
Our bodies are very intelligent, if we eat less than this minimum number of calories our body start depositing the food we eat rather than burning it which causes us to gain weight. So to avoid this we should never eat below 1200 calories on longer periods of time.
5- Not counting right
When it comes to weight gain or not losing one every bite matters. I have seen this misconception among people that they can eat as many fruits or vegetables as they like since it is healthy food or assuming that salad dressings have zero calories. Make sure to enter everything in your food journal or calorie counter so you could find out the root cause of your weight gain. If possible weigh your food portion and buy measuring spoons or cups so you can count on all the salad dressings and liquid in take properly to see if you are eating more than your calorie target.
6- Medications
The side effects of certain medications and even supplements can cause weight gain. Certain contraceptive pills, anti-depressants, or insulin injections can cause weight gain varying on individual basis. If you are on medications monitor your weight and if you notice that despite having same life style and food habits if you started gaining weight than talk to your medications to change your medicine or alternative options.
7- Inadequate Sleep
On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per nigh. “If you are getting this already, another half hour will not help you lose 10 pounds, but if you are a five-hour sleeper and start to sleep for seven hours a night, you will start dropping weight” says the clinical director of the sleep division for Arrowhead Health in Glendale, Ariz.
How lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones, explains Breus. The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. “Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin,” Breus says. “Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.” More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain.
Lack of sleep not just makes you eat more but will also slow down your metabolism causing you to more weight.
8- Medical Conditions
Certain type of medical conditions like PCOS and Hypothyroidism etc. can not only hinder in your way to lose weight but can also cause you gain weight. If you are gaining weight try consulting your physician and take test to diagnose if it holds true.
Hypothyroidism means your thyroid gland is not producing enough thyroid hormones, which play a central role in regulating your metabolism. Although an underactive thyroid can occur at any age and in either sex, it is most common in older women.
“Without enough thyroid hormone, the body’s metabolism slows down, which can lead to weight gain,” says dietitian Catherine Collins. The condition is usually treated with daily hormone-replacement tablets, called levothyroxine.
PCOS is yet another common condition that causes weight gain in women. It affects how a woman’s ovaries work. Symptoms can include irregular periods, trouble getting pregnant, excess hair and weight gain. The exact cause of PCOS is unknown, but it’s thought to be hormone-related, including too much insulin and testosterone.
“Women with PCOS typically put on weight around their waist,” says Collins. “The more weight you put on, the more insulin you produce, which can cause further weight gain. Weight loss through dietary changes and exercise, and in some cases medication such as orlistat, will help to break the cycle.”
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