Patterns of Weight Gain

Your weight is the key factor in your health. All of us have a certain predetermined weight as disposed to us by our genes but environmental factors also play a very important role. What is most important is your own role in managing your weight.

Weight is gained without much effort and even before you can realize it, it is much above the normal. And then starts the tedious process of weight loss that can sometimes create havoc in your life. Why does this happen even after your best efforts? The reason is that apart from your diet, a number of factors contribute to your weight. So, the best thing is to first understand the pattern of weight and only then decide further.

Factors of weight gain

Lifestyle factors: Sedentary work, little or no physical activity and indulgence all combine to increase your weight. In addition, eating out with an emphasis on high fat and high sugar meals and snacks, alcohol and rich cream based desserts also contribute to your weight. Forcing a child to eat too much food results in childhood obesity and such children tend to be obese adults.

Metabolic factors: Your basic metabolism is the energy required by the body to perform its various involuntary functions. Your activities decide your metabolism. If the metabolism is high, it means you are burning more calories and hence you do not gain weight. But if due to your activity pattern, your metabolism slows down but your intake remains the same then you tend to put on weight. Metabolism is also affected by the hormonal effect such as in pregnancy. Low thyroid hormone levels can result in weight gain but these factors are beyond your control and require medical supervision.

Emotional factors: Your weight is also affected by your emotions. You tend to overeat or under eat when you are emotionally affected. You eat more when you are happy or if you are under depression or vice versa. Both the situations, however, affect your weight. If you overeat, you tend to gain weight and if you under eat you tend to lose weight.

Age factors: As you age, your metabolism slows down. So if you do not reduce your diet slightly, you tend to put on weight. Also as you age your muscle mass decreases and fat increases. Since the muscle decreases we burn less calories. As a result of these two factors you tend to gain weight as you approach the age of 40. Menopausal changes in women are also responsible for weight gain due to hormonal changes.

Problems of excess weight gain

Gaining excess weight makes you overweight and obese. It's as if your body is burdened under the weight of a grocery bag that it has to carry all the time. Don't you get tired after holding a heavy bag for long? The minute you put it down, you feel fine but what about your body? It can't put down the excess weight that it is carrying all the time. So it starts wearing out over a period of time.

Excess weight puts a pressure on your heart and fat in your body tends to clot the blood vessels. This makes you prone to heart diseases. Your joints carry your weight but they are not designed to carry your excess weight. So slowly your joints can also give up and you suffer from joint pains. Apart from these, overweight makes you susceptible to many diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney problems and gallstones.

So it is advisable to control your weight even if you are genetically predisposed to excess weight gain.