Publix GreenWise Market Magazine - December 2008
5 Surprising Diet Derailers
Feeling too big for your britches? These unexpected culprits could be pushing your weight-loss plans off track.
| Make no mistake: Sensible eating and regular exercise are the most important factors in any diet. But if you’re not losing weight as quickly or as steadily as you’d hoped, you’re not alone. Before you decide to deprive yourself of additional calories (maybe even the healthy ones your body needs), relax. Literally. Stress is just one of five often-overlooked stumbling blocks that can stall weight loss or even promote weight gain. Here’s how you can steer clear of all five.
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Medications
Two things tend to happen as people grow older: They gain weight and take more medications. This isn’t always just coincidence. Weight gain is an unwelcome side effect of many prescription medications, including antidepressants, antihistamines, diabetes drugs, corticosteroids and beta-blockers. Some medications increase appetite and make you crave certain foods. Others change the way your body uses calories or stores fat.
“Everybody’s different in how much weight they gain,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., a Chicago dietitian. If you have three people taking the same medication, one might stay the same weight, one might gain a pound or two and one might gain much more.
It can be difficult to tell if your weight gain is due to a medication or to something else because the pounds often creep up gradually. “Track when you first start gaining weight,” advises Blatner. “Think about whether anything in your life has changed recently. Have you moved or switched to a more sedentary job? Have your eating or exercise habits changed?” If you suspect that a new medication is the culprit, don’t stop taking it. Talk with your doctor about the best way to handle the situation. In some cases you may be able to take a smaller dose or switch to a different drug.
Lifestyle changes also can blunt the weight gain. To cope with a ramped-up appetite, fill half of your plate with produce, suggests Blatner. Its fiber and water content will help you feel fuller on fewer calories. To deal with cravings, stick to a regular eating schedule. She suggests eating three meals a day, four to six hours apart, plus one or two snacks. Cravings are worse when you let yourself reach the ravenous point.
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Sleep
There’s a reason why Starbucks sells a bazillion cups of coffee daily: We’re a nation of tired people. A 2008 poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that adults average just six hours and 40 minutes of sleep on weeknights, less than the seven to nine hours most sleep experts recommend.
Besides leaving you bleary-eyed and grumpy, skimping on sleep may set you up for weight gain. In a study of more than 68,000 women over 16 years, Harvard researchers found that those who got less sleep tended to gain more weight (American Journal of Epidemiology, 2006). Women who slept five hours or less a night were 32 percent more likely to gain 33 pounds or more than women who got seven to eight hours of shut-eye.
“We have not proven that lack of sleep directly causes weight gain, but several studies suggest that,” says Robert Vorona, M.D., associate professor and sleep medicine specialist at Eastern Virginia Medical School. “Hormonal changes may be involved.” In particular, levels of the appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin change when you are sleep-deprived, which could stimulate increased appetite. So make sleep time a priority in your day planner, says Vorona. “It’s a low-tech intervention with no downside.” |
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Friends
Find yourself loosening your belt another notch? Blame your buddies. According to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine (July 2007), when one person gains weight, close friends often do too. After keeping tabs on more than 12,000 people for 32 years, researchers found that an individual’s risk of obesity increased 57 percent if a friend became obese.
It’s not that obesity is “catching” like the common cold, but it spreads from person to person in other ways. “Friends often share health behaviors,” says James Fowler, M.D., associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, and one of the study’s authors. In particular, friends tend to have similar eating and exercise habits. And if you notice that a friend has gained weight, you might think it’s OK for you to put on a few pounds as well. “We still have control over ourselves, but friends are influential,” says Fowler. “Your social network may have a bigger impact on your weight than your genes.”
A recent national Harris Poll reported a similar connection. Twice as many overweight adults as normal-weight adults said all or most of their close friends were overweight. And overweight people were less likely than normal-weight people to say their friends eat healthy foods or exercise regularly.
Of course, friendship cuts both ways. “To change your own health behaviors, you need your friends and family involved,” says Fowler. “Don’t stop being friends with someone because of their health behaviors,” he advises. “Keep your friends and maintain the close connections, but tell them what your health goals are.” Better yet, make a mutual pact to improve your lifestyles. After all, real friends stick together through thick and thin.
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Credit Cards
Do you have a serious relationship with fast food? Combined with a penchant for paying by credit card, a love affair with the drive-through could mean double trouble for your waistline. More and more fast-food restaurants have put credit card readers on the counter and at the drive-up window, making it quicker and easier to swipe than pay in cash. But a study of fast-food transactions by VISA found that people spend 30 percent more when they pay with a credit card. That’s enough to supersize a meal or add a dessert or milkshake.
What explains the higher tabs? Perhaps people don’t feel comfortable using a credit card for a $5 purchase, so they add another item. Or maybe credit cards simply make impulse buying that much easier.
Whatever the reason, you can end up paying in pounds as well as dollars. According to a report in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition (June 2006), the average up-sized meal at a fast-food restaurant costs an extra 67 cents, adds 397 calories and puts an additional 1.3 ounces of heft on your frame. Up-size daily and you could gain a pound every two weeks. Bottom line: Think before you swipe. Paying cash might be better for both your waistline and your wallet. |
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Stress Hormones
The holidays can be a whirl of hectic activity. You may find yourself short on sleep, low on patience and running on fumes. String a few stressful days together, and suddenly it’s harder to sleep and eat well, let alone get any exercise. So it’s no surprise that stress and weight gain often go hand in hand. But some researchers think there’s another aspect of stress that plays an important role in weight control.
When you’re under stress, the hormone cortisol is cranked out by your adrenal glands. Cortisol increases appetite and changes how your body stores fat. When high levels of cortisol are coursing through your blood, it causes fat to pile up in the abdominal area instead of on the hips. That’s what gives people an apple shape rather than a pear shape—a pattern of weight gain that’s associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
The effect of stress isn’t the same in everyone, though. When researchers had 59 women engage in a series of stressful psychological tasks, they found that the women with the most belly fat secreted more cortisol than those with flatter tummies (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2000). This finding suggests that some people react more strongly to stress and are more vulnerable to its effects.
Fortunately, there’s a readily available defense against the belly-fattening power of stress: exercise. It not only clears your mind and calms your nerves but also lowers cortisol levels and burns calories.
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