Everywhere you turn these days you see an overweight or obese person walking by. Although on the outside most of them look fine it is quite likely that their internal organs are begging for help. As a person ages, weight gain is a normal phenomenon. As long as it is within the healthy limit it is fine. However, one must also not forget that the tendency to become overweight also increases with age and the excess fat in the body acts as a magnet for diseases. Age slows down many an activity – weight loss being one such. This article covers the advantages of maintaining an optimal weight, unhealthy weight gain causes, and factors that slow down progress in weight loss.
Importance Of Maintaining Optimal Body Weight
Many factors determine a person’s ideal body weight – gender, age, height, bone density, ethnicity, physique, gene, etc being some deciding factors in this regard. When a person is too far on the heavier side as compared to their ideal weight all hell breaks loose. Listed below are some of these very issues people face being fat:
- People who are on the heavy side tend to slow down while performing physical activities as they have to put twice the effort to carry out the task than as compared to someone fit and healthy. For eg. activities like jogging, climbing stairs, cycling, etc
- Fat people experience sleep issues aplenty. They are often found tossing and turning in bed struggling to find a comfortable sleeping position.
- An unpleasant odor of sweat typically comes from those who are on the heavy side. This need not necessarily be as a result of weight issues itself but in comparison fat people do tend to sweat more.
- Excessive fat in the body could give rise to several underlying health conditions like diabetes, heart diseases, stroke, kidney diseases, etc and the sooner one adopts a suitable weight-loss plan, the better.
- Those on the heavier side have lower sexual capacitances than their counterparts. Fat people also suffer from infertility issues.
- Weight gain and laziness go hand-in-hand. Fat people tend to have low energy, lack of enthusiasm, and low self-esteem as compared to someone lean and active.
- Fat people often are found to have less stamina. They also experience breathing issues as the excessive fat around their lungs constrict the air passage causing difficulties.
- Frequent pain in the back, joints, knees, etc. is a common problem faced by most fat people owing to the pressure their bodies exert on internal organs, bones, etc.
Causes For Unhealthy Weight Gain
Various studies conducted on weight gain have garnered one common result – people’s tendency to make unhealthy lifestyle choices. Certain everyday practices lead to steady and unhealthy weight gain that one needs to be wary of. They are:
- Binge eating snacks while watching tv, reading a book, etc. What may start as a single packet leads to several more, which ultimately turns into a bad habit.
- Going grocery shopping on an empty stomach. You may not realize it but you come back home with everything food except what’s on the list you took along with you.
- Taking comfort in sweet treats post lunch or dinner. Try substituting chocolates and cakes with fruits or a detoxifying tea, and turn this into a habit.
- Depriving your body of rest/sleep or sleeping more at the wrong times. Both the aforementioned can add to those kilos than expected, as they disrupt metabolism.
- Ordering in or resorting to takeaways than indulging in some soul cooking. Undoubtedly this habit acts as a calorie enhancer for all the wrong reasons. Consuming less home-cooked food also translates to feeding your bodies with less nutritious food.
- Resorting to chilled, aerated beverages by neglecting your soups, detoxifying teas, etc is definitely a wrong choice to make to suffice the hydration needs of the body.
- Just like French fries and ketchup share an inseparable bond, off-late people ask for sauces and mayo like they can’t eat without it, not realizing that this contributes to unwanted calories.
Common Mistakes That Inhibit Progress
Often people are found confused or have mistaken notions on what is good for them to attain weight-loss goals. Some common mistakes committed in this regard are:
- Being mindless of what one eats – if your goal is to lose weight then you have to consume food that is low in calories. Know that every calorie counts and the more careless one is in this regard the more difficult it gets to lose those kgs. Most people eat without having good knowledge on calorie count and that’s how, despite eating smaller portions, little to no difference is noted on the scale.
- Neglecting physical activities – some people resort only to eating less food, completely omitting all forms of physical activity. This leads to loss of fat as well as muscle mass to some extent but it also brings down one’s metabolic rate. Therefore, to attain healthy weight loss one needs to at least walk for half or an hour or perform any form of physical activity daily.
- Cutting down on protein intake – most people who are trying to lose weight don’t realize that eating protein is actually good for them. They either lack knowledge in this regard or chose to ignore the same. Protein-rich food makes one feel fuller for longer time frames, makes one feel less hungry, reduces calorie intake, and aids in muscle mass retention. It also increases metabolic activity all of which promotes weight loss.
- Neglecting fiber intake – fiber-rich food and weight loss go hand-in-hand. The mistake of not adding enough fiber to your meal is a grave mistake indeed as far as weight loss is concerned. Fibrous food aids digestion as well as makes one feel full quickly.
- Falling for diet fads – diet fads may seem really attractive initially but gradually not only does one lose interest but they also realize that food consumed thus hardly upholds nutritious values and can do more harm to the body in the long run than good. Diet fads never help one to attain sustained weight loss, thus it is best avoided as it often goes heavy on one’s time, effort and pocket.
- Spending anxious minutes on the weighing machine – remember that your journey of weight loss should be to attain a set goal. And for this, there is no magic potion but to focus on time, perseverance, and effort as the vital keys that will help unlock your goal. Daily weighing-machine readings may tend to make the person feel discouraged when they don’t see a frequent reduction in the numbers and this may adversely affect your mood and subsequently the goal itself.
- Eating every 2-3 hours to reduce hunger pangs – most experts advise people to eat 5-6 meals a day as part of their weight-loss plan than the conventional 3-meals a day routine. The intention behind this being eating smaller portions before one begins to feel hungry. But this frequent eating often messes up calorie intake especially when people are not mindful eaters and this, in turn, ruins the ultimate weight-loss goal.
Conclusion
Whenever one decides to embark on a weight-loss plan it is important to set a goal and work towards achieving it. This would call for investing your time, effort, sometimes money too, but most importantly your journey should revolve around your determination and perseverance. Make sure you don’t set any unrealistic goals as this may adversely affect your motivation. Know your body, know its needs and work a plan with a nutritional expert. Be mindful of what goes inside your body, avoid common mistakes people commit and rest assured, for your goal will meet its target in due time.