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Weight Gain: Causes and Prevention

17:02 July 30, 2015
By: 2Fik

What's the Cause of Your Weight Gain and How to Prevent it

Are you tired of gaining weight? Do you often find yourself frustrated and feeling defeated by this reality? Well, if this indeed happening, of course you do. After all, none of us enjoy it when the number on our scale begins to climb. However, the bigger question is why are you gaining weight?

Well, the answer is often found in recent life changes.

According to Edward Abramson, Ph.D. the author of Emotional Eating, "Any change in your life circumstances can produce changes in eating and exercise, which leads to weight gain."

So do you have any major changes in your life that may be causing your weight gain without you even being aware of it? Let's look at a few examples of life changes that can often be catalysts to weigh gain.

A Quick Fact

As we proceed, remember that we all gain weight for different reasons. We often hear about the one-size-fits-all weight loss solutions that rarely take into consideration how the extra weight piled on in the first place. To experience true weight loss it is important to understand why you gained it in the first place, and a good exercise is to think back to the time in your life when your weight was just right. Were you in your teens? Your twenties…or maybe your thirties? Picture yourself as you were at your ideal weight. Now ask yourself, "When did things change?" Was it a gradual addition of pounds that accumulated over a span of multiple years; or, did you gain it all at once?

Armed with that knowledge, I have listed seven possible fat gaining triggers below.

College: The college years are some of the easiest for gaining weight. In fact, a recent study by Cornell University found that on average, college freshman gain about 0.5 pounds a week - almost 11 times more than the average weight gain among 17-and 18-year olds, and almost 20 times more than the average weight gain among American adults.

Marriage: There's nothing like getting married to encourage a caloric influx in your diet. Late night comfort snacks are always more enjoyable when you have someone to share them with—and who better than the person you love and who pledged to stick by your side through sickness and health?

Pregnancy: Talk about a great time to gain weight! And we're not just talking about women here—most men admit that they gained 'sympathy' pounds right along with their wife. Hormonal changes along with strong encouragement from everyone you know to indulge in anything their heart desires leave most pregnant women with a feeling of entitlement when it comes to food.

[Courtesy of Viacom Media Networks]

Career: Though you may not realize it, your career choice plays a major hand in your weight. Those who go from an active lifestyle to spending eight hours a day behind a desk and another hour one or two commuting almost always gain weight. Conversely, people who spend their eight hours in constant motion find weight loss a natural byproduct of the job.

New Habits

Close your eyes and go back to the fat trap that triggered your weight gain. What changed in your lifestyle? To help sort things out, I've broken things down into two specific behavioral categories.

Eating Habits: Did your eating pattern change during this time in your life? If your weight gain occurred in college, then maybe you went from eating three square meals to an all-you-can-eat buffet style cafeteria. Or if marriage was your weight gain trigger, then maybe you went from eating small meals to fattening comfort food. Pregnancy brings on the perfect environment for a change in eating habits. You go from eating normally, to eating 'for two', to munching on your baby's snacks right along with him! Your job can also dictate your eating schedule. Long hours and early meetings may cause you to grab a donut or chips from the vending machine.

Activity Level: The second category that leads to weight gain is your activity level. Simply put, what kind of exercise were you doing before your life-changing event and how does it compare to your current exercise regime? Chances are good that you were doing more exercise before your weight gain began—which means that you are doing less exercise today. Go ahead, think back to the exercises or physical activities that you used to do and compare them to your schedule today.

Conclusion

Now that you've figured out which fat trap(s) in your life led to weight gain, and narrowed down some the specific behaviors that changed as a result, let us help you with some solutions that we have had success with while working with other clients similar to yourself.

[Where Y'At Staff/Provided Photo]

About Nolan Ferraro, Owner, Salire Fitness and Wellness

Certified personal trainer and licensed wellness coach Nolan Ferraro has been recognized as the #1 Best Personal Trainer in New Orleans.

Nolan counts Chef Susan Spicer among the thousands of New Orleanians who have gotten in shape with Salire's Private Personal Training and high-impact fitness Boot camp programs like "Power in the Park", a month-long cross-training boot camp in City Park. He has also added a new high intensity interval training class, Body Blitz, at his studio.

Visit www.salirefitness.com for more information on Nolan and Salire Fitness & Wellness.

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