Why We Get Fat?

What do u see urself doing at 70 @Jey ? An answer to this should help provide an insight.

 

@Jey

In my view, if we need to understand why we become fat, we need to understand a lot about our body.

1) BMI - We need to measure our Body Mass Index to know given our height what should be our range of Body Mass Index. Even though it is a good measure, it varies from place to place and person to person as well. This is an important measure to evaluate from time to time.

2) Metabolism - Like "Know Your Customer" mantra in business, we need to "Know our body". Metabolism is the chemical process through which what we eat or drink is converted into energy for use by our body. If we understand how the metabolism works, there is a good chance, we will be able to better manage and maintain our health.

3) Composition of Carbohydrate, Protein, Fiber & Fat - For us to eat healthy food, we need to understand the proportion of all four we eat everyday - There is a general perception that fat is bad for health and on the contrary, there is a certain level of fat need to be eaten everyday as HDL cholesterol plays an important role in digestive system. Fiber is a little hard to digest and hence takes longer through the digestive system. More we eat fiber, our hunger will be reduced. Many times protein sources we eat has carbohydrate and fat included in it. Eating more carbohydrate than needed, doesn't allow our metabolism to convert energy from fat as it is easier to convert energy from Carbohydrate.

4) It is important to drink water to the level that our body needs everyday - Cold water affects our digestive system negatively and hence it is always advisable to take lukewarm water irrespective of the weather

5) Most of us workout for a specific time everyday or a few days in a week and spend the rest of the time sitting, working and sleeping. It is important to remain active throughout the day. Even if our work is in a desk, it is important to get up and walk a few steps every hour or two.

6) To the extent possible, we should never take a big meal at any given time. It is advisable to take a little 4-5 times a day making the body to think more food will be coming once in 4 hours so that it doesn't source all the energy in one shot. If we eat between long interval, not only we end up eating more but also our body end up converting food into energy and store in our body.

7) Portion control - We have been taught not to waste food from our childhood and hence we end up over eating if we have left overs. It is best to eat only when we are hungry that too a portion to appease the hunger. We should never attempt to eat at any time and feel full in our stomach.

8) Knowledge about what we put in our mouth - To the extent possible, we need to know the nutrient in everything we eat. Calorie count is important but it is more important to know the composition of carbohydrate, protein, fiber and fat.

9) Planning - Source and use of energy need to be planned in a way that they balance out everyday. If our source of energy is larger than use of energy, then, we tend to add weight and if our use of energy is larger than source, we will begin the process of becoming lean.

10) In my experience, working out different parts of the body every week besides a healthy walking, biking, swimming, etc. helps in tuning our body better than just doing one type of exercise.

Viswa

 

I have seen one common factor in people who are thin and then gain a lot of weight in older years . they start collecting possessions in their house. your physical body and your house have a corelation . so once you starting buying huge houses and start filling it with things you start gaining weight . start living a minimal lifestyle , reduce your possessions and you will start losing weight...

 

I get fat because food love is true love. I'm an Emotional eater and earlier I failed to differentiate my thirst and hunger, however now whenever I see water dispenser/bottles I gulp before embarrassing myself by binge eating.

In general one gets fat by not understanding the connection between food and their body framework. JMO.