5 Reasons Why You Got Fat

Some of you don't have weight to lose. Rather, you're interested in finding some way to avoid gaining weight. Folks always say that you're going to gain weight as the years go by and your body gets slower, but that doesn't have to be true. You can't generate energy out of a void, though, so there's nobody but yourself to blame. Here are a few things that could make you fat.

5: Genetics

Before any of you calorie purists lynch me, hear me out. Think about your height for a second. The taller you are, the more calories you'll need to subsist because of the greater amount of mass you need to maintain. There are also hundreds of metabolic processes to take into account. Some bodies are just better at burning energy.

That's not to say that you're going to depend completely on this, though, but it's totally feasible that a difference of 100 or 200 calories per day that could be attributed just to metabolism would add up in a year. Just 100 calories of surplus a day would mean 10 pounds in a year. 

4: Habits. 

How often do you see a family completely comprised of fat members? Here's where most would be tempted to say that genetics are at fault. That's Occam's Razor for you. That's also a completely wrong assumption. If you look hard enough, you'll find many examples of that thin black sheep, oftentimes formerly fat.

Habits are at fault here. If the way your parents have been eating led to them gaining weight, chances are you adopted those habits. This is something that you'll find pretty hard to break, like the circus elephant who's had his leg tied to a stick on the ground since he was a baby and, now grown up and able to break it, won't do it easily because of his experience. 

3: Too much T.V. (and other things that make you sit down)

Not this guy. He's an alpha.

Although this plays into habits, this is more about the physical aspect of life. Human beings have, historically, been up and about since the times we dwelled in caves and hunted mammoths. In fact, sitting down all day is pretty recent, and we're already seeing many adverse effects because of it, like circulation problems and obesity. 

When you're moving around all day, the caloric difference can be staggering. I'm talking hundreds to even a thousand calories, depending on your size. Considering you need 3,500 of them to maintain a pound of fat, that's a considerable amount. 

2: You don't have muscle

I don't mean this literally. Everyone has muscles, but exercise makes them big. Specifically, resistance exercise. The thing is, a pound of muscle will burn from six to ten more calories in a day than fat will. This means that if you somehow lift and build 20 kg, then you will get to burn 100 more calories. 

That doesn't sound like much muscle, doesn't it? But keep in mind that it's not just meant to burn calories. The more muscle you have, the easier some activities will be, which will let you do tougher exercises that you couldn't do, or at least do as well before. If you can maintain it through your forties and beyond, you can exercise for pretty much your whole life without any issues. 

1: You eat too much

Plain and simple. It's easier to do this in some places. In the U.S. and Mexico, we're used to huge portion sizes, and not moving around so much. Most other places are a little more balanced in that regard, where people will either eat less or walk around more, which gives them a more balanced lifestyle. There's also the issue of not measuring your food with a food scale. Two people could be eating the exact same things, but without a scale, it's possible to double your calories on the same food if you're not being careful.

You can factor in everything you want, but the human body isn't a physical miracle. We need energy to subside. If you really got fat swimming two and a half kilometers a day, and you walk, and exercise all the time, chances are you're eating more than you should, even with all of that. This is why I wrote a handy guide that will help you lose weight if you're feeling stuck. 

If the body scale has been showing you bigger and bigger numbers, or if you feel your belt's a bit too tight, then check your habits. It's easier to prevent getting fat than losing weight, trust me. I will be posting more reasons why you got fat eventually, so tune in every once in a while, meanwhile, here's to hoping that you keep healthy.