Reasons for gaining weight

When you think you’re doing everything right, but you keep gaining weight. We have come up with 10 most common reasons for gaining weight we often overlook.

Certain medications: Some medications can cause weight gain. An example is depression medications that lower metabolism and can alter the levels of certain hormones, which in turn leads to weight gain.

Chronic diseases: An increasing number of people are suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes or thyroid dysfunction. Patients need drug treatment to restore the body to a normal hormonal state and to stop gaining weight uncontrollably.

Genetics: Some people have been shown to gain weight faster, but environmental factors and individual choices have a much greater impact on body weight than genetics.

Stress: Our natural defence mechanism against dangers is to prepare the body for flight or fight. In such cases, our levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, rise. Cortisol is responsible for depositing fat deposits around the abdomen, as well as weakening our immune system.

Serving size: Large portions are one of the most common reasons for weight gain. Lately, the size of plates and cups has increased, which is why we have larger meals.

Skipping meals: Skipping meals is just as important as controlling the size of the meal. If we skip a meal, our body perceives it as starvation and next time we wat it begins to build up a fat supply. We are also hungry and then eat much more than we would otherwise.

Branded “low fat”: When we see low-fat on a product, we think that the food also has fewer calories. However, this is not usually the case, and such foods also contain more sugar. Make sure to read the entire nutrition chart.

Lack of exercise: A combination of cardio workouts and strength training helps burn the excess calories. We gain weight due to not enough physical activity and excess calories, which also leads to a slower metabolism.

Slow metabolism: Slow metabolism is often responsible for weight gain. Muscle is more metabolically active (burns more calories) than fat, so we need more muscle than fat for the metabolism to work well. There is a general myth that after the age of 30, muscles begin to break down. However, this is not true if we remain physically active.

Unhealthy eating: this is the biggest culprit of weight gain. Meals full of processed foods and simple carbohydrates and not eating enough fruit and vegetables all leads to weight gain.

The only way to stop the weight gain is a healthy diet, regular exercise and replacing unhealthy snacks with healthy meal replacements.