6 Surprising Habits That Make You Gain Weight

Everyone likes to stay fit. No, scrap that. Everyone needs to stay fit, and healthy.

Whether we like to admit it or not, our weight is directly linked to our health. Being overweight and being underweight have adverse consequences on our health and are situations we must avoid at all cost. Unfortunately, its a bit difficult. French fries taste better than side salads and chicken is yummier when grilled or fried.

However, a healthy weight is a lot easier to accomplish when the right choices are taken. Here are some surprisingly wrong choices you might have been practicing that is causing you to gain weight:

Taking Big Bites
Avoid spooning very large portions of food into your mouth. Cut your food into smaller pieces, use a smaller fork or spoon. You increase enjoyment and take longer to eat, which increases your satisfaction. Research has shown that people who took large bites of food consumed 52% more calories in one sitting than those who took small bites and chewed longer!

Not Getting Enough Sleep
You don’t even need to be conscious to work on losing weight. Getting the right amount of sleep is a major factor in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Sleep is essential for your metabolism, your blood-sugar regulation, appropriate hormone balance and energy health.

Skipping Meals
The problem is, skipping meals actually increases your chances of obesity, especially when it comes to breakfast. A study has shown that people who cut out the morning meal were 4.5 times more likely to be obese. Why? Skipping meals slows your metabolism and boosts your hunger. That puts your body in prime fat-storage mode and increases your chances of overeating at the next meal.

Eating Heavy Dinner
When you hit your body with so much food at dinner, it can be difficult for the body to digest and process it all. The extra can be converted into fatty acids and lead to weight gain.

Watching TV While Eating
When you watch television, you’re not fully concentrating on anything else that you’re doing, and this includes eating. You get distracted while eating and tend to eat much more. Sometimes, you may not even remember all of what you ate! Statistics also show you eat 5-10 times more when you eat while watching TV.

Eating Too Quickly
It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it’s had enough. Slow eaters eat fewer calories per meal than fast eaters. So if you are concerned about that weight, cut down your speed.

I personally learnt something new while writing this. I didn’t know that eating while watching TV could make me gain weight!

SL Fabz, do you have any other habit to add to this list? Are you guilty of any of the above habits?