What Really Causes Weight Gain

If I asked you what causes weight gain, most of you would say, “Eating too much.” That simple answer is so ingrained in us that it sounds true. And sometimes it is. And sometimes it isn’t. Many women carry more weight than they would like, however they do not overeat.

So, what’s going on?

Most of us grew up believing that weight gain happens because we simply eat too much. It sounds logical, it’s what we’ve been told for decades, and it’s often said with authority. But what if that explanation is incomplete or even misleading?

Many women carry extra fat even though they don’t consistently overeat. If you’ve ever felt like you are doing something wrong because the usual rules don’t seem to work for you, this post is going to give you a different way to understand weight, food, and your body.

What Really Causes Weight Gain After 50

There is a big problem with saying that the reason we’re overweight is because we eat too much. If we weigh too much and the reason is we eat too much but can’t seem to change that, then we must be bad in some way.

Amazing women all over the world, think they are bad in some way because they struggle with food, eating, and their bodies.

But what if I told you, that you are working with the wrong premise for weight gain or weight loss?

Let’s look at this differently. By changing how you approach being overweight. Actually, let’s back it up a bit. What does being overweight even mean?

In our modern world we use a few ways to define overweight.

• We look at our weight or size and decide if we are overweight.
• We look at a BMI table and base whether we are overweight on that
• Someone else such as a doctor or a parent have told us we’re overweight

Each of these is somewhat arbitrary though. While just like thinking overeating causes someone to be overweight, each of us can be different sizes or weights and not be overweight. I meet so many women that think they are overweight even though they are in a perfectly normal body.

A higher weight may also be more muscles and more bone density. It’s more useful to look at your body as a whole than as a number on the scale.

When we try to force ourselves into a weight that isn’t actually meant for us or even good for us, we can set up a never-ending cycle of deprivation and overeating.

Instead of arbitrary measures, we could look at ourselves with new eyes. When I think about my own weight, I think about it in terms of functionality and also aesthetics.

I want my body to look and feel great. For me, that means staying within a weight range that feels good. It’s not based on a chart or even what others say is the right size. I also notice how my clothes fit and what my energy levels are like.

Here’s the thing I see all the time. Women are so desperate to chase an unrealistic weight or size that they cycle through not eating enough with eating too much, resulting in too much fat, bad health, and really messed up eating habits.

Instead of working calmly and steadily to have a lovely and functional body, they instead make everything worse for themselves.

But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Why “Eating Too Much” Isn’t the Real Cause of Weight Gain After 50

In general, we gain weight because we take in more energy than our body can use. As we get older, our bad habits catch up with us, making our bodies more efficient at storing fat than in using it for energy.

Most of us were raised with low calorie diets. It was very common for women to go on a 1200-calorie a day diet to lose weight.

And those women were miserable because dieting is miserable. But we were also told that it was worth it. Remember the “nothing feels as good as skinny” rhetoric?

While you absolutely can lose weight on low-calorie diets; science and research are clear about one thing. Losing weight through a diet has virtually no long-term chance of success. Less than 5% of people that lose weight through a diet are able to maintain that loss.

Since the that time, we’ve come back around to understanding that carbohydrates and not fat are what are actually fattening. So, people went on low-carb diets to lose weight. And while effective, these diets didn’t offer long-term success either.

Here’s the thing. Most diets require us to eat in a way that isn’t right for us.

When I was still an occasional dieter, I would have success with diets, love how I felt, and love how my body looked. Yet, I couldn’t maintain my new way of eating no matter how effective it was.

We have forgotten how to just eat food we like in a way that works for our bodies and we’ve become addicted to using non-food foods as substitutes for real food.  

In addition, we eat around the clock. Instead of giving our bodies a chance to digest and process our food, we eat our meals plus snacks. Most people are eating during most of the hours they are awake.

Why Many Women Gain Weight After 50

In short, too many high-carbohydrate foods eaten too often create the perfect storm for continually gaining fat.

