Ever
wonder if some of the things you do on
a daily basis could be making you gain
fat? Some things you may already know
but some of them may take you completely
by surprise!
1. Eating then sleeping
MAY make you gain fat
Your body doesn't require as many calories
during sleep and calories that are eaten
right before sleep have a FAR greater
chance of being stored as fat.
But
here's the strange thing...studies have
been done on eating then sleeping and
show no increased risk for obesity. They
maintain it's overall calorie load during
the day that leads to weight gain. So
if you eat a full days worth of calories
during the day, THEN eat late at night
before sleeping, your body doesn't need
those calories and will store them as
fat.
[EDITORS
NOTE: eating specific foods such as protein
shakes that are taken for the purposes
of muscle building and recovery do not
fall into this category. When taken properly
and in reasonable quantities, they will
not add significant fat to the body.]
2. Skipping meals or
not eating for long periods of time will
make you gain fat
The
reason for this is not because your metabolism
will slow down (unless you go for more
than a full day without eating, of course).
The reason is that most people tend to
get really hungry when they don't eat
for long periods. And this hunger often
leads to poor food choices...junk, basically.
It's
the JUNK that makes you get fat...not
necessarily the long period without eating.
Intermittent fasting is actually a good,
legitimate eating pattern, when done properly.
3. Drinking soft drinks
(even diet drinks) with fatty foods will
make you gain fat
A
sugary soft drink will result in a high
insulin response. Insulin is a storage
hormone - it helps the body store carbohydrates,
proteins and fats.
There
is also evidence to suggest that the artifical
sweeteners commonly found in diet drinks
can cause an insulin reaction in the body.
It's a simple reaction to the sweetness,
not carbs as there are no carbs in diet
drinks. The body simply associates the
taste of sweetness with the presence of
carbs and assumes that carbs are present,
increasing insulin levels in response.
What do you get when you have fatty foods
in the presence of increased insulin levels?
Simple. You get fat.
My
advice is this: if you're going to eat
fatty foods (we all do it at some point
or other), drink water, not soft drinks
or even diet soft drinks. Save the diet
drinks for times when you're not eating
fatty foods.
4. Constant snacking
on energy foods will make you gain fat
I'm
all for frequent eating to boost the metabolism
and snacking on healthy foods is definitely
not a bad thing. That's not what I'm talking
about here. I'm talking about giving your
body a constant supply of food energy.
Consider
this: if you give your body a constant
supply of energy, it will not have a reason
to dip into stored bodyfat for energy.
You'll never dip into the battery on your
laptop computer if you leave it plugged
in. The body is no different.
A
constant supply of outside energy means
it won't have to use its own stored energy
supplies. The result: you put on fat because
the body doesn't need to burn any of it
for energy.
5. Stress without physical
exertion will make you gain fat
The
jury is NOT out on evolution. The human
body evolved to deal with stress in certain
ways. Before we became "civilized,"
stress was all about fight-or-flight.
Stress was that you were about to be eaten
by a lion so you'd better run!
In
response, the body needed a mechanism
for quick energy to be available and a
system to help deal with shock and injury.
It was all about survival.
The
result? In stressful conditions, the body
secretes cortisol - a hormone that immediately
starts breaking down muscle tissue for
fast energy (it also acts as an anti-inflammatory
in case of injury; cortisone is a relative
of cortisol).
These
days, we very rarely have to worry about
being eaten by pretty much anything. But
the basic responses of the body can't
distinguish between that stress and the
stress of, say, your boss taking away
your treasured red stapler that you love
so much and moving your desk to the basement.
In
the past, stress would be immediately
followed by physical exertion. You'd run
as fast as you could from the lion or
you'd fight off what was attacking you.
Now, there is rarely physical exertion
following stress so the cortisol is not
dissipated. It continues to break down
muscle and promote fat storage.
This
is why constant stress without regular
exercise will make you gain fat.
6. Toxic substances
in your food will make you gain fat
Your
body's reaction to a toxic substance is
simple: protection. There are two primary
ways the body does this. First, it tries
to flush the toxins out. If that fails,
it will try to lock the toxins away.
Think
about it this way - what do nuclear power
plants do with radioactive waste? They
seal it in concrete and bury it. This
is essentially the same thing your body
does with toxins that you ingest. If it
can't get rid of them, it seals them up
in fat cells and locks them away.
Have
you ever experienced headaches or other
general ill feelings when you've gone
on a diet? This is typical and is a result
of previously stored toxins being released
into the body again as you burn or release
fat. You are, in essence, unsealing the
toxins and flushing them out. This is
one of the primary reasons it's critical
to drink plenty of water when you're losing
fat.
Minimize
foods that contain toxins such as preservatives,
pesticides (wash your fruit and vegetables
thoroughly), antibiotics, and heavy metals
(such as the mercury increasingly found
in some species of fish). Your body will
protect itself by holding onto fat to
lock the toxins away.
7. Losing muscle mass
will make you gain fat
The
engine of your metabolism is your muscle
mass. This is where the majority of calories
are burned in the body. If you go on a
diet and you lose a lot of muscle, it
is pretty much a guarantee you'll gain
the weight back (and often more!) and
make it harder to lose fat again.
If
you don't protect your muscle mass, the
more you diet, the fatter you'll get.
8. Overconsumption of
fructose will make you gain fat
Even
though fructose is a sugar found in fruit
and fruit juice, please, please, PLEASE
don't take this point to mean that simply
eating fruit is going to make you fat.
It's not. Here's what I mean:
Your
body stores carbohydrates in the form
of glycogen in the muscles and in the
liver. When your body needs energy, it
breaks the glycogen down into sugar (glucose)
for use in various bodily processes.
When
your glycogen stores are full, extra carbohydrates
will have a tendency to be stored as fat
unless burned by activity. Fructose is
more efficently converted into fat (more
specifically, it's converted into the
chemical backbone of triglycerides, which
are fat molecules) than are other carbohydrates
such as glucose. This makes it that much
easier for excess fructose to be converted
into fat.
While
high fructose corn syrup is by far the
main culprit when it comes to fructose
and fat gain, even the fructose found
in fruits and fruit juices can have this
effect. Because fructose has "nicer"
associations with it (being a fruit sugar)
than other sugars such as sucrose (table
sugar), a person may think they can drink
all the juice they want and not run into
the same trouble as if they drank the
same amount of a sugary drink containing
sucrose.
Fruit
juices are essentially a concentrated
source of fruit sugar and calories - as
much as 150 calories or more per glass!
Certainly, juice has more nutritional
qualities to it than a soft drink but
it is nevertheless important to realize
that juice actually has a lot of calories
and that the sugar it contains can easily
be converted into fat.
What
to do about it? Eating your fruit and
drinking your fruit juice earlier in the
day will greatly minimize any chance of
spillover into fat stores. Also, take
steps to minimize consumption of high
fructose corn syrup, which is found in
foods and drinks such as soft drinks and
fruit beverages, cookies, gum, jams, jellies
and baked goods. As always, read the labels!
9. Drinking alcohol
frequently will make you gain fat
Alcohol
can make you fat in so many ways. Consider
these points:
