6 SURPRISING REASONS YOU'RE NOT LOSING WEIGHT
BY STACEY COLINO
Weight-loss wrecker No. 1: Your couch
Beware, sofa spuds: Researchers at Deakin University in Australia found that people who watched between one and two and a half hours of TV per day were 93 percent more likely to be overweight than those who watched less than an hour per day. "When adults watch TV, they are virtually motionless," notes Tom Farley, M.D., chair of the department of community health sciences at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. "And research has found that your heart rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate all slow down while you're watching TV — even more than if you were sitting in a chair doing nothing."
For the average-size adult, this metabolic decline results in burning 20 to 30 fewer calories per hour, meaning that if you watch five hours of TV a day, you can gain more than a pound each month. And don't forget all the extra calories that pile on from the mindless snacking in front of the boob tube.
Stay-slim solutions. It's as simple as this — watch your favorite show, then turn off the TV, Farley says. And when you do watch, don't snack while the tube is on. Chew gum, knit or exercise to distract yourself from the urge to munch.
Weight-loss wrecker No. 2: Married bliss
When you exchanged your vows, gaining weight together probably wasn't one of them. But research at the University of Minnesota has found that people often gain an average of five pounds within two years of getting hitched. The reason? Newly married couples' food choices became more and more similar — with women often compromising their eating habits more than men do, according to a Cornell University study.
Along with what you eat, the way you eat also changes after you're married: "When you're single, you're more likely to skip meals or just have a salad for dinner. But when you're married, you tend to eat larger meals with multiple courses," says Jeffery Sobal, Ph.D., an associate professor in nutritional sciences at Cornell.
Stay-slim solutions. Harness the positive power of partnership and exercise together to counter what you gain together. A study at Indiana University found that married couples who joined an exercise program together were 95 percent less likely to drop out after a year than married people who joined individually. On the food front, you might make a pact to eat lighter versions of your favorite foods a few nights a week — preparing lean turkey burgers or opting for a hearty soup and salad.
Weight-loss wrecker No. 3: Being stressed 24/7
You'd think that extra-frenetic days would kick you into calorie-burning overdrive. Nope. In fact, stress increases your body's production of a hormone called cortisol, which signals your body to hang on to weight and deposit more fat in your abdomen. (Belly fat is the worst kind to have; it's linked to diabetes, high cholesterol and other health problems.) As if this weren't bad enough, "cortisol also drives your appetite, especially for things that are sweet, fatty and comforting," says Shawn M. Talbott, Ph.D., associate clinical professor of nutrition at the University of Utah and author of “The Cortisol Connection.”
Indulge this stress-induced urge to nosh too often and you can quickly pack on extra pounds. Need proof? A recent study in Denmark found that nurses who were extremely busy but had little influence over how their jobs were done gained significantly more weight than those with less pressure and more control.
Stay-slim solutions. Step 1: Change what you can and let go of what you can't. Step 2: When you feel tense or you're confronted with a stressful situation, give yourself a head-clearing break. Go for a five-minute walk, light a lavender- or vanilla-scented candle and inhale the soothing scent or take a mental mini-vacation by closing your eyes, breathing deeply and visualizing an idyllic tropical setting (or whatever says “ahhh” to you) for one to 10 minutes. "Doing this will reduce your levels of stress hormones and take away some of the appetite-triggering and fat-storage effects that are associated with stress," Talbott explains. Plus, you'll gain a more effective weapon for decompressing instead of automatically hitting the candy dish.
Weight-loss wrecker No. 4: Date night = drink night
You might think you're being virtuous by drinking only on date night, but if you overdo it, you could end up with extra flab around your waistline. Though the exact mechanism isn't understood, research at the University at Buffalo found that people who drink infrequently, but have four or more drinks on occasion — even if it's just once a week — have more abdominal fat than folks who drink small amounts more regularly.
Stay-slim solutions. When it comes to drinking, moderation is the key (defined as one drink or less per day for women). But if you've just got to have more than one, stick with wine; the Buffalo study found that wine drinkers are at lower risk for developing a tummy pooch, while hard-liquor drinkers have the highest risk. If you're tempted to have several drinks, cut down by having a wine or champagne spritzer or by switching to cranberry juice diluted with seltzer.
Weight-loss wrecker No. 5: Dark winter days
Surveys have found that many people consume anywhere from a few hundred to 1,500 more calories per day in the winter months. That's especially true of people who experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD), characterized by low energy, sadness, irritability or fatigue during the winter months. (According to the Mayo Clinic, as many as 20 percent of Americans suffer from mild to severe SAD.) Shorter daylight hours may lead to a decrease in levels of the brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine, causing you to feel sluggish and to crave carbs and sweets, notes Raymond W. Lam, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia.
Stay-slim solutions. Maximize your light exposure by taking a 15- to 30-minute walk at midday, when the sun is highest. If this doesn't help, try using a special light box that emits high-intensity light, which can help improve your mood and eating habits (you can find these at specialtylights.com or lighttherapyproducts.com). Exercise gives your mood the same boost as sunlight and helps burn off additional calories you're taking in. But if you've been feeling down for at least two weeks — enough to seriously impair your ability to function — check with your doctor. You might benefit from taking an antidepressant that can regulate your appetite by boosting serotonin levels.
Finally, "Make sure dreary winter days haven't lured you into bringing home snack foods that you wouldn't have in July," says Judith Wurtman, Ph.D., a researcher at the Clinical Research Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Even during the winter, your kitchen should have plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains."
Weight-loss wrecker No. 6: Skimping on sleep
Research at the University of Chicago has found that having a sleep debt wreaks havoc on your metabolism, making it easier for fat to sneak onto your body. Sleep deprivation leads to an increase in insulin resistance (a condition in which your body doesn't use blood sugar properly, thereby increasing your risk of diabetes) and a decrease in levels of leptin (a hormone that appears to play a key role in satiety), explains Eve Van Cauter, Ph.D., one of the study's authors.
These hormonal changes can promote weight gain. While the occasional sleepless night — when you're up with a sick child, for example — isn't likely to be a problem, chronic sleep loss is. It doesn't take long for sleep debt to add up; in fact, some of these adverse hormonal effects have been seen in people who have endured just five days of four hours of sleep per night, Van Cauter notes.
Stay-slim solutions. Stop sacrificing sleep, advises Lauren Broch, Ph.D., associate director of the Sleep Disorder Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York. "If you're trying to fit in that last load of laundry at midnight," she says, "find another time of day to squeeze it in and go to bed." Most women need seven to eight hours a night. Clete A. Kushida, M.D., director of the Stanford University Center for Human Sleep Research, suggests that in order to get that much, set your morning wake-up time and move your bedtime earlier by 15 minutes a week until you're consistently getting enough shut-eye.
Check out these strategies to offset the weird ways in which your home can widen your waistline:
Adjust the lighting. Research has found that overweight people tend to consume more food in brightly lit settings than when the lights are low. "Bright lighting makes some people feel more aroused, which could lead them to eat faster and consume more total calories," says Nanette Stroebele, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. On the other hand, Stroebele says, dieters tend to consume more in dimmer light, because they lose self-consciousness.
Keep food out of sight. The closer food is, the more likely you are to eat it. Research has found that items on lower shelves in cabinets are more frequently eaten than those on higher ones. And if you serve food from the dinner table, rather than the stove, you're more likely to take a second helping.
Turn off the stereo. "People tend to eat more when listening to music than when eating in silence," Stroebele says. You'll be distracted and sit at the table longer. Other auditory distractions, like the TV, have a similar effect, says a French study.
