10 Hidden Causes of Weight Gain

Just passing along an interesting article I came across in case it offers any help to anybody...

Notes: 1. the writer is a freelancer and 2. having worked for a magazine for 6 years before I became a librarian.... I just thought I'd share that the reason magazines use so many numbers (10 hidden causes, 7 worst foods, 52 things to do on vacation, 26 ways to reduce clutter, and so on, ad nauseum) is because focus groups have demonstrated that readers like concrete information and the number makes people feel like the article is concrete and precise, but really the numbers are as arbitrary as can be. What it really means is how much time the writer had to devote to writing the article.

Hehe, awsome tidbit.  I'll read the article, too, but your comment was funny.

Wow. That first tidbit was interesting. I didn't know that not enough sleep can lead to weight gain. That sucks for me. I can never get a full 8 hours. :P

im actually very grateful you posted that! i had no idea about the sleep issue either. wow

thanks and god bless,

melanie

10. Overweight people procreating: No rocket science here. When two overweight people have kids, their children are more likely to experience weight challenges than a child conceived by skinny people.

...i dont beleave this one, Yes they may tend too but its not gentics etc is it? (i know its not claiming that) its the enviroment the kids brought up in. Overweight people can have a thin child if they bring them up correct, for example my mums mate had a kid (years ago), and she knows shes unhealhy so the little girl was brought up 'idealy' on healhy foods and shes a fitness instuctor!

Of course genetics are a factor. But even if one had the "ideal" genes (whatever those may be), they could still become overweight. "Nature vs. nurture" needs to be reconciled for this one.

Han...yes 2 overweight parents CAN have a slim child, but the odds are stacked against them.  If a parent can't even control their own diet and exercise, the odds of them controlling their child's is slim.  I think genetics play a LITTLE role (more of a pre-disposition to gain weight), but the environment is huge.  Just as parents who do drugs are more likely to have children who do drugs, parents who are overweight are more likely to have children who are overweight.

I guess the real question is.. is being fat a nature vs. nurture issue. I have to agree, I think that for most of us (those of us without thyroid issues), it's mostly a nurture issue. That's why we CAN lose fat and get fit, because we weren't born that way, we learned bad habits and can unlearn them...

Agreed.  I think genetics are responsible for some issues such as metabolism, lean muscle, and other factors...but for the most part, it's all about good and bad habits.  I can sit here and blame my metabolism all I want for always being overweight, but the truth of the matter is that when I started counting calories and exercising, I lost weight.  So maybe my metabolism is a little slow...that's no excuse.  When it comes down to it, I was overweight because I was lazy and ate crappy food.

I think I agree with what's being said here --

your genes may make it either easier or more difficult for you to maintain a healthy weight

either way, it is up to you to make the choices that will sustain your health and your weight

I am a very obese parent of a healthy-weight daughter

I am 5'4" at 277.8 lbs

My daughter is 5'4" at 132 lbs.

We eat a healthy diet (I cook every weeknight) - though she does occasionally eat stuff that I would never eat, like candy and stuff.  

I enrolled her in Tae Kwon Do classes when she was 12 and she will probably get her black belt sometime next year - she is red belt now. She tests for black tip in another month or two.

I do my best not to comment on her weight at all, and in fact, I recall a phase she went thru where she thought she was fat and needed to lose weight and I did address that with her. 

She is healthy, even though I am not.

Personally..... My mother has been very overweight my whole life. She ate whatever she wanted, when ever she wanted. In her late 50's she had a stroke and was diagnosed with High blood pressure and diabites. Her eating habits just plain sucked and ruined the quality of her life, even to this day.

I NEVER wanted or want to be fat like my mother. While I am over weight, an alarm sounds when I get to a BMI of like 29 when I should be 24 max.

She fed us healthy. Lots of fruits and veggies for snacks. We had sweets in the house but she controlled what we got to be sure she wouldnt exhaust the supply for her.

I feel really bad for my mother and have made several attempts to get her to eat healthy, which result in her hording and hiding food. All her children, except for one (4 out of 5) are healthy and in shape for the most part, always eyeing the nutritional value of food that goes into them. The one, who is 6'4" and about 350 lbs, has her eating personality. Funny thing is that he spent the least time with her being that when my parents split he went with my very silm 6'3" father to live.

In conclusion, my point is that several factors effect diet. I would have to see the authors research to see how they came to this conclusion, as its just to cut and dry for me. 

10. Overweight people procreating: - gentics? no, but childern learn from their parents. So they learn what to eat and how much to eat from them. =bad habits...... That is why I'm here, to help myself learn the good ones!

Well, I think we can generally agree that the article is pretty elementary; it's also the exact same information I've seen reprinted in like 6 different articles this month, so if you've been reading all those health and beauty magazines, none of this will be new to you.

BUT, on the Nature vs. Nurture thing, I think it's really got to be nurture. My mom was raised by my grandmother, who was somewhat underweight for most of her life and for most of my mother's childhood and early adulthood; something happened when she hit menopause and now she is obese with blood sugar problems. My mother was an Olympic level competitive swimmer, maintaining an athlete's body for most of her life up until her late twenties, then the weight piled on and now she too is obese with blood sugar problems. I have had an obese mother for most of my life, and I too have developed issues with eating and blood sugar problems, even though I happen to be at a healthy weight and have never been obese myeslf. I developed these problems in my teenage years. For some reason, with us, this pattern is trickling down the generations, and it hits each one of us earlier. I plan to the be the one to nip it in the bud, so my future children won't have issues.

It is scientifically proven that neuropathways in the brain can be unconciously passed down to children, even if the children never witness the behavior that is being passed down firsthand. This includes addictions, habits, etc. So in my personal family's case, I beleive that obesity wasn't necessarily passed down so much as ways of looking at things and thinking about things, i.e. weird relationships with food and black and white thinking. I have all the same food issues as my mother, but I'm not obese.

So basically this article IS real cut and dry, and I think if we did get some of the background information on the 10 points we could probably agree with them more, even if we don't agree with the half-baked conclusions. The way they made it sound was like 'two fat people make fat children, no rocket science there, it's like two brunette people make a brunette kid. easy peasy.' Science is never that black and white.