You won’t be shocked to hear that eating too much saturated fat and refined sugar will inevitably lead to obesity.
Poor diet plus a sedentary lifestyle forms the basis of most weight gain, and increases your risk of illnesses like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
And guess what? You may actually be gaining weight through behaviors you don’t even consciously recognize. As it turns out, there are many habits that seem fine on their face, but are actually sneakily adding pounds to your frame.
Mastering the following nine examples will get you a long way toward a healthy weight, even without taking on a restrictive and miserable diet regimen.
1. Eating Foods Labelled Low Fat
Contrary to years of public health warnings about the danger of eating fat, new research points to sugar as a much stronger driver of obesity.
For years we have all been buying low fat foods because they are marketed as healthy, but the truth is quite the opposite. Foods that have had their natural fat removed may have fewer calories, but that fat is replaced with sugar and other chemical additives that are actually way worse.
All that sugar gets used or stored by the body quickly, leaving you hungry again in short order. Ironically, if you had just eaten a meal with a good amount of healthy, unsaturated fat, you would likely eat fewer total calories throughout the day because you’d stay full longer.
2. Eating Too Fast
Surely it doesn’t matter how fast we eat our food, if it turns out to be same amount of food overall, right? Well, yes, that’s true. But the problem lies in the fact that it takes our stomachs about 20 minutes to signal to the brain that we’re full.
That means that when you shovel in your food, you don’t realize that you’re overeating until it’s too late. It never does turn out to be the same amount of food overall.
Take your time – at least 20 minutes – to finish each meal. A study out of the University of Rhode Island found that people who ate slowly and savored their food actually took in 1/3rd less than those who crammed their meals. One good strategy for slowing down is to cut your food into smaller bites.
3. Skipping Meals
It seems like skipping a meal or two would mean fewer calories consumed in a day. And after all, taking in fewer calories than you burn is the whole goal. Unfortunately, this practice has been proven to put on, rather than take off, weight. The reason is two-fold.
First, your metabolism slows down when you skip meals, which means it takes longer to burn calories when you do eat. And second, you are much more likely to overeat when you come to the table starving
The American Journal of Epidemiology published research which found that people who skip breakfast are a shocking 4.5 times more likely to obese.
4. Eating with Overweight Friends
It’s human nature, really. When we are in a social group that supports certain behavior, we are more likely to engage in that behavior. So whether your friends are overweight or not, if they overeat, you are about 57% more likely to do the same.
Interestingly, studies have also shown that eating in the presence of an overweight person may lead you to overeat even if the other person does not.
This is not to say that you should cut out friends who are overweight. Instead, plan different activities that burn calories in a fun way. Use that human tendency to do what your friends are doing to your advantage.
5. Not Getting Enough Sleep
Sleep and weight gain don’t seem like they can possibly be linked, but they are. Chemically speaking, missing out on too much slumber spikes your level of the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn messes with the body’s ability to process sugar via insulin. All that excess sugar turns to fat.
But in a behavioral sense, being exhausted leads to poor choices because we just don’t have the energy to shop for and cook healthy meals. We’ll just grab some fast food and skip the gym, creating a vicious cycle in which there is never enough energy to take the healthy actions necessary to turn the tide.
6. Eating from Large Plates
Again, you may be wondering how this can possibly make a difference. The fact is that we unconsciously use the ratio of food to plate diameter to judge whether our portions are sufficient. When you have a large plate, the right amount of food is going to look like nothing but table scraps.
On a smaller plate, a reasonable portion fills it up, making us feel satisfied because we ate a full plate. And indeed, you will feel full – just not overfull. Incidentally, a study out of Spain determined that people tend to eat less from red plates, so bear that in mind when you go shopping for new dinnerware.
7. Forgetting What You Drank
Things like soda and juice don’t really make people feel full, at least not for long, but just one single-serving bottle contains as much sugar as we should get in a whole day.
Beer and wine can both be quite high in calories too, especially since folks seldom stop at just one. But when we think about what we consumed during any given day, what we drank is seldom considered. Sorry, but those calories do count.
Drinking mostly water is your best bet, but very lightly sweetened tea and coffee are also great choices that can stave off boredom without adding a ton of calories to your day.
8. Mindless Eating
One of the worst times to eat is when you’re watching television, because statistics show that you are likely to eat 5-10 x more than you would if you weren’t distracted. It’s not just TV, though.
Eating lunch at your desk or in the midst of an emotional discussion can also create just enough distraction to overeat without realizing it. If you are going to eat distracted, pre-portion your meal or snack so that when it’s gone, it’s gone.
9. Not Planning Ahead
If you wait until you are starving to decide what to cook, that decision is going to be way harder. We literally cannot think straight when we’re hungry. And honestly, when was the last time you were ravenous and grabbed a piece of fruit instead of a cookie for a snack? Our brains are hardwired to want instant gratification.
If you take the time to plan your meals in advance, there is less thinking to do when it’s time to cook. If you really do need a snack, make sure your kitchen is stocked with things that feel a little indulgent while still offering solid nutrition, like whole wheat pita chips dipped in hummus or guacamole.
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