A fat sad young woman surrounded by unhealthy food.Vector modern flat style cartoon character illustration. Isolated on white background. Fast food concept,burger,beer,coffee,hot dog,donut,ice cream
Maintaining a healthy weight is the result of a combination of factors. It has to do with diet, of course, and also a lifestyle. Certain elements may be beyond your control, such as genetics, chronic illness, and need for certain medications. In any case, losing weight is not an easy job.
We may become overwhelmed with the mass amount of conflicting data on the “right” diet, or get lost in the caveats about when to avoid particular foods. And then there is the psychological aspect of weight loss – with very real cravings for comfort food nagging away at you, how can you stay strong and force yourself to eat things you don’t really want?
It may be easier to get started by looking not at what you eat, but how you eat. Rather than completely overhauling your kitchen (at first), consider the following nine habits that can make you fat. Changing the habits one by one will jumpstart your weight loss and help you find the motivation to make more changes going forward.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
<!-- Next Page -->
1. Eating before bed
It’s a comforting habit to snack on something before bed, but this type of eating is largely mindless and seldom includes healthy food. It’s also not strictly necessary as long as you eat normally throughout the day. While our bodies do require some fuel over the night, what we had for dinner will likely suffice.
Take the time to notice whether you really are hungry at bedtime, or whether you are just following a habit. If your stomach is growling, it’s perfectly fine to have a small snack – just make it something like a piece of fruit or a handful of raw nuts.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
2. Stress eating
People tend to respond to stress and anxiety in one of two ways. Either they stop eating almost entirely, or give in to emotional hunger and eat more than usual. Neither one is healthy for the body. It is difficult to make healthy meal choices when you’re stressed because the brain craves immediate relief via junk food, and balanced meal takes the energy we don’t have to prepare.
On the other end, when you wait until you’re starving to eat, your body is more likely to hold onto that food as fat to prepare itself for further periods of starvation. One tip is to pay attention to your fluid intake. Staying hydrated keeps you going to some extent when you’re not eating and helps fill the stomach faster if you tend to overeat.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
3. Sedentary lifestyle
There was a time in human history when we had to do a lot more work in order to eat. From the time of the hunter-gatherers to the rough conditions of the Wild West, meeting our basic needs took up a lot of people’s free time and energy. Nowadays we spend most of our time sitting because our primary concern is to earn money to buy food.
Again, there’s no easy answer, but try to look for ways to build physical activity into things you already have to do. Remember that exercise can be just as effective in 15-minute bursts in a whole hour straight.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
4. Eating too much salt
It can be discouraging at the outset of any diet plan that it takes some time to see results. However, you can see some early slimming if you pay attention to your salt intake. Too much sodium leads to fluid retention, which makes you feel bloated. Reduce salt and lose several pounds of water weight in a snap.
New studies also suggest that a high-salt diet actually makes you feel hungrier and therefore eat more. A good way to break overall reliance on salt is to experiment with other herbs and seasonings, which can be just as satisfying.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
5. Eating too fast
It may sound strange that how fast you eat has anything to do with weight gain, but the problem lies in the delay between food hitting your stomach and your brain receiving the message that you’re full. It actually takes about 20 minutes.
So during that time, if you’re eating too fast, you are bound to overeat. People who eat slowly and take the time to savor every bite tend to eat 1/3 less overall, without feeling hungry afterward.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
6. Skipping meals
In another counterintuitive way, you might be gaining weight, skipping meals (especially breakfast) doesn’t actually result in fewer calories taken in over the day. For one thing, you are very likely to overeat when you eventually do sit down for a meal.
And for another, skipping breakfast tends to slow down your metabolism for the rest of the day, so that a massive lunch or dinner lingers in the digestive tract for much longer. As revealed in the American Journal of Epidemiology, people who regularly skip breakfast are up to 4.5x more likely to be overweight.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
7. Missing sleep
We all know what it feels like to struggle through a day on too little sleep. Foggy brain, heavy body, and irritability are all side effects of missing out on critical slumber. When it comes to weight gain, it occurs because of the level of our stress hormone cortisol spikes. This negatively affects the body’s processing of sugar, and any that hangs around gets turned into fat.
Being too tired also frequently leads to poor meal choices, because it takes a fair bit of energy to plan, prepare, and clean up after a healthy meal. We may also lack the energy to get to the gym or be active in any way, further exacerbating the problem.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
8. Forgetting What You Drank
We really need to put as much attention to what we drink as what we eat, for a couple of reasons. Though beverages don’t make us feel as full as food, the calories in them most certainly count when it comes to weight gain. Drinking soda, juice, beer, and wine seldom causes us to skip a meal, even though we may have already consumed a full meal’s worth of calories in liquid form.
Proper hydration is also critical to your body’s function. Kidneys don’t function very well without enough water, which means that toxins and other wastes are not eliminated as they should be. Excess fluid builds up in the body with these waste products, and you end up bloated and sick. No matter what else you eat or drink, try to consume at least 2 liters of water per day.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
9. Mindless Eating
And finally, we are all prone to falling into the mindless eating trap sometimes! Snacking in front of the television is the most common culprit, but any kind of distraction is likely to lead to overeating. Studies show that eating mindlessly results in consuming 5-10 times more than you would if you were fully engaged in your meal. If you know your mind won’t be fully on your food, it’s best to pre-portion it so that when it’s gone, it’s gone. Don’t take a whole bag of chips with you to the couch for TV time.
Weight loss is a challenge, no bones about it, but you don’t have to make a radical shift all at once to start to see positive results. In fact, you are more likely to fail if you change too much on day one. Start by working through these nine bad habits. You will feel better, lose some water weight, and begin to burn fat. That can give you the motivation you need to go further. Best of luck on your journey!