I want to be clear here. You don’t have to eat perfectly, all the time. But if you are gaining weight, that will not resolve on its own. You have to make some changes in how you eat.

But first, you need to understand what’s causing that gradual weight gain over the years and why it can be so hard to reverse.

All carbohydrates are broken down into glucose (sugar) in your body. A network of hormones including insulin regulates how that glucose is distributed, used for energy, or stored.

Your body uses some of the glucose right away for energy. If there’s more than it needs, the excess is sent to the liver and stored as glycogen to use later. But the liver has a limited capacity. Once those glycogen stores are full, the remaining excess is converted into fat and stored in fat cells.

When we eat frequently throughout the day, we often take in more energy than we use. Over time, the extra energy gets stored as fat, and our bodies get more efficient at storing fat than using it.

In times of scarcity, this would be helpful, those fat stores would keep us alive. But in a world where food is always available, that stored fat just keeps accumulating.

And this can happen even if it doesn’t feel like you’re overeating.

This is why low-carbohydrate diets can seem like a miracle for a time. You eat plenty and still lose weight. But in the end, they are difficult to maintain and later on your taste for fat combined with going back to too many carbs will cause you to gain weight again.

How to Eat to Lose Fat After 50

You lose fat when you allow your body to use all the glucose in your blood until it is required to use the fat you have in storage.

You can never lose fat unless you create the right conditions for your body to use fat for energy.

So, to lose fat, you do two things:

• Eat enough carbs for energy but not too many
• Give your body time to get into your fat stores for energy

These two things combined, allow you to eat most of the things you like without having to count calories or stress too much.

In my experience, this is the only thing that really works and while I wouldn’t say it’s always easy, it’s definitely not miserable to do.

If your system is operating pretty good, you may only need to start eating all your food at meals, either two or three a day. This alone often stops the gradual weight gain.

How to Lose Fat Naturally After 50

Beyond this, here’s the order I suggest. And you may not need to do them all. I recommend starting as conservative as possible.

Eat all food at mealtime. This means no snacks or eating at night. If this seems daunting, you probably aren’t eating enough at mealtime. As you are retraining your body, eat enough at meals to get you to the next meal. Since you are eating less carbs, add more vegetables and some extra fat like butter or olive oil.

Wait to eat until you are hungry, stop when full. If you have the flexibility to do this, wait to eat until you feel the hunger signals before you eat. This is so beneficial because if you wait to eat until you are hungry, it’s much easier to feel when you are full.

Reduce all added sugars, it’s okay to eliminate for a time if you have a big sweet tooth. Sometimes it is easier to eat no sugar than to have a little bit each day. If you are going to eat sugar, eat it at the end of your meal. You are way less likely to overdo it then. If you wait until you are hungry, you will eat more sugar.

Reduce carbs such as grains which includes pasta, rice, corn, breads, and cereals. I love to use potatoes, winter squash, carrots, beets, and fruit for my high carb foods. They help with energy, taste good, and make meals more satisfying. Plan on having a serving with each meal.

Give your body a long break from eating from last meal of day to first meal of the next. Aim for 13 hours. My body does better when I finish eating by 6 or 7 in the evening. When I wake up, I have about 12 hours fasting already in. It’s fairly easy since you sleep through most of this time.

How to Get Started with These Weight Loss Changes

This may seem overly simple to you or overly complicated depending on your current habits. But I can guarantee this, it’s actually a much simpler way of eating than you have ever done before.

I have a post that lays this all out in order, along with some of the mindset strategies you can use to make this a more enjoyable and effective practice.

When you only have to plan, prep, prepare two or three meals a day, life becomes so much simpler and easier.

This way of eating isn’t a quick fix or a trendy diet; it’s a return to how our bodies are meant to function. When you understand the real reasons behind weight gain, you stop fighting yourself and start working with your body instead of against it.

Give yourself time to learn, experiment, and adjust. The reward is a way of eating that supports your health, simplifies your life, and allows you to feel good in your body for the long term.