What Could Be Making You Fat?
Copyright (c) 2013 Tim D Dowland
Weight loss has always been a mystery to people around the world, with many people swearing by strange diets and pills that at best can give you bad breath or just don't work. We all know that deep down eating less food and taking more exercise is the key to losing weight, it's just that most people can't face this reality and are looking for an easier option. After trawling through the vaults of stories and current research some of the results below are genuine suggestions to help you lose weight.
1. There was a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research which concludes the problem may not be your appetite; it could be your reading skills. According to the study, healthy-sounding labels are duping dieters. So large people were being fooled into thinking that the 6 chocolate eclairs they had just eaten were good for them, just because they had a 50% off label on them, 'that's the price - not the amount of fat'.
2. Your Diet Soda Habit - Put down the pop! Studies have shown that men who drink two or more diet sodas a day have waist size increases up to six times greater than those who don't drink diet soda. These insidious sodas may be free of calories, but they're not free of consequences!
3. Lack of Sleep - New research suggests sleepless nights don't just ruin your mood the next day, they could also damage your waistline. Researchers at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Centre at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital found that while sleepy folks seem to burn the same number of calories as well-rested people, they can consume about 300 more calories a day.
4. The Room Temperature - Trying to lose weight? Turn down the thermostat. A cosy home could be contributing to making you fat, suggests research in the journal 'Obesity Reviews'. When our bodies are cold we shiver, causing our muscles to contract to generate heat - and burn calories. Can you see people shivering in their own homes just trying to lose a bit of weight?
5. Your Overweight Friends - A Journal of Medicine study declared that people can actually ''catch'' obesity from close friends. When researchers followed 12,067 people over 32 years, they concluded that those of us with very close friends who are obese have a 171 per cent higher chance of becoming obese too. The theory goes: you're influenced by your friends, and if they over eat, you may unwittingly follow their lead. Surprisingly, spouses have less sway over the belly than close friends of the same sex. The good news is that it may also work in reverse. Hang out with thin people and you might lose weight.
6. Eating Too Much - If you prescribe to the idea that eating small meals frequently throughout the day makes it easier to reduce overall calories, you could be doing yourself a disfavour. Turns out we're programmed to think that a meal is a perfect combination of proteins, carbohydrates, and fat. In some studies the mini-meals are regarded by our bodies more like proper meals and their associated calories.
7. Toxic Chemicals - While you may never have heard of phthalates - a family of chemicals used to make plastics flexible - new evidence linking these, and other so-called "endocrine-disrupting" chemicals, with obesity has been growing. In fact, researchers have taken to calling many of these substances obesogens (obesity-promoting chemicals). A healthy immune system can help ward off the dangers of these chemicals, but why not boost your body's efforts by not packing your produce in plastic the next time you buy groceries?
8. Your Stress Level - When you have stress, your body steps up its production of cortisol and insulin. Your appetite increases, and so do the chances you'll engage in "hedonistic" eating in the form of high-calorie sweets and fats. When you try to combat stress with food, you activate the reward centre of your brain. After that initial feel-good spell wears off, you'll reach again for the same thing that made you feel good the first time.
Take these eight points with a pinch of salt if you like, but working with big size gentlemen everyday as a big size mens clothing company, there always seems to be a degree of overeating and lack of exercise that is contributory to their obesity, most men would admit this. The difficulty is making that change and lowering your intake of calories, help with this will be covered in our next article.
About the Author
I'm Tim Dowland from http://www.bigmatts.co.uk If you have anything to add or discuss please visit our web site or our forum page or email me direct at tim@bigmatts.co.uk and I will pick up the story and take it further.
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