Reasons for Weight Gain on a Healthy Diet, Life would be much easier if ideal weight could be achieved through proper nutrition alone. But, as we know, losing weight is not the easiest process and depends on many factors.
Recently, we told you about a number of physiological deviations that prevent you from losing extra pounds. Today on How to Green, we will talk about behavioral and emotional patterns that cause weight gain, even when you try your best to eat right.
1. Simple overeating
Do you find yourself constantly chewing something and rarely feeling hungry? Most likely, you are simply overeating. When choosing a healthy lifestyle and highly nutritious food, do not forget the law of conservation of energy: if you eat more calories than you spend, they will be deposited in the form of extra pounds.
Be especially careful with high-calorie snacks such as nuts, nut butter, and healthy whole-grain crackers. Train yourself to take breaks between meals and snacks to have time to get really hungry. And if you have a tendency to emotional eating, then try to always have light snacks with you, such as pieces of celery, fresh carrots and apple slices.
2. Slow metabolism
You might be thinking, “What do metabolism and behavior patterns have to do with this?” Let us explain: we are talking about a slowdown in metabolism as a result of a cyclical obsession with diets and the associated undereating. Although they create a deficit in consumed calories, the latter also leads to a drop in the metabolic rate below the optimal level. In this way, the body starts the work of a natural mechanism that protects it from starvation.
When a person comes out of a strict diet (and this happens sooner or later) and begins to eat larger portions of food, the body simply does not have time to adapt the metabolic rate to the new volumes of incoming calories, and as a result, weight gain occurs. A similar effect is an evening “belly feast” after a whole day of fasting. It’s such a vicious circle. Therefore, remember that if you are aiming for healthy and sustainable weight loss, a strict diet will not help you.
3. Unbalanced diet
Unfortunately, not all diets offer optimally balanced diets. Deficiency of some nutrients and excess of others are possible even when creating your own diet. Here are the most common scenarios that lead to weight gain.
- Lack of healthy fats. Many people are still afraid to include nutritious avocados, nuts, olive oil, and coconut oil in their diet, not knowing that when consumed in moderation, these foods help us lose weight. The body uses them for healthy cell function, reducing internal inflammation, balancing hormones, and as a source of energy.
- Excess of fats consumed. Others, on the contrary, abuse healthy fats and end up overdoing it with calories. Here are the optimal volumes of their consumption per day: one or two tablespoons of vegetable oil, a small handful of nuts or olives, and half an avocado.
- Lack of fresh vegetables and leafy greens. This essential component of a balanced diet should take up about half of your plate during your main meal. Those who neglect this low-calorie, blood sugar-regulating, fiber-rich, vitamin- and mineral-rich food tend to overeat carbohydrates and protein. By the way, your plate should contain no more than one-quarter of each of these elements by volume.
- Too much fruit. However unlimited consumption of fruit leads to excess glucose in the body and then to the formation of fatty tissue. Remember: if you are aiming to lose weight, then your two or three servings of fruit per day should not exceed a handful of berries, a small apple, or half a grapefruit.
4. Abuse of ready-made “healthy” products
This category includes granola, protein bars, yogurts and other snacks and desserts with labels like “healthy,” “natural,” “low-calorie,” and “fat-free” on the packaging. Many people blindly rely on such claims and snack on these sometimes not-so-healthy processed foods several times a day. The fact is that such snacks often contain gluten, milk protein, large amounts of sugar, artificial sweeteners, trans fats, GMOs, and preservatives that cause digestive upset, allergic reactions, and other serious internal inflammations that lead to weight gain.
5. Chronic overtraining
Hormonal imbalance plays a major role in gaining extra pounds, in particular, elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol . It turns out that its release can be caused not only by emotional but also physiological stress, such as, for example, long (40 minutes) monotonous cardio workouts. Cortisol not only provokes weight gain, but also negatively affects blood sugar levels, causing excessive cravings for food, and also slows down the thyroid gland, thereby reducing the metabolic rate. In this regard, short, around 20-30 minutes, high-intensity interval training is much more effective and, on the contrary, helps to lose weight. Another symptom of overtraining and the stress it causes is sleep disturbance, which is also directly associated with weight gain.
6. The idea of ”all or nothing”
And again we are talking about elevated cortisol levels, but this time caused by emotional stress. Think about it: are you comfortable with the diet you have chosen? Or are you experiencing psychological fatigue, trying to follow all the nutritionists’ recommendations at once? And do you also scold yourself for a long time for small “mistakes” like a piece of cake eaten at a friend’s birthday party, or salad dressing that the chef added directly to the plate despite your request? If this is familiar to you, then know: you are too strict with yourself.
This kind of stress slows down your metabolism , disrupts digestion and literally “hangs” extra pounds of fat on you in the waist area. Try to stop exhausting yourself with monotonous tasteless dishes, nourish your body with different and tasty food and be sure to do it with love for your body. By the way, a study from Cornell University found that weight fluctuations during the week, a slight gain in kilograms over the weekend and their loss during the week are a normal scenario for long-term and sustainable weight loss.
Balance is probably the key idea of today’s material. Psychological, emotional, physical – all are important in their own way. But various kinds of extremes and strict restrictions, on the contrary, are extremely undesirable. Therefore, try to find your balance: worry less about your weight, eat right, tasty and varied, cook yourself more often – and this will certainly have a positive effect.