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
Maintaining a healthy weight is the result of a combination of factors. It has to do with diet, of course, and also a lifestyle. Certain elements may be beyond your control, such as genetics, chronic illness, and need for certain medications. In any case, losing weight is not an easy job.
We may become overwhelmed with the mass amount of conflicting data on the “right” diet, or get lost in the caveats about when to avoid particular foods. And then there is the psychological aspect of weight loss – with very real cravings for comfort food nagging away at you, how can you stay strong and force yourself to eat things you don’t really want?
It may be easier to get started by looking not at what you eat, but how you eat. Rather than completely overhauling your kitchen (at first), consider the following nine habits that can make you fat. Changing the habits one by one will jumpstart your weight loss and help you find the motivation to make more changes going forward.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
<!-- Next Page -->
1. Eating before bed
It’s a comforting habit to snack on something before bed, but this type of eating is largely mindless and seldom includes healthy food. It’s also not strictly necessary as long as you eat normally throughout the day. While our bodies do require some fuel over the night, what we had for dinner will likely suffice.
Take the time to notice whether you really are hungry at bedtime, or whether you are just following a habit. If your stomach is growling, it’s perfectly fine to have a small snack – just make it something like a piece of fruit or a handful of raw nuts.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
2. Stress eating
People tend to respond to stress and anxiety in one of two ways. Either they stop eating almost entirely, or give in to emotional hunger and eat more than usual. Neither one is healthy for the body. It is difficult to make healthy meal choices when you’re stressed because the brain craves immediate relief via junk food, and balanced meal takes the energy we don’t have to prepare.
On the other end, when you wait until you’re starving to eat, your body is more likely to hold onto that food as fat to prepare itself for further periods of starvation. One tip is to pay attention to your fluid intake. Staying hydrated keeps you going to some extent when you’re not eating and helps fill the stomach faster if you tend to overeat.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
3. Sedentary lifestyle
There was a time in human history when we had to do a lot more work in order to eat. From the time of the hunter-gatherers to the rough conditions of the Wild West, meeting our basic needs took up a lot of people’s free time and energy. Nowadays we spend most of our time sitting because our primary concern is to earn money to buy food.
Again, there’s no easy answer, but try to look for ways to build physical activity into things you already have to do. Remember that exercise can be just as effective in 15-minute bursts in a whole hour straight.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
4. Eating too much salt
It can be discouraging at the outset of any diet plan that it takes some time to see results. However, you can see some early slimming if you pay attention to your salt intake. Too much sodium leads to fluid retention, which makes you feel bloated. Reduce salt and lose several pounds of water weight in a snap.
New studies also suggest that a high-salt diet actually makes you feel hungrier and therefore eat more. A good way to break overall reliance on salt is to experiment with other herbs and seasonings, which can be just as satisfying.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
5. Eating too fast
It may sound strange that how fast you eat has anything to do with weight gain, but the problem lies in the delay between food hitting your stomach and your brain receiving the message that you’re full. It actually takes about 20 minutes.
So during that time, if you’re eating too fast, you are bound to overeat. People who eat slowly and take the time to savor every bite tend to eat 1/3 less overall, without feeling hungry afterward.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
6. Skipping meals
In another counterintuitive way, you might be gaining weight, skipping meals (especially breakfast) doesn’t actually result in fewer calories taken in over the day. For one thing, you are very likely to overeat when you eventually do sit down for a meal.
And for another, skipping breakfast tends to slow down your metabolism for the rest of the day, so that a massive lunch or dinner lingers in the digestive tract for much longer. As revealed in the American Journal of Epidemiology, people who regularly skip breakfast are up to 4.5x more likely to be overweight.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
7. Missing sleep
We all know what it feels like to struggle through a day on too little sleep. Foggy brain, heavy body, and irritability are all side effects of missing out on critical slumber. When it comes to weight gain, it occurs because of the level of our stress hormone cortisol spikes. This negatively affects the body’s processing of sugar, and any that hangs around gets turned into fat.
Being too tired also frequently leads to poor meal choices, because it takes a fair bit of energy to plan, prepare, and clean up after a healthy meal. We may also lack the energy to get to the gym or be active in any way, further exacerbating the problem.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
8. Forgetting What You Drank
We really need to put as much attention to what we drink as what we eat, for a couple of reasons. Though beverages don’t make us feel as full as food, the calories in them most certainly count when it comes to weight gain. Drinking soda, juice, beer, and wine seldom causes us to skip a meal, even though we may have already consumed a full meal’s worth of calories in liquid form.
Proper hydration is also critical to your body’s function. Kidneys don’t function very well without enough water, which means that toxins and other wastes are not eliminated as they should be. Excess fluid builds up in the body with these waste products, and you end up bloated and sick. No matter what else you eat or drink, try to consume at least 2 liters of water per day.
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
9. Mindless Eating
And finally, we are all prone to falling into the mindless eating trap sometimes! Snacking in front of the television is the most common culprit, but any kind of distraction is likely to lead to overeating. Studies show that eating mindlessly results in consuming 5-10 times more than you would if you were fully engaged in your meal. If you know your mind won’t be fully on your food, it’s best to pre-portion it so that when it’s gone, it’s gone. Don’t take a whole bag of chips with you to the couch for TV time.
Weight loss is a challenge, no bones about it, but you don’t have to make a radical shift all at once to start to see positive results. In fact, you are more likely to fail if you change too much on day one. Start by working through these nine bad habits. You will feel better, lose some water weight, and begin to burn fat. That can give you the motivation you need to go further. Best of luck on your journey!
Click the next button below to continue reading …
>
