The 10 Unexpected Habits That Make You Fat

According to recent research, the average person makes 200 decisions every day that will influence his or her weight. A lot of people do not realize why they continue to gain weight. Weight often creeps up slowly over a period of years. Eating fat won’t make you fat, any more than eating money will make you rich.

Calories make you fat, and most low fat or fat free foods actually have just as many calories as their full-fat versions. Eating fat won’t make you fat, but any one of these 10 bad habits may be contributing to your growing waistline. Many of these you may not even notice you are doing!

Top 10 Habits That Make You Fat

1. Drinking Excessively:

You could end up with a beer belly. Alcohol delays your liver’s ability to metabolize fat and also suppresses the hormone testosterone, which is the primary metabolic hormone. And, of course, alcohol does have calories, and many people overeat when drinking is involved.

2. Not Enough Protein:

People who get too much of their daily caloric intake from carbs are going to have a hard time losing weight. Kimball recommends including a source of protein with every meal. The body uses twice as much energy processing protein as it does carbohydrates and fat, meaning when you eat protein, your body actually burns more calories digesting it.

3. Not Exercising:

Exercising is essential to avoid weight creep. The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) has data from thousands of people who have successfully lost and managed to keep the weight off. 90% of them exercised up to 1 hour a day.

4. Sleeping too Little or Too Much:

According to Wake Forest researchers, dieters who sleep five hours or less put on 2½ times more belly fat, while those who sleep more than eight hours pack on only slightly less than that. Shoot for an average of six to seven hours of sleep per night the optimal amount for weight control.

5. Drinking Soda even Diet Soda:

Drinking one to two sodas per day increases your chances of being overweight or obese by nearly 33 percent. And diet soda is no better.

6. Watching Too Much TV:

A University of Vermont study found that overweight participants who reduced their TV time by just 50 percent burned an additional 119 calories a day on average. That’s an automatic 12-pound annual loss!

7. Taking Big Bites:

Dutch researchers recently found that big bites and fast chewing can lead to overeating. In the study, people who chewed large bites of food for 3 seconds consumed 52 percent more food before feeling full than those who chewed small bites for 9 seconds. The reason: Tasting food for a longer period of time (no matter how much of it you bite off) signals your brain to make you feel full sooner, say the scientists.

8. Keeping a Messy House:

If you let dust bunnies take shelter under your sofa, you’re missing out on an at-home belly-flattening workout.  The rotational movements associated with vacuuming and sweeping work your core muscles, and common household cleaning tasks burn serious calories.

9. Skipping Breakfast:

It can be hard to make time for breakfast during the rush to get out the door in the morning, but if you’re interested in losing weight or keeping it off, you should make the effort to fit it in. Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism, forcing it to begin burning calories.

10. Having a Heavy Dinner:

Dinner is the one meal that most people over do. Most people with hectic lifestyles eat heavy dinners. The overload of calories so late in the day results in a lot of these calories being stored as fat.

If you see yourself in any of these 10 habits that make you fat, the best time to start changing them is right now. For every bad habit, there’s a good habit. So share your thoughts below on how these habits may be affecting your weight. Do mention other habits that may be causing weight gain, which are not mentioned above.