Obesity is the most common disease that has grappled the world to become one of the most harmful conditions to occur to the human body. The reasons for obesity are several, ranging from eating disorders to genetically developed eating and digestion habits. Reasons for Weight Gain in Females often point to imbalanced menstrual cycles, poor diet, little to no physical activity, etc. One of the most common reasons for Sudden Weight Gain is pregnancy. Getting back to your pre-natal body is achievable but has a lot of hardships and disciplines to maintain.
A sudden increase in the number of calories consumed can lead to a rapid rise in the scales. Lifestyle choices such as diet, sleep, and exercise have a significant impact on your weight and can choose to tip with even a single misstep in following a healthy regime. There are several Reasons Why You Gain Weight that are explored in this article.
Top 15 Weight Gain Reasons:
Obesity is a considerable risk factor that needs to be taken into consideration when examining one’s health. The Possible Reasons for Quick Weight Gain are listed below, along with solutions and preventive measures.
1. Lack of Sleep:
- Lack of sleep is a significant Reason for Sudden Weight Gain(1). It works in two ways. Sleeping late at night makes you more prone to snacking and consuming calories.
- Calories consumed at odd hours in the night become challenging to digest, and indigestion can cause weight gain.
- Another effect of less sleep is the hormonal imbalances that occur in the body due to insufficient sleep.
Solution:
Practising Mindfulness or Meditation is a great way to ensure that the brain remains calm even after full functioning during work hours. Meditation helps the mind channelize thoughts and emotions into positive energy, which helps to calm the body down. Practising Meditation for 15 minutes every day can help resolve the disturbed sleep schedules.
2. Stress:
- The modern world demands perfection, and the rat race of humans often tends to increase anxiety.
- Stress is counter-productive to a healthy lifestyle as it makes you more susceptible to vulnerabilities.
- Stress means eating calorie-rich comfort food, binging on snacks at odd hours, and consuming unhealthy products just because they taste good(2).
- Stress eating often occurs with the idea of comforting the mind but usually ends up being a Reason for Weight Gain.
Solution:
Controlling the consumption of food during stress is a tough task, but it is better than reducing your development down to ground zero. Self-awareness and mindfulness go a long way when dealing with stress-related Weight Gain.
3. Pregnancy:
- One of the most common reasons for Extreme Weight Gain is pregnancy. Most women tend to gain a lot of weight during the nine months of pregnancy.
- Pregnancy is a time of nourishment and care for the mother-to-be. This tends to bring out the over-eating aspect of the diet.
- Pregnant women need food with nutritive value to ensure the healthy well-being of the newborn.
- Shedding the pregnancy weight is an achievable task after the baby is born.
Solution:
Post-natal period for a woman is an exceptionally crucial period, and extreme care and diligence need to be shown to protect the mother and child. After a few weeks, once the pregnant body has recovered, doctors recommend physical activity to new mothers. With proper fitness training and a nutritional diet, the excess weight gained can be lost to a toned, fit body(3).
Read More: Weight Gain During Pregnancy
4. Menstruation:
- Women experience specific bloating or inflammation during the Pre-Menstrual period.
- The menstrual cycle or the time around it is an unintentional Reason for Gaining Weight.
- Most women experience bloating or retention of fluids during the Menstrual cycle.
Solution:
The weight gained during the menstrual cycle tends to go away after the period is over. It is only through the sensitive time of the month that the body is unable to process some fluids. Hence they get retained in the body which causes unexpected weight gain.
5. Junk/Processed Foods:
- Undoubtedly one of the most threatening Reasons for Extreme Weight Gain is the consumption of processed foods.
- Processed or Junk foods use tremendous amounts of vegetable oils and refined products that have zero nutritional value.
- The raw materials sourced are cheap, and these products are fabricated to have longer shelf lives, rendering them harmful for human consumption.
- The products are often made more tasty or good-looking with the help of additives.
Solution:
Avoiding Junk or Processed foods entirely is a significant step towards eating healthy. The calorie builds up from consuming junk, or processed foods takes time to loosen up. To quit junk food must always follow a regular exercise regime to ensure cholesterol levels are in check and to burn fat.
6. Sugar/ Soda:
- One of the most lethal Reasons for Rapid Weight Gain has to be the consumption of sodas and sugary drinks.
- All the sugar that is easily accessible in markets in the form of fizzy drinks or fruit juices is processed and made from cheap quality raw materials.
- Sugar is a highly addictive substance, and you must monitor your rate of sugar consumption.
- Sodas and fruit juices are extremely bad for health and one of the biggest causes of obesity.
Solution:
Cutting out processed sugar from the diet and replacing it with natural sugars like honey or jaggery is an excellent way to eliminate the lethal substance from your everyday diet.
7. Aggressive Marketing:
- Most businesses in the media that do not heed the health of their consumers have bold and brash marketing practices.
- These marketing tools become a reason to turn the common public into potential customers while branding processed foods such as chips and sodas.
- Relating these products to happiness or a sense of adventure is one of the most common examples of aggressive marketing.
- In light of these examples, the wrong marketing of processed and harmful products is another Possible Reason for Weight Gain.
Solution:
Being mindful about the practices of buying groceries and food products helps us in buying only what we need. Reading the stickers on products that enlist the complete list of ingredients could be an excellent way to prevent yourself from putting a product in your cart.
8. Genetics:
- Surely, genetics play a significant role in determining the obesity of a person.
- Obese parents tend to have obese children as a result of genetic conditioning.
