The following, not in order of importance or effectiveness, may play a role in healthy weight achievement or maintenance.  None are food-related.

  • Television — According to Brian Wansink, author of Slim By Design, women who watch cooking shows weigh more than women who don’t, and women who prepare what they’ve watched weigh the most.  Overweight and obese people tend to watch more television in general according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.  When people watch television, they consume more snack food especially when exposed to food advertising. 
  • Lack of sleep – Women who sleep fewer than 6 hours per night are more likely to become obese.  The Nurses’ Health Study is one of the longest research studies whose focus is women’s health.  In addition to lack of sleep, the risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity were greater for women who worked the night shift.  Theories about the relationship between lack of sleep and weight gain include:
    • More awake time and thus, more time to eat
    • Hormonal imbalances which leads to hunger
    • Food is more likely to be a snack or fast food
  • Overweight friends – Researchers and authors Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler analyzed data from 15,000 people participating in the infamous Framingham Heart Study.  Their book, Connected: The surprising power of our social networks and how they shape our lives, documents their theory for “network phenomena.”  They found the incidence of obesity in a person increased if their same sex friend also became obese in the same period of time.  A 2014 study published in Appetite by Mitsuru Shimizu and colleagues demonstrated body type of an eating companion influences the quality and quantity of food intake of healthy weight individuals.  The authors speculate that eating with or near an overweight individual leads to weak adherence to personal health goals. 
  • Marriage – Researchers Prichard and Tiggemann followed 343 brides for six months after marriage and found the women had gained almost 5 pounds.  Andrea Melzer of Southern Methodist University followed 169 newlywed couples for four years and found both males and females who were more satisfied with their marriage gained the most weight.  Melzer speculates that happy couples stop engaging in weight maintenance now that they’ve found their life mate.
  • Sitting – In an analysis of 47 articles on sitting and chronic disease, Canadian researchers found a significant relationship between too much sitting and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer – even among those who exercised one hour per day. 
  • Timing – For years, researchers have said that a calorie is a calorie and no amount of evidence alters a calorie’s effect on body weight.  However, recent research contradicts this often repeated myth.  The time of your meal affects your body weight.  Scientists speculate that circadian rhythms, the body’s internal body clock, is at play as it responds to lightness and darkness.  Researchers at Northwestern University fed mice the same type and number of calories but assigned two groups to different eating times – one during their active period and one during their inactive period.  After six weeks, mice assigned to eating during their inactive period gained 48% body weight.  When food is eaten late at night, the body stores those calorie as fat rather than use them as happens during more active times of the day.  More research is needed to determine the exact cause, but it makes sense that calories eaten when you are least active might encourage the body to store them. 
  • Exposure – This one is harder to ameliorate.  If you are the NGK, you are exposed to food all the time.  As Oscar Wilde said, “I can resist everything except temptation.”  Everyone has a willpower problem when it comes to food.  We are biologically designed to crave and eat food.  However, food is no longer scarce and is much easier to obtain.  Most of us living in settings where we are bombarded with food, advertisements, and/or convenience stores.  We are eating out more often, and restaurant food is higher in fat, sugar, sodium and calories.  Wansink says visibility and convenience are the two conditions that most influence our eating. 
  • Stress – A NGK and stress go hand in hand.  Being responsible for young children, teens, an invalid, or the elderly is likely to create steady stress responses in the body – not to mention work, social relationships, and managing one’s living expenses.  While some stress is good, certain types are bad for your health and lead to weight gain.  Short-term stress suppresses appetite such as during the flight or fight response.  Long-term stress causes the adrenal glands to release cortisol, a hormone that increases appetite.  Women tend to turn to food, and that food is more likely to be high in fat and sugar. 

Things you can do!

Most of the research on weight loss and management is depressing.  Almost all research findings show long-term weight loss failure within a year’s time.  Weight loss that occurs through dieting, drugs, surgery, or behavior modification all have the same (albeit differ degrees of) outcome – weight regain over time.  As someone whose professional life centers around helping others lead a healthy life, I remain positive despite the reports.  One area that shows a lot of promise is around environmental changes.  These changes have very little to do with food, and a lot to do with simply making seemingly minor changes in lifestyle for long term success. 

  • Television —In the case of cooking shows, the obvious solution is to stop watching them.  Friends tell me many of the cooking shows are exciting and highly interesting so not watching may be too difficult.  Perhaