Search results
Nov 6, 2023 · According to Grasso, the first habit that could be causing weekend weight gain is eating foods that contain more sodium than you would normally. This can lead to water retention, which can cause the scale to climb without you actually gaining any fat.
- Brooklyn, NY
- Freelance Writer
- Obesity and Willpower
- 1. Genetics
- 2. Engineered Junk Foods
- 3. Food Addiction
- 4. Aggressive Marketing
- 5. Insulin
- 6. Certain Medications
- 7. Leptin Resistance
- 8. Food Availability
- 9. Sugar
Many people seem to think that weight gain and obesity are caused by a lack of willpower.
That’s not entirely true. Although weight gain is largely a result of eating behavior and lifestyle, some people are at a disadvantage when it comes to controlling their eating habits.
The thing is, overeating is driven by various biological factors like genetics and hormones. Certain people are simply predisposed to gaining weight (1).
Of course, people can overcome their genetic disadvantages by changing their lifestyle and behavior. Lifestyle changes require willpower, dedication and perseverance.
Nevertheless, claims that behavior is purely a function of willpower is far too simplistic.
They don’t take into account all the other factors that ultimately determine what people do and when they do it.
Obesity has a strong genetic component. Children of parents with obesity are much more likely to have obesity than children of lean parents.
That doesn’t mean that obesity is completely predetermined. What you eat can have a major effect on which genes are expressed and which are not.
Non-industrialized societies rapidly develop obesity when they start eating a typical Western diet. Their genes didn’t change, but the environment and the signals they sent to their genes did.
Put simply, genetic components do affect your susceptibility to gaining weight. Studies on identical twins demonstrate this very well (2).
Heavily processed foods are often little more than refined ingredients mixed with additives.
These products are designed to be cheap, last long on the shelf and taste so incredibly good that they are hard to resist.
By making foods as tasty as possible, food manufacturers are trying to increase sales. But they also promote overeating.
Most processed foods today don’t resemble whole foods at all. These are highly engineered products, designed to get people hooked.
Many sugar-sweetened, high-fat junk foods stimulate the reward centers in your brain (3, 4).
In fact, these foods are often compared to commonly abused drugs like alcohol, cocaine, nicotine and cannabis.
Junk foods can cause addiction in susceptible individuals. These people lose control over their eating behavior, similar to people struggling with alcohol addiction losing control over their drinking behavior.
Addiction is a complex issue that can be very difficult to overcome. When you become addicted to something, you lose your freedom of choice and the biochemistry in your brain starts calling the shots for you.
Junk food producers are very aggressive marketers.
Their tactics can get unethical at times and they sometimes try to market very unhealthy products as healthy foods.
These companies also make misleading claims. What’s worse, they target their marketing specifically towards children.
In today’s world, children are developing obesity and becoming diabetic and addicted to junk foods long before they’re old enough to make informed decisions about these things.
Insulin is a very important hormone that regulates energy storage, among other things.
One of its functions is to tell fat cells to store fat and to hold on to the fat they already carry.
The Western diet promotes insulin resistance in many overweight and individuals with obesity. This elevates insulin levels all over the body, causing energy to get stored in fat cells instead of being available for use (5).
While insulin’s role in obesity is controversial, several studies suggest that high insulin levels have a causal role in the development of obesity (6).
One of the best ways to lower your insulin is to cut back on simple or refined carbohydrates while increasing fiber intake (7).
This usually leads to an automatic reduction in calorie intake and effortless weight loss — no calorie counting or portion control needed (8, 9).
Many pharmaceutical drugs can cause weight gain as a side effect (10).
For example, antidepressants have been linked to modest weight gain over time (11).
Other examples include diabetes medication and antipsychotics (12, 13).
These drugs don’t decrease your willpower. They alter the function of your body and brain, reducing metabolic rate or increasing appetite (14, 15).
Leptin is another hormone that plays an important role in obesity.
It is produced by fat cells and its blood levels increase with higher fat mass. For this reason, leptin levels are especially high in people with obesity.
In healthy people, high leptin levels are linked to reduced appetite. When working properly, it should tell your brain how high your fat stores are.
The problem is that leptin isn’t working as it should in many people who have obesity, because for some reason it cannot cross the blood-brain barrier (16).
This condition is called leptin resistance and is believed to be a leading factor in the pathogenesis of obesity.
Summary Leptin, an appetite-reducing hormone, doesn’t work in many individuals who have obesity.
Another factor that dramatically influences people’s waistline is food availability, which has increased massively in the past few centuries.
Food, especially junk food, is everywhere now. Shops display tempting foods where they are most likely to gain your attention.
Another problem is that junk food is often cheaper than healthy, whole foods, especially in America.
Some people, especially in poorer neighborhoods, don’t even have the option of purchasing real foods, like fresh fruit and vegetables.
Convenience stores in these areas only sell sodas, candy and processed, packaged junk foods.
How can it be a matter of choice if there is none?
Added sugar may be the single worst aspect of the modern diet.
That’s because sugar changes the hormones and biochemistry of your body when consumed in excess. This, in turn, contributes to weight gain.
Added sugar is half glucose, half fructose. People get glucose from a variety of foods, including starches, but the majority of fructose comes from added sugar.
Excess fructose intake may cause insulin resistance and elevated insulin levels. It also doesn’t promote satiety in the same way glucose does (17, 18, 19).
For all these reasons, sugar contributes to increased energy storage and, ultimately, obesity.
Summary Scientists believe that excessive sugar intake may be one of the main causes of obesity.
Alterations in lifestyle behaviors on weekends contribute to weight gain or cessation of weight loss on weekends. These results provide one explanation for the relatively slow rates of weight loss observed in many studies, and the difficulty with maintaining significant weight loss.
- Susan B Racette, Edward P Weiss, Kenneth B Schechtman, Karen Steger-May, Dennis T Villareal, Kathlee...
- 10.1038/oby.2008.320
- 2008
- 2008/08
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey revealed different nutritional habits between weekdays and weekends. Thus, people’s diets were clearly unhealthier on Saturdays and Sundays than on weekdays, characterized by higher energy, fat, sugar and salt content as well as a lower proportion of fruits, vegetables and fibers.
But avoiding the weekend weight-gain trap doesn't have to mean your favorite Friday-through-Sunday treats are off-limits, experts say. Below, they offer some tips for enjoying your days off...
Dec 17, 2016 · It’s not unusual to gain weight at the weekend. Outsmart weekend weight gain, or even lose a few pounds, by following these weight-loss tips.
People also ask
Why do non-industrialized people gain weight?
Can you gain weight at the weekend?
Are weight gain and obesity caused by a lack of willpower?
Can you lose weight on a weekend?
Can weekend overeating cause weight gain?
Can eating habits change over the weekend?
Feb 1, 2020 · A new study adds to the evidence that maintaining a regular eating schedule is key for preventing obesity. Eating at irregular times during the weekend may eventually lead to weight gain....
