Top 8 Weight Gain Reasons
1. Long term excess food intake
Long term excess food intake creates an energy imbalance, whereby the energy you take in exceeds the energy you are expending. The body can generally tolerate mild fluctuations in food and energy intake. However, greater fluctuations more often force your body to store the excess energy as fat. If you are overweight, this is definitely happening to you.
Even a small excess can make a big difference over time. But, do you know how much food you need to eat so that you are not overeating?
2. Not knowing how much food you need
It is likely that you are over-eating without realizing. It is easy to overeat if you don’t know how much food your body needs.
Remember, by over-eating all the time, you are creating an energy imbalance in your body whereby the energy you are taking in, exceeds the energy you are expending. This leads to excess weight which can continue to go up and up over the years.
3. Sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity
We are in what’s called an obesogenic environment. We are surrounded by conditions that make us eat more and move less, leading to weight gain and poorer health.
We have convenience at the tips of our fingers: transport vehicles to help us get around; remote controls so we don’t have to get up to change the TV channel; drive-through take away restaurants so we can simply stay in our cars whilst we purchase energy dense food; elevators so that we don’t have to go up those stairs or having to sit all day at our office jobs with little time left for exercise.
Physical activity has endless benefits. From improving cardiac fitness to improving your metabolism and digestive system. Find ways to keep active! Remember the higher your activity level the higher your energy requirements.
4. Thinking there is something wrong with your metabolism
Thinking that there is something wrong with your metabolism can cause you to feel like there is a reason that you are overweight that is out of your control. You may feel helpless and give up on trying to eat well. This can lead to careless and excessive eating, and then turning to high fat-high sugar foods.
There is no such thing as ‘no metabolism’. In-fact people with a higher weight have a higher metabolism, not lower. It is very unlikely that your metabolism in very low.
5. Starving yourself
This includes skipping meals and going for long periods in the day without food. If nutritional intake does not meet the requirements the body has to get its energy supply from body stores, such as muscle and fat.
The body responds to a lack of nutrient intake by conserving energy and minimizing protein loss and also maintains a supply of glucose to those tissues, specially the brain and the rest of the nervous system, which can not derive their energy from any other source.
In prolonged starvation, basal metabolic rate (BMR) falls by up to 30% partly due to the decrease in mass of the metabolically more active tissues such as the liver and gastrointestinal tract. The body adjusts by deriving energy from fat stores ~95% and the other 5% comes from glucose derived from protein via a process called gluconeogenesis (glucose is made from protein). Gluconeogenesis steadily continues resulting in a loss of lean tissue (muscle). Loss of protein is associated with a decline in function and metabolic rate.
So this means you need less food. But you’re not necessarily eating less and so a greater gap is created so it is easier for you to put on weight.
6. Behavioural issues
You maybe overeating or turning to junk food for emotional reasons or when you are feeling down.
Seek an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Psychologist for professional help.
7. Changing macronutrient composition in a manner that is detrimental to health
We depend on various nutrients for the normal functioning of our body. People commonly reduce the amount of carbohydrate food they eat. Have you heard of low carb or no carb diets? These diet promise immediate weight loss, and you’ll find that people indeed do lose a few kilos! OF WATER!
Let me tell you why. We have energy stores in our liver in the form of glycogen, a molecule made up of many glucose molecules. These stores are there to be used up when your body needs energy quickly. It’s an important store so that we can perform when a demanding situation presents itself. These stores are replenished when we eat carbohydrate foods. During exercise this store is used up in about an hour depending on the intensity, or it can last up to about 24 hours with mild activity.
So, here is why you can lose weight if you stop eating carbohydrates. With every gram of glycogen, 3 – 4 grams of water is associated with it. So by not eating carbohydrates, glycogen stores are depleted and so initial weight loss is due to loss of water NOT fat! This is fact. Then starvation mechanism comes in to the picture and you ultimately lose muscle and lower your metabolism.
Remember we need our energy to come from all macronutrients: that is 15% – 25% protein, 45% - 65% carbohydrates and 20% - 35% fat. It is an excess in energy from all macronutrients that makes us put on weight, not just one of them.
The problem with low carbohydrate diets, high protein, high fat diets…
• Ketone body excretion by the human body does not exceed 20 grams (400kJ) per day. So high levels can occur which is damaging to health.
• Amino acids can function effectively to replenish the TCA cycle intermediates, hence a reduced carbohydrate regime irrelevant.
• High protein means high saturated fat hence increased risk of heart disease.
8. Ignoring satiety signals
A common problem is that we ignore our satiety signals. This can happen for a number of reasons.
We live in a very social environment with eating and drinking infused into celebrations, business meetings, social gatherings and even religious rituals.
We have take-away and fast food with ‘value’ meals and options to up-size for a small 50 cents or one dollar.
We have eating out and fine dining that offer generous portion sizes and 3 course meals.
We have an evolving food industry with exquisite food creations, so tasty and generous that it leaves you with no choice but to eat it all. How many times have you ended up feeling very very full?
It can be very hard to say no!
We do have temptation everywhere.
We do need to start listening to our satiety signals and stop eating when our body has had enough.
If you feel you have truly tried EVERYTHING to lose weight and your overweight is unexplained, we can help you investigate why you struggle to lose weight.
