Are you struggling with weight gain? Obesity is a huge problem worldwide. It’s linked to heart disease, high bloodpressure and diabetes. In this article we’re going to discuss11 leading causes of weight gain and obesity. How does modern marketing and the availability of food make you fat? Is there a hormone responsible? What about the role of your genes? We’re talking all this AND more...
1. Modern Marketing Have you ever craved ice cream just because you saw an advertisement on television? Have you ever wanted coffee right after seeing a picture of it on social media? We all struggle with these temptations. But all of these temptations drive your calorie intake.
It definitely gets frustrating when you gain weight because of it. Fast food companies always prefer an aggressive type of marketing for their products. They make you crave their unhealthy foods simply by showing us pictures. Their marketing strategies aren’t just aggressive,but at times unethical.
For instance, they mislead us by marketing their unhealthy products as healthy. The most shameless part of this is that they target teenagers and young children as their consumers. Due to misleading information, young children gobble up these unhealthy junk foods. This makes them unhealthy, addicted and above all, obese. What is your favorite junk food? Is there a specific place you like ordering from?
2. Leptin Resistance Do you feel like you’re starving all the time? Like you’re constantly hungry? You just ate a big sandwich and within half an hour you’re hungry AGAIN! This can be because of a specific hormone called leptin.
Leptin hormone is not an obesity hormone,but one that makes you hungry. Somehow, leptin doesn’t work properly inobese people. It’s unable to carry information to the brain. This particular condition is known as leptin resistance. As a result, you only gain more weight with each fatty meal.
3. Insulin Resistance Insulin is produced by your pancreas and maintains the circulation of nutrients in our blood. Its main function is to manage blood sugar levels and tell fat cells to store fat. It’s been found that a western diet promotes resistance to insulin in obese and over weight people.
This means insulin levels will be high, and energy will get stored in fat cells instead of being available for use. This isn’t something anyone should take lightly. In other words, cells don’t answer to insulin correctly.
This is insulin resistance. Experts have proven both high insulin and insulin resistance to be the cause of obesity. To correct the insulin levels, you must cut carbohydrates, and add more fiber to your diet.
4. Your Genes People usually associate obesity with poor food choices. While this plays a massive part, there’s more to it in many cases. Have you ever considered your genes? I wouldn’t blame you if you haven’t. It does hurt to think your own DNA is doing a number on you.
Obese parents are more likely to have obese kids. Studies on identical twins have shown that genes do play a role in deciding whether or not you’ll be obese. But don’t make this an excuse. You still need to work towards getting yourself fit.
5. Your Food addiction Well food addiction is real. Especially sugar and fat addiction. These foods stimulate the reward part of your brain. Over time, you only become addicted to gross foods.
This can be as challenging as other addictions like alcohol, nicotine and cocaine. Just like other addictions, you lose your ability to control your desires and become emotionally dependent on high sugar and fat. Addiction of any kind is terrible to overcome.
6. Processed Junk Food We all love pizza, soda, burgers and fries. Sometimes all together if we’re really starving. No matter how delightful these processed foods taste, they are a BIG health threat at the end of the day.
Processed junk food contains refined ingredients and additives to make them last longer. But at the same time, it’s the main cause of health problems like obesity, weight gain and diabetes.
7. Certain Medicines Are you suffering from medical conditions like diabetes or depression? Unfortunately, medicines are here to help you get better. But one of their main side-effects can be weight gain.
Especially medicines like antidepressants and antipsychotics. These medicines influence your metabolism and increase your appetite. If you feel you’re putting on a lot of weight due to your meds, consult your doctor for an alternative.
8. Food Is Everywhere One of the major causes of obesity and weight gain is the wide spread availability of food. It’s on every shelf at every store. Another problem is that not everyone isn’t able to buy fresh vegetables and fruits.
They cost more than cheap junk food. As a result, people with limited means are left with no option but to eat what’s within their price range.
9. Misinformation Having trouble losing weight despite your strict diet? The internet is full of misinformation. It’s very important you rely on trust worthy sources to collect info. Especially when it comes to your health.
People around the globe are being misled on health and nutrition. Everything you read on Facebook and even health sites needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Not literally though. What happens is that these websites misinterpret scientific studies and collect out dated data to over simplify the results on weight gain or fat loss.
Sometimes food companies also misinform their consumers. They promote weight loss supplements that do not meet the promises made during their promotion. All of this misinformation contributes to your expanding waistline.
10. Sodas, Ice-Cream and Other Sugary stuff Do you think you’re eating healthy foods? Well think again. Eating healthy food means your diet should represent balanced meals. You should have all the nutrients from protein and carbs to fat and fiber.
If your daily diet also includes sodas and ice-creams, I have bad news. You’re consuming way too much sugar. This brings on challenges to your health. When eaten in excess, sugar changes the biochemistry of your body, making you obese.
Natural sugar is not that harmful for you in comparison to the added kinds. Added sugar is bad for your health because it’s half glucose and half fructose. Glucose is found in natural foods like starches. But you get fructose mainly from added sugar.
This causes insulin resistance, and makesou gain weight. Fructose doesn’t make you feel full either.
11. Hypothyroidism and Cushing’s Syndrome Pre-existing health problems are also one of the main causes of obesity and weight gain. This includes things like hypothyroidism and Cushing’s syndrome.
Hypothyroidism is a condition in which your thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones. These are important because they regulate your metabolism and energy production in the body. Cushing’s syndrome is due to over production of cortisol by the adrenal glands.
Its function is to convert proteins, carbohydrates and fat into energy while also maintaining blood sugar levels. The more the cortisol level the faster the metabolism will be. Due to which there is an increase in appetite and gain weight.
But this doesn’t mean you are bound to stay over weight. Losing weight isn’t rocket science. You just need a mix of will power and knowledge. You can in fact start your weight transformation journey right here, right now!
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