If there’s a pandemic greater than the one we are facing right now, it’s obesity! Being on the wrong side of BMI (body mass index) is like throwing an open invitation to a majority of diseases including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other metabolic disorders, it can also act as a trigger to cancer. Being overweight can also have an adverse on the normal functioning of hormones and send them out of whack, thyroid, insulin, estrogen are just a few examples. In fact, a leading health organization has stated that obesity is taking over smoking over death caused by preventable diseases. The journey towards weight loss begins by trying to pinpoint factors that are leading to weight gain – it can be the food you consume on a daily basis, lifestyle, and even any underlying disorder. In this post, we will try to find out why we are gaining weight and how to stop it now.

1. We Do Not Eat Because We are Hungry! Whether it’s out of sheer boredom or to counter stress, we tend to reach for small and big packets of eatables like chips and nachos without even letting the hunger signals ring in. We have erratic meal times; and snack times are “as and when” needed. Earlier, we had regular schedules for breakfast, lunch, and tea, but with a majority of us leading a hectic lifestyle, it’s hard to eat on time and we tend to eat whenever we can squeeze in time. And we are snacking as a past time because it’s convenient to eat processed foods which appeal hugely to the tastebuds, killing the appetite for real and healthy food. Most of these snacks that we pick to munch on are high in sugar or salt, which are automatically high in calories. We also tend to move towards food when we are bored or tired, which is not a good thing for weight loss and for general health.  Mindless snacking and emotional eating has suppressed our satiety hormone “leptin,” and over a period of time, leptin no longer works as the way it should, to make you feel full when enough food has been received and when energy stores have been replenished in the body. When the hunger-appetite hormone balance is out of whack, putting on weight is a natural outcome.  Solution: Chalk out proper meal times, refer to Rati Beauty Weight Loss program on Rati Beauty app to find out when you should be having your meals and snacks through the day and still lose weight in the process.

2. Too Little Fiber in your Diet: Fiber is extremely essential for weight loss. A diet that lacks fiber will not help you shed weight. On the contrary, a diet which is rich in fiber has positive impacts on overall health, from improving digestion to mood swings. Various studies have revealed that a majority of the population does not get enough fiber in their diet (daily recommended intake is 38 gm per day for men and 25 gms per day for women). Since we at Rati Beauty understand the importance of fiber in weight loss, all the diet program include a good amount of fiber content. In this post, we list out 12 handy tips to add more fiber to diet for weight loss. Fiber is a category of nutrients that does not break down into sugar molecules and spike up insulin, rather it passes down into the gut unbroken, and helps feed the healthy bacteria in the gut with nutrients. Healthy bacterial colonies are essential for better absorption of nutrients and vitamins into the body from the gut. Fiber is an important category in a healthy diet because it helps to maintain a healthy digestive system, clears constipation, regulate blood sugar levels, improves overall health. Fiber helps to reduce appetite, reduces belly fat, and thus helps with weight loss too. Since fiber has low glycemic index, it also does not spike up insulin and thus reduces the chance of extra calories getting stored up as fat in the body. Here’s a complete post on how to amp up fiber content in your diet.

3. A Diet Low in Protein: When you consume enough protein through dietary sources, it increases the levels of the satiety hormones, reduces your appetite thereby also reducing the hunger hormone “ghrelin.” In order to lose weight fast, you need to consume more protein and less of carbohydrates and fats. This way, you boost satiety hormones and keep the hunger hormones in check, which in turn means that you will be less likely to binge and eat calories. It is believed that what you eat is what you are. If you notice women who are in good shape, we bet they are on a healthy diet with high protein value in it. Solution: Make it a point to include at least one source of protein in every meal. Here’s a complete list of high-protein food sources that you can check out.

4. No Calorie Deficit: This kind of a deficit is what makes weight loss possible – you should be burning off more calories than you are consuming on a daily basis. When the body runs short of calories, it turns to fat storages for energy. When a calorie deficit is created, our body starts sourcing energy from stored fat. Most usually, it’s the fat that is stored around hips, belly, thighs, and arms. When calories fall short from the food we consume, gradually the fat deposits get used up and that’s how you lose weight. For example, when you consume 1500 calories in a day and burn 2000 calories through exercise and being active for most part of the day, you are in calorie deficit. Solution: Here are 18 Awesome Tips to Create a Calorie Deficit.

5. No Portion Control: In the same way that calorie deficit is necessary for weight loss, maintaining portion control is equally important. Portion control is putting a limit on the food that you consume without compromising on nutrition. When we eat before television or while scrolling down social media feed, we often do not practice portion control and often overeat, leading to rapid weight gain. Solution: Here are 10 Amazing Tips to Practice Portion Control.

6. We are Eating Less of Home-Cooked Food: Food-ordering apps have made our lives more convenient and we find excuses to indulge in restaurant food. Needless to say, eating from outside has become a daily occurrence rather than an occasional one. We all know that most restaurants cook their food in unsaturated unhealthy oil, transfat, loads of sugar and sodium, all of which quickly spike up the calories. Solution: Meal prep for the entire week and train your brain to like healthy food, here’s how you can do that.

7. Too Much Hidden Sugar: There’s too much hidden sugar in your food – from that bottle of ketchup, to biscuits, to even bread – sugar is everywhere! A lot of companies conceal the sugar ingredient under different names – high fructose corn syrup, fructose, glucose syrup, ethyl maltol, maltodextrin, malt syrup are just a few different names of sugar. A lot of sugar can put you into a prediabetic condition, cause insulin resistance, and of course make you fat. Solution: Instead of refined sugar, switch to healthy alternatives to satisfy your sugar cravings.

8. We spend a majority of our day Sitting: Spending most of your day on the couch or before the laptop/computer, without any doubt, can lead to weight gain. Interestingly, when you sit for long hours before the computer or on the couch watching TV, essential fat-burning enzymes go into a switch off mode. Solution: Here are 16 Amazing Ways to Stay in Shape if you are Sitting at the Desk All Day Long.

9. High Stress: Stress can increase the production of hormone “cortisol” which signals the body to conserve fat, especially around the waist region. Solution: 10 Tips to Lower Stress in order to Lose Weight.

10. Low Amount of Zzz’s: With a hectic lifestyle and no time at all for ourselves during the day, we compromise on the number of hours we should be sleeping at night. Studies have revealed that people who sleep for less than 5 hours tend to gain more weight than someone who is getting full 7 hours of sleep. At least 7 hours of sleep every night is necessary to control stress hormone (cortisol), hunger hormone (ghrelin), and to balance satiety hormone “leptin.” Low sleep also makes the whole metabolism sluggish and that means no significant amount of calorie burn would happen the following day.

Hope we answered all your doubts regarding why you are gaining weight and how to prevent it.

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