7 reasons you might be gaining weight - Yahoo! article

sammidelvecchio
sammidelvecchio Posts: 791 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/7-reasons-why-youre-gaining-163800605.html

I think this article has a lot of good info in it, and some great suggestions on how to turn things around if you're trying to lose weight.

The only part that seems fishy to me is the section about the time of day you eat, but who knows. I think it's worth the read!

Replies

  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,460 Member
    sammidelvecchio wrote: »
    https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/7-reasons-why-youre-gaining-163800605.html

    I think this article has a lot of good info in it, and some great suggestions on how to turn things around if you're trying to lose weight.

    The only part that seems fishy to me is the section about the time of day you eat, but who knows. I think it's worth the read!

    The time of day you eat does affect your scale weight. Do your own experiment.
    Eat the same number of calories 2 days. One day, very heavy lunch, not much after. Other day, most of calories just before late bedtime. You will probably weigh more the morning after the second day. Not because you’re fatter. Just because there is still more food and water in your system. Won’t fool the seasoned MFP person, but may very easily fool others.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    I prefer this one https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/why-am-i-gaining-weight/

    The second category (In The Long Term) is most relevant to the OP.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
    There are a myriad of reasons why scale weight can be affected. While it is the most popular metric of body composition, it is not the only metric. Scale weight gain does not always equal fat or muscle gain. Which is what I think the article attempts to address.

    - Feeling or looking physically bloated, which results in increased scale weight, could likely be attributed to fluid retention which can be caused by too many things to list, including medication, sodium, stress/hormonal distress, sleep, illness, strenuous exercise, etc.

    - Feeling or looking physically normal, which results in increased scale weight, could be attributed to relatively irrelevant things like meal timing, bowel contents, muscle fluid shifting from adaptive strength training, etc.

    - Feeling or looking a bit fluffier, but not bloated, which results in increased scale weight, would likely be attributed to fat gain, which would be caused by a constant calorie surplus - whether it was intentional or unintentional.

    Since the first 2 categories have too many variables, for simplicity's sake, assuming someone is just getting fat (and using the scale as the only method of assuming fat gain), it will almost always be because they eat too many calories.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    There's been a small bit of research recently suggesting that timing of eating may actually be a factor . . . in the realm of a couple dozen calories a day or so. The mechanism would be the affect on NEAT of the same calories eaten at a different time of day. This is interesting, but not all that useful, in that the magnitudes of the effect (number of calories) is so small that calorie-goal compliance factors will materially out-weigh any time-of-day difference. So, even if true (not 100% proven), worrying about it is majoring in the minors, for anyone who's calorie counting, or maybe even just paying attention to satiation and energy level.

    As with all this kind of trivia, some of the blogosphere's "diet and fitness experts" are seizing on the idea and running with it, as if it were actually deeply meaningful and important.

    And yes, age differences are almost entirely about changes in NEAT and average muscle mass. For a demo in terms of statistical averages for the population, go to a TDEE calculator that has multiple formulas, including some that take body fat percent (BF%) as an input**.

    Put in your current stats (size, activity level, age, but not BF%). There'll be what I'll predict will be a surprisingly small difference for each additional decade of age. (It's like a couple of hundred calories of BMR for me at 64 vs. 24.)

    Then, put in a body fat percent, and repeat the age comparison (just guess at BF%, say 25% - needn't be accurate, the point is the comparison). Surprise! ;) (For me, 24 vs. 64, the formulas that use body fat produce exactly the same BMR estimate for both ages.)

    ** Such as SailRabbit, https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

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