Why Do People Gain Weight Easily?

Weight gain is a problem for a large number of people, although certain medical conditions, as well as lifestyle, also play a role in how easily people gain weight. Reasons for weight gain vary, but there are a few common reasons that can lead to people gaining weight easily.

Slow Metabolism

• Base metabolism (the speed at which you burn calories) is determined at birth, and is partly hereditary. Still, there are a number of lifestyle choices that can speed up or slow down metabolism and influence speed and amount of weight gain throughout life. Body composition has a big impact on metabolism. People with a low percentage of muscle and a large percentage of body fat have slower metabolisms, which explains why woman have a slower metabolism than men (men have a naturally-higher percentage of muscle in their composition). Lack of exercise can also slow metabolism and lead to weight gain.

Lack of Exercise

• People who eat more calories than they burn off will gain weight more easily. Those who have a sedentary lifestyle are particularly at risk, such as people who work in offices or other sitting-down jobs. The amount of calories needed to gain weight is sometimes misleading. For example, there are 200 calories in a doughnut, which would take about 25 minutes of jogging or 50 minutes doing Pilates to burn off. For most people eating out frequently or indulging in fast food on a regular basis, a once-a-week workout may not be enough to burn off enough calories to lose or even maintain weight.

Bad Diet

• A diet high in fats or sugars is a likely culprit for weight gain. Even seemingly-innocent foods such as sandwiches or salads can lead to weight gain if too many condiments or add-ons are used. For example, a glass of orange juice has as much sugar (12 tsp.) as a can of soda, and some salads can pack up to 1,000 calories if they contain large amounts of cheese, croutons or sauces. For example, the T.G.I. Friday's Pecan-Crusted Chicken Salad has 750 calories and 50 grams of fat.

Health Problems

• There are a number of medical conditions that can cause rapid weight gain. These include diabetes, an underactive thyroid, depression and Cushing's Syndrome. Each can affect your metabolism or lead to rapid weight gain if not treated properly. Low blood sugar often leads to cravings for sugars and starchy foods. There are also medications that can affect weight, including anti-seizure drugs, medication for chronic pain (which can also affect the ability to exercise on a regular basis), asthma inhalers containing steroids, antidepression and and psychotropic drugs, birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy.

Stress

• High levels of stress cause the body to release cortisone, also known as the "fight or flight response" hormone. Cortisol slows down metabolism, affects blood sugar levels (leading to cravings) and causes the body to accumulate more fat around the stomach area. Stress is also closely related to emotional eating, leading to not only more frequent eating, but also to eating while not hungry (as a way to ease off anxiety) or to rely on high-fat, high-sugar comfort foods.