If you listen to any "expert" on the obesity epidemic long enough you soon realize that most of them figure that the only reason people get fat is because they eat too much and sit on their couch all day. But weight gain is far more complex than that. Medications, various life stages, hormonal imbalances and more can all cause those unwanted pounds to creep onto your body and then refuse to get off.
If you live a relatively active lifestyle and you eat a good balance of foods, in theory you shouldn't gain any additional weight as you get older. But a lot of older people do gain weight even when other aspects in their lifestyle haven't changed. If this is happening to you then a visit to your local doctor might be a good idea to see what is happening with your hormone levels, or to ensure that you don't have an underlying problem with your thyroid glands for example.
If you are on anti-depressant medication then this can also be the reason you have gained unwanted weight. Check with the side effects of any medication that you are taking to ensure that you are not being influenced by changes to your metabolism or the way your body processes the foods you eat. Also steroids taken for asthma can also cause you to gain weight, which can be equally difficult to shift.
Stress can often be one of the main causes of an unexpected weight gain. When you are under stress your body produces cortisol which puts the body into its fight or flight response mechanism. When the body is in this state blood is drawn away from the digestive system to be used in other areas of the body.
Long term stress can result in your body converting sugars into fat around your middle body area - your body is trying to protect your major organs. Unfortunately too much fat in that region can cause pressure on those same major organs which can lead to major health problems.
Because of the complexity evident in how we are all getting bigger, it makes sense that the diet programs that are based on the assumption that you are eating too much and doing too little, are not going to be overly effective. For example if a weight program that simply advises the user to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables while taking a ten mile hike, is used by a woman who is actually overweight because she lives in a stressful environment, then the woman is not going to lose any weight. What is worse is that he or she will also feel like they have failed as opposed to thinking there was any failure evident in the dieting program.
More information on the different reasons why some people get fat when others don't, such as a low iron count, pregnancy and childbirth, and more information on stress can be found in "The Happiness Diet: How to lose weight quickly and with a minimum of fuss", by Lisa Oliver - You can search for it on Amazon.com. Providing quality counselling articles, hynotherapy writings and other mind help resources online, counsellor, hypnotherapist and life coach in London.
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