Unexplained Weight Gain? 4 Bad Habits Causing It

It’s important for our health that we stay at a reasonable body weight. That’s because if we carry too much fat in our bodies, it will lead to any number of health conditions. Mainly, it causes heart disease, high cholesterol, and (gulp) an early death. But sometimes the source of the additional pounds isn’t easy to figure out. If you’re having unexplained weight gain, the source of it could be one of the bad habits below.

Why Do We Develop Bad Habits, Anyway?

So, here’s the thing. Often, we gain weight and slip into unhealthy habits without even knowing it. Mainly, we develop bad habits that cause us to be less active and put on weight. We keep up these bad habits for a very long time, and they have an even worse effect as the days go by.

Read on for some shocking details about unexplained weight gain stemming from bad habits, including driving too much. Let’s start with a more obvious one: smoking cigarettes.

1. Smoking Cigarettes

Firstly, smoking cigarettes causes numerous health problems. Most people think that it’s linked with weight loss, but heavy smokers can experience weight gain. That makes sense given frequent users tend to be less active and have a worse diet than lighter smokers, as well as the effect of smoking itself on the body.

For example, smoking affects the lungs and entire respiratory system. It can lead to lung disease, asthma, and more. As a result, you will find it very hard to do any strenuous activities and stay fit. Even something as simple as running down a road can leave you bent over wheezing like mad. Consequently, the will to go out and exercise isn’t there. Plus, your doctor will probably advise you against going out and exercising a lot at first because your lungs simply can’t handle it.

Therefore, you stop being active and this leads to unexplained weight gain (okay, now it’s explained). It’s a serious issue, and you need to break your bad habits. How can you do this? Well, it won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight. But there are ways to quit smoking.

Firstly, you need to address the cause of your smoking problem. Most people are addicted to smoking because cigarettes have the addictive substance nicotine in them. If you find something like nicotine gum or patches, you can substitute your nicotine source and get your fix in a non-toxic way instead.

2. Eating Too Many Sweets

Next, you probably already know that eating fast food is bad for you, right? Chowing down on McDonald’s or Burger King meals every week will likely cause you to gain weight. That’s because there is simply too much bad stuff in fast food, which makes it easy to put on the pounds. But, what if you’re not sure how the heck you put on those extra lbs?

That unexplained weight gain could trace back to eating too many sweets. That’s right, those precious little gummy bears could be turning you into a gummy blob.

The fact is, sweets are often full of calories, and you’re not alone if you didn’t know that. It’s deceiving as they taste like fruit. But that bag of sweets is loaded with calories.

Furthermore, it’s hard to have just one or two gummy bears. Maybe you go through an entire bag of them without even thinking about it. You know what I mean, right?

Within just 10 minutes you’ve consumed over 300 calories worth of sweets that have no nutritional value. All these empty calories add up throughout each day and week, making unexplained weight gain easy, and fast too.

What to Do About It?

So, how do you stop eating lots of sweets? It’s going to be a difficult task, but you can kick bad habits like this one by substituting the sweetness in sweets with the sweetness of fresh fruit. To start, buy loads of fruit and put it in your kitchen so you can have it whenever you want a snack. Also, buy low-calorie snacks with good nutritional value.

Essentially, if you have healthy snacks in your house, you can reach for them instead of sweets. Of course, you don’t have to cut out sweets completely; a treat once a week is a good thing! By doing so, you’ll get your fix, without eating too much for unexplained weight gain.

Unexplained Weight Gain from Driving Too Much

Yes, while it may be very convenient, driving too much can cause unexpected weight gain. While it might sound a bit crazy, it’s obvious when you start thinking about it. That’s because when you drive everywhere, you’re not active at all. You’re literally just sitting down burning hardly any calories.

The problem is, so many of us drive more than we need to do so. We take the kids to school, drive to work, even drive to the shops when we need to get something.

When those destinations are relatively short distances from home, consider a walk there, or a jog or bike ride instead of using the car. If something is a half-hour walk away, you don’t need to drive there, you really don’t. Too much driving will just make you unfit and cause you to gain a lot of weight.

Do You Know about the 10-Minute Rule?

To make it easy, live by the 10-minute rule. That means that if you have to go somewhere, and it takes less than ten minutes to drive there, you can probably walk instead.

A 10-minute drive is pretty pointless or it could be the equivalent of a good walk. This rule forces you to be more active. And walking more means you avoid unexplained weight gain. For more motivation on your quest to break bad habits like driving too much, visit sites like https://www.mindbodygreen.com. There you’ll get info on how to easily walk more and achieve the recommended 10,000 steps per day.

As for those longer distances when you drive – or take public transit to go green! – you can still get in some fitness with exercises specifically for drivers.

Drinking Too Much Alcohol and Unexplained Weight Gain

Of the bad habits listed here, drinking alcohol in excess is one of the most obvious ones for weight gain. There are a few reasons why a lot of booze links with weight gain. Firstly, many alcoholic drinks have loads of empty calories. A few examples are beer and cider. The main issue is, when we drink, we often have too much without thinking about it.

That means that when you have more than one drink, you consume tons of calories in a short amount of time. Furthermore, if you go out on weekends a lot drinking alcohol, you’re just piling on the calories. Now you see why I include it in this bad habits list!

And that’s not all. Think about what happens when you drink. You probably get hungry, and there’s a slim chance you’ll be going anywhere near something healthy. Typically, you look at the nearest fast-food chain, which results in the consumption of more bad calories.

Time to Cut Back on Alcohol

The solution is simple: reduce your alcohol intake. Alcohol isn’t as bad as smoking in the sense that you can probably get away with a casual glass of wine or two per week. So, you don’t have to completely cut it out of your life, which can make lowering your intake easier than bad habits like smoking to stop unexpected weight gain.

One of the best ideas is to simply drink non-alcoholic alternatives when you’re out somewhere. For example, mocktails that don’t have as many calories as regular cocktails and are tasty. Plus, they give you the feeling of drinking cocktails without actually consuming any alcohol.

Alternatively, you could drink alcohol with hardly any calories in it. Instead of drinking a few glasses of wine, you could have a shot or two, for example. You’ll consume fewer calories and also get just as drunk, so, win-win, haha! To find out more about the lowest calorie alcoholic drinks available, look on https://www.wholelifechallenge.com/.

Identify the Bad Habits

For anyone feeling down about unexpected weight gain, don’t worry! It’s remarkably easy to turn things around and start dropping those pounds. All you have to do is cut out bad habits and then get yourself on a regular exercise program with a healthy diet.

If you eat well and remain active, you’re likely going to see great results, fast. You’ll get yourself to a healthy weight, and wave goodbye to risks of any bad health problems associated with being overweight.

So, which of these 4 bad habits is leading to your unexpected weight gain?