Why Am I Gaining Weight And How To Lose It

You don’t know why, but the pounds keep on piling on you, slowly and surely. You’re wondering what you’re doing wrong, why this is happening and how you can reverse the process. So, if you ever asked yourself: “Why am I gaining weight?” this article is for you. You will learn exactly why this is happening and how you can change things.

The Calorie Balance As The Source Of Weight Gain

To understand why you’re gaining weight you must first know about the Calorie Balance. Each of us consumes and burns calories. A calorie is a unit of energy, nothing more. You get your calories from the food you consume, both solid foods and beverages and you burn them through activity. Your calorie balance is the difference between the amount of calories that you consume and that which you burn off.
A negative calorie balance, meaning that you burn more than you consume is called a deficit and this results in weight loss. The opposite is called a surplus and results in weight gain. This is the simple way things work.

Not All Weight Gain Is Bad

Weight gain is not always such a bad thing. Your weight is comprised of your entire mass: bones, muscle, internal organs, and your fat tissue. Adding more muscle mass to your body is usually considered a good thing, even if you are becoming heavier due to it. What most people are worried about is gaining excess body fat. This can be bad for your health and bad for your appearance.
Gaining muscle mass is often the result of a strength training routine coupled with a protein rich diet plan. Gaining fat is the result of totally different processes. Since you’re probably asking yourself why you’re gaining fat, this is what I’ll talk about from this point on.

The Reasons Why You’re Gaining Weight (fat)

Gaining body fat is, usually, the result of too little physical activity and eating too much. You’re simply consuming more calories than your body can use. I said that this is usually the case because there are exceptions which I’ll go into below. However, for the most part, this is the cause of your fat gain.
Let’s go over some of the reasons why you may be eating too many calories:

• You’re drinking high calorie beverages such as soda, juices, or alcoholic drinks which can actually delay fat burning. Often, you don’t get full from these drinks, but the calories are still real.
• You eat a lot of high fat foods, fried, junk food, or highly processed foods.
• Often, the foods you eat are rich in sugar and salt and chemicals which make you even hungrier, thirstier and some say even addicted to more of the same food. This increases your cravings and causes you to eat more.
• You have an emotional dependence on food and you use it to fight off bad feelings. This is called emotional eating and it is a problem millions of people have.

Here are some of the reasons why you don’t burn enough calories:

• You have a desk job in which you sit for long hours.
• You don’t have any active hobbies that allow you to “exercise without exercising” and burn extra calories.
• You are very busy and can’t find the time to exercise or you simply don’t know how to do short and effective workouts.
• You hate exercising or don’t make the effort to do so.
• You don’t have a gym membership, can’t afford fitness gear and don’t know how to do good bodyweight workouts at home.

In addition to a lack of exercise, there are a number of lifestyle factors which influence weight gain:

• Lack of sleep increases your appetite and may drive you to eat too much.
• Stress leads to increased fat storage and increases cravings.
• If you recently quit smoking, you may find that you gain weight due to food cravings.

There are also various health conditions and medications which may lead to weight gain:

• Birth control pills and various psychiatric drugs.
• Thryoid problems.
• Fatigue.

Take a look at your life and think whether any of the factors above are a part of it. If so, this may explain why you’re gaining weight. The main thing to remember is that you don’t gain weight for no reason. There is always a cause.
 

Time To Live Healthy

 

It is now time to change your habits and start practicing a good and healthy lifestyle. You need to make time for exercise and be ready to put in a lot of hard work at the gym. You need to eat healthy and in moderation. You have to improve your habits and make your health a priority.
What you should do is go over the list of factors I outlined above and figure out exactly what you’re doing wrong. Is there anything you can improve on? If there really is nothing, you should consult with your doctor to make sure there is no underlying physical cause for your weight gain. Once you do that, I am sure that you will find the real cause. Once you have the cause, simply eliminate it from your routine and you will turn things around.