- It is not pre-determined, nor is the theory foolproof, but the majority of the cases see genetics being the reason for weight gain(4).
Solution:
There is no real solution to fixing your genetic trail apart from exercising every day. Follow a healthy routine to ensure your upcoming generations have something better to deal with.
9. Medication:
- Many pharmaceutical drugs have been linked to being the Reason for Putting on Weight.
- Drugs like antidepressants have been proven to increase the weight.
- Medication that is used for diabetes can also be linked to causing weight gain.
Solution:
With the permission of your doctor, moving to alternative medical sources that are more natural will help you with the unnecessary weight gain that comes with consuming medicines. It is advisable to change the medication only with your doctor’s permission.
10. Hormonal Changes:
- Typically between the ages of 45-50, women experience a time called Menopause where they go through several hormone changes.
- These hormonal changes result in rapid weight gain. Hormonal changes cause the metabolism to go down, increasing the weight of females
Solution:
Consulting a gynaecologist to walk you through the process of Menopause without putting on weight is the best solution. Self-diagnosis and self-prescribed medicines do you more harm than good and should never be followed. You must always consult a doctor while looking for answers regarding weight.
11. PCOD:
- Polycystic Ovary Disorder/Syndrome is a disease that occurs when there is a disruption in the hormone levels of women.
- Women tend to grow smaller cysts near their ovaries, which leads to a terrible balance in the hormone levels resulting in weight gain.
- There are several other symptoms of PCOD, but weight gain is the most significant.
Solution:
Consulting a gynaecologist for proper treatment for weight gain during PCOD is the best solution.
Also Read: Weight Gain During Periods
12. Heart Failure:
- As frightening as this may sound, rapid weight gain over a few weeks might be a sign of heart failure.
- With the heart functioning down to a low, fluid retention becomes common in the body, and the body starts building up weight.
- Other symptoms may include swelling of the stomach, ankles, and feet.
Solution:
Immediately consult a cardiologist and get the functioning of the heart examined. Self-diagnosis or self-prescribed medication could be lethal in such delicate situations, and professional medical assistance should be a top priority.
13. Stop Smoking:
- Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health and lifestyle.
- Smoking causes a loss in appetite and leads to several bodily dysfunctions and digestive disruptions in the body.
- Many people found that they gained weight after quitting smoking.
- Eventually, the gained weight is lost, and the body is healthier and more capable.
Solution:
Smoking is hazardous to health and can cause lethal diseases along with gastrointestinal issues that deal with weight and body mass.
14. Kidney:
- One of the Reasons for Weight Gain in the Stomach includes Kidney problems.
- If the Kidney doesn’t function properly, the fluids get retained in the body, making you gain weight.
- Kidney problems can cause swelling around the stomach and feet.
- The Kidney becomes unable to push toxins and waste fluids out of the system resulting in substance decay in the body and weight gain(5).
Solution:
If you observe rapid weight gain in the body, you must immediately contact your physician for consultation. Kidney problems can get serious, and it is essential to remember to eat healthily.
15. Addiction:
- Addiction to food or other substances can lead to over-eating, binge-eating, unhealthy eating, etc.
- Reasons for Putting on Weight around the Stomach include the emphasis on addictions.
- Substances like alcohol, cocaine, and cannabis induce addictive substances that often lead to mindless snacking and binge eating.
- It can lead to the formation of eating disorders.
Solution:
Recognizing your addictions and working towards unlearning them is the first part of the solution. Therapy is an excellent way to channel your habits into something productive.
Overview:
This article tries to shed light on several reasons for gaining weight. Some ideas are intentional while some are not, but all the reasons pose an imminent threat to the well-being and health of the person and must be taken into consideration immediately.
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Frequently Asked Questions & Answers:
Q1. What is the reason for weight gain?
Ans: There are typically lots of reasons for weight gain, but some of the common ones include lack of exercise, improper eating habits, and genetic conditioning.
Q2. What is a healthy weight?
Ans: A healthy weight is where you feel most comfortable. A healthy weight leads to a fuller life, enriched with energy and enthusiasm. You can calculate your weight with BMI. A person’s healthy weight is never the same as another person’s. A healthy weight is based on a lot of factors such as gender, age, height, pregnancy conditions, etc.
Q3. Why should I lose weight?
Ans: If you find through BMI calculations that you are tipping above the edge, and are overweight, you must consider losing weight. A healthy weight benefits your life in many ways. It leads to a longer life and makes the experience more enjoyable. At a healthy weight, you can be extremely energetic and full of life. Being overweight makes you susceptible to a lot of mental disorders like depression, etc.
Q4. What are the symptoms of unintentional weight gain?
Ans: Symptoms include fluid retention, increased appetite, and swelling in your body. These symptoms if they last for more than a day can be symptoms related to more severe issues such as heart problems and kidney failure.
Q5. Can weight gain affect the quality of life?
Ans: Weight gain can lead to mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Apart from psychological hazards, unintentional weight gain can lead to mood swings, anger issues, and other physical shortcomings such as fatigue and dark circles around the eyes.
Q6. How difficult is it to recover from obesity?
Ans: Recovering from obesity involves breaking down several notions about losing weight. It is a strict process that needs dedication, determination, and discipline. Even after the success of losing weight, maintaining the influence is a task.
Q7. What treatments are available to lose weight?
Ans: The treatment you should seek depends on the reason for your weight gain. If the reason is as common as over-eating, clean eating habits, and proper exercise can help you lose weight. But if the weight gain has come through mental disorders, a therapist is recommended.
