Excessive Weight Gain
Excessive weight gain would mean when you start gaining lot of weight in a very short span of time say in 1-2 years and you are not able to find any reason why you have put on so much weight in spite of doing everything right.
Though you regularly perform exercise and eat healthy, still your pounds keep on piling up…
Well, in such a situation you need to look for the causes responsible for weight gain. Here are the possible causes of excessive weight gain.
Hypothyroidism
This occurs when the thyroid glands do not produce adequate “energy-generating” thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormone controls your metabolism and under this case, your metabolism slows down due to an underactive thyroid gland, causing you to burn calories slowly.
If your weight problem continues then it is advisable that you consult your doctor and if your doctor confirms that it is hypothyroidism then it is better that you deal with it first on the basis of your doc’s prescription and after that only deal with the issue of how to lose the weight that you have gained.
Medications and Drugs
In most of the cases, the birth control pill leads to weight gain. Studies have shown that out 10, 9 women experience weight gain while they are on the pill.
Medications for diabetes and high blood pressure can also cause you to gain weight. Drugs like steroids and antidepressants are also responsible for weight gain.
Stress
Stress increases your Cortisol level which in turn slows down your metabolism and due to this you find it difficult to convert your fat into energy.
The remedy for stress is to do physical exercise which will be helpful in relieving from stress and in the long-term also reduces your Cortisol level.
Do not sleep adequately
If you continuously do not have adequate sleep then it may lead to weight gain. Therefore, how much you have slept will determine how much weight you will gain. This all depends on two hormones i.e. Leptin and Ghrelin which affects your appetite and whose production depends on how much you sleep.
If you do not have adequate sleep then your Leptin levels will go down which will not make you feel full after your meal while levels of your Ghrelin will go up which will stimulate your appetite and make you long for more food. These high levels always causes to eat you more and more and this in turn leads to weight gain.
Quit smoking
You gain weight when you quit smoking because:
- Your metabolism slightly increases due to smoking as it burns up to 200 calories per day in a heavy smoker.
- Nicotine is considered to be an appetite suppressant.
The increase of appetite and also eating more and more food as a replacement of smoking habit will lead to weight gain.
These are a few of the causes which are responsible for excessive weight gain.