Understanding What Makes You Gain Weight

Have you ever felt confused about how you got yourself into the position of needing to lose weight? Maybe you were always skinny as a child, or you’ve been overweight for as long as you can remember. Maybe everyone else in your family is thin and you are the only one who is overweight. Whatever your personal story is, sometimes you aren’t really sure where the problem began, and knowing that information can be helpful as you work on changing your habits and releasing the weight for good.

Below are a few common reasons why people gain weight:

Poor Eating Habits Run in Your Family

Did you grow up in a family that loves to eat? Were your family gatherings always centered around huge platters of delicious food? If everyone around you was a big eater, you may have fallen into the same habits of overeating, and overeating too many unhealthy, fattening foods.

See: Get the Whole Family Involved With Healthy Eating Habits

Trauma Caused You to Soothe Yourself with Food

Sometimes even if you start your early life at a healthy weight, a traumatic experience causes you to turn within and start soothing yourself with food. Traumas like these can be anything, big or small. The important thing is that the younger you felt it was traumatic, even if no one else would think it was. You’ll know if this is the case for you by the way you eat. Do you often feel driven to eat when you are confronted with negative emotions like fear, sadness, or rejection? You may have created a powerful habit of using food to soothe emotional discomfort.

See: End Emotional Overeating: Get to the Root Cause

“Laziness” and Denial About Bad Habits

Even if you know that your eating habits are atrocious and you are unhealthy because of them, it’s easy to stay in a state of denial and keep ignoring the facts, sticking with what you know because you are too “lazy” (or unmotivated) to change them. This can go on for years, until you get so tired of feeling poorly, or something happens that forces you to change your habits to improve your health (or you just get tired of being overweight and finally do something about it).

Understanding what caused you to gain weight in the first place is an important step, because you’ll gain clarity and insight about the challenges you may be facing as you work on improving your eating and exercise habits. Once you know where your biggest struggles lie, you can easily formulate a plan of attack to conquer them once and for all.

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