With start of Christmas and New Year festivities just days away, many of us might already be planning some of the meals and special treats that we will be having around that time. The elaborate meals, the desserts, sweets, family get-togethers, usually during this period, exercise takes a back seat, with promises that it will be resumed in earnest once the festivities have ended.

However, and as enjoyable as the end of year wind-down can be, many of us face the sobering reality of weight gain, and thereafter the effort to try to lose it. Unfortunately, it can feel like a losing battle – one step forward and two steps back – as more often than not, we never fully lose the weight that we want to lose, and so the net effect is that year on year, the numbers on the scale have been creeping up.

While vanity has its place, there are also considerable health benefits to trying to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle for as long as you can. Some of the common lifestyle diseases, such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, are exacerbated by excessive weight gain, which can be an incentive for us to better manage our weight throughout our lifetime.

Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of misinformation around with weight management, which tends to be reflected in what we understand about food and our bodies. Here, we tackle just four issues, which if better understood, would go a long way to helping you make better choices.

 

1.  We Tend To Underestimate How Much We Consume

In western culture, and for the most part, we have been raised to eat three meals per day, plus snacks. That practice has reduced the instances of undernutrition in many of our societies, which occurs when people do not have enough food to eat, and so are unable to consume sufficient calories and nutrients in order to maintain good health.

Many of our societies have a history of hardship, food scarcity and even famine, and so eating, eating well, eating a lot and eating often have become part of the culture. Our main meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, are generous experiences, which may comprise a protein, a lot carbohydrates, and very modest serving of fruit or vegetables. However, after meals, it is acceptable to have a snack, which tend to be either a sugary, salty or rich delight. At the end of the day, and usually within a period of 14 and 16 hours all of those meals and snacks – essentially a lot of food – would be consumed, with the cycle repeating the next day.

Another crucial point, which it is important to highlight is that over the past 20 to 30 years, portion sizes are served at restaurants and eateries have increased, which in turn has influenced what we believe are normal portion sizes, as reflected in the slideshow below.

In summary, and thanks to the ‘supersize culture’, we have been programmed to eat more than we need (and even to overeat), and not even know or realise it.

 

2.  We Tend To Underestimate Our Caloric Intake

We have all had the experience. You have already opened a small packet of cookies, nuts or chips, or a bottle of juice or soda, and something tells you to check the nutritional information at the back. The first thing you see is the number of calories. It may not be great, but you can live with the number. Then you see that the container holds more than one serving! That changes everything. Technically, the packet or bottle does not hold that much, but if you finish the entire thing, you would have had more than one, but possibly two to three servings!

There are two key reasons why we tend to underestimate our caloric intake. First, we may not know the difference between a serving size and a portion size. According to the Center for Disease Control in the United States, a serving size is “a standardized unit of measuring foods—for example, a cup or ounce—used in dietary guidance”, whilst a portion size is “the amount of a single food item served in a single eating occasion, such as a meal or a snack”. Secondly, we may fully appreciate how many calories are in the foods we eat, particularly those primarily comprising carbohydrates and animal protein.

Check out our quick quiz to see whether you tend to overestimate or underestimate how many calories are in the foods you eat.

 

3. We Tend To Overestimate How Many We Calories Burn

In any battle to lose weight or maintain the weight loss you have achieved, exercise is a crucial element, as weight loss tend to occur when you are able to burn more calories than you consume. By just being alive and going about our daily activities you are burning calories, and when additional exercise is included, it increases your energy deficit thereby increasing the likelihood of weight loss.

However, it should not be surprising that many of us underestimate how much exercise it takes to burn calories. Having said this, the actual number of calories an individual burns is dependent on his/her/their weight, the type of exercise that is being done, plus the intensity and duration of the exercise.

Do take our quick quiz to see whether you tend to overestimate or underestimate how many calories a particular exercise can burn.

 

4.  Gaining Weight As You Age Is Not Inevitable

Finally, we tend to think that it is a rite of passage: we will get heavier as we age. As we age, it definitely appears that the deck is stacked against us. First, we tend to lose muscle mass as we age, losing around 3% to 8% every decade after the age of 30. Second, we go through hormonal changes, and with menopause in particular, there is a significant drop in estrogen, which encourages extra pounds to settle around the belly. Finally, and with the loss of muscle mass, our metabolism also slows down, and that can start as early as our late twenties.  

However, weight gain as you age can be avoided. In order to do so, you need monitor the changes your body is experiencing and adjust accordingly. For example, as you become less active, which also tends to happen as you get older, adjust your food portions. Additionally, making an effort to stay active and reduce stress, will also help you to win the battle of the bulge.

 

 

Image: mrd00dman (flickr)