10 Habits That Could Be Making You Gain Fat

If losing weight were easy, more Americans wouldn't ever struggle with their weight, and the 72-billion-dollar weight-loss industry would probably be out of business, too.

Unfortunately, the facts are indisputable: To many, a chili-cheese omelet is more delicious than a veggie egg-white omelet, French fries taste better than side salads and chicken is tastier when battered and fried.

A healthy weight is a lot easier to accomplish when the right choices become second nature. In other words, weight-loss goals are more achievable when healthy choices turn into healthy habits. Here are 11 that might result in fat gain — and are worth breaking up with pronto.

Boy Scouts and healthy eaters have the same motto: Be prepared. Having a refrigerator and pantry stocked with the right foods — lean proteins, whole-grain carbohydrates, fruits, non-starchy vegetables and healthy fats — means you'll be prepared to eat what you should when you should.

‌Read more:‌ 28 Eating Secrets to Help You Lose Weight (and Save Money, Too!)

Drinking enough water keeps our skin looking young and healthy and our digestive system running full steam ahead. But Kimball says proper hydration can also help when you're concerned about weight.

"Fatigue is one of the first signs of mild dehydration," Kimball said. "A lot of people misinterpret that sluggish feeling as hunger and they eat to boost energy."

In fact, replacing diet beverages with water helped people who have overweight and obesity lose more weight, a December 2017 study published in the ‌International Journal of Obesity‌ found.

In another study, researchers from Virginia Tech observed that people who drank two 8-ounce glasses of water before their three daily meals lost about five pounds more than dieters who do not drink pre-meal water, per the results presented at an American Chemical Society meeting

Calorie-free coffee and tea provide beneficial antioxidants; however, you can easily sabotage your cup by adding caloric creamers and sweet toppings such as caramel and whipped cream that can add hundreds of calories.

Liquid calories also often come in the form of alcoholic beverages, and those should be limited, too. If you can't do without, Kimball recommends sticking with wine, light beer or liquor with a noncaloric mixer like water, club soda or diet soda. Women should limit alcohol consumption to one drink per day, and men should stop at two.

You don't even need to be conscious to work on losing weight. Getting the right amount of sleep seems to be a major factor in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.

A November 2006 study published in the ‌American Journal of Epidemiology ‌tracked the weight and sleeping habits of over 68,000 women over 16 years. The women who reported sleeping five hours or less nightly weighed an average of 5 1/2 pounds more than the women who slept seven hours or more at the start of the study.

The reason is hormones, specifically leptin and ghrelin. Sleep deprivation causes a reduction in leptin levels, while also causing ghrelin levels to rise, according to the National Sleep Foundation. High ghrelin stimulates the appetite, while low leptin makes you feel unsatisfied after eating, leaving you hungrier during your waking hours and, likely, heavier.

‌Read more:‌ 12 Foods That Help You Fall (and Stay) Asleep

If you rely on a few calming episodes of ‌Planet Earth‌ to help you fall asleep, you may be setting yourself up for weight gain.

Sleeping with a source of artificial light (such as your TV, e-reader, iPad or laptop) might contribute to weight gain or even obesity, a June 2019 study published in ‌JAMA Internal Medicine‌ suggests. While using a small nightlight wasn't associated with weight gain, the researchers observed that participants who slept with light or the TV on were 17 percent more likely to gain about 11 pounds.

A good basic rule to follow at the grocery store is to do most of your shopping near the four walls. "The perimeter of the grocery store is what you need to be eating," says Nicole Wynne, RD and staff dietitian at Women & Men's Nutrition and Weight Control Centers of Louisiana.

"It's where you usually find the fresh produce, the meats and the dairy. In the middle aisles, you find more of the processed foods you want to avoid."

Wynne says there are a few exceptions, namely in the freezer section with its frozen vegetables and no-sugar-added frozen fruits and berries, which are nutritious additions to smoothies, yogurt and oatmeal. You can also find nut butters, whole grains and some other healthy, less-processed foods in the middle.

You want to lose weight, and you've been trying to maintain a healthy diet, but the pounds are not melting off. The problem may be that you're eating more than you think.

Failing to keep tabs on your daily munchies — think: a square of chocolate here, a handful of chips there — can all add up. And you're especially at risk at the office: People who reach for free food at the office added an extra 1,300 calories to their week, according to research presented at the American Society for Nutrition.

A food diary can be an effective solution.

You will not achieve your weight-loss goals easily through diet and cardio alone. A regimen that combines strength training and cardiovascular exercise optimizes the ability to shed pounds.

In fact, adopting a resistance training regimen can help you lose more weight than just doing cardio, according to the American Council on Exercise. While both weightlifting and cardio burn calories and boost metabolism, cardio only raises the metabolism during the exercise and for a short time after.

Weightlifting, however, increases metabolism during the exercise and for a long time after. This "afterburn" — the continued burning of calories from lifting weights after the training session has ended — can last for hours, even days.

‌Read more:‌ 10 Exercise Variations for Greater and Faster Results

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one-third of a person's daily caloric intake comes from food and drinks consumed away from home. The culprit: Dining out.

Dining out can get tricky if you're watching your weight or trying to eat healthier because it's hard to know what exactly goes into your order. While many restaurants are now posting nutrition facts, we still don't know the quality of the ingredients being used. What's more, restaurants often dish out larger-than-standard serving sizes, so you're inclined to eat more, taking in more calories than you may have intended.

The best way to keep a lid on calories is to take cooking into your own hands. Aim to cut down or minimize meals eaten out.

Cut yourself some slack. It's one of the most important things you can do when you're trying to lose weight.

"If you blow a meal, it is not a free pass to blow the rest of the day."

Missteps happen. You succumb to a craving and have an unhealthy lunch. Forgive yourself for it and get back to your plan right away!

"If you blow a meal, it is not a free pass to blow the rest of the day," says Wynne. Those who give up for the rest of the day, week, month or year due to a momentary setback will never achieve lasting weight loss. Mistakes happen, and the weight-loss battle is won and lost by how you respond to those mistakes.

If you see yourself in any of these habits that can make you gain fat, the best time to start changing them is right now. For every "bad" habit, there's a smarter one. And the only way to turn healthy choices into healthy habits is repetition. So start shedding your unhealthy habits, and you'll be shedding pounds soon enough.

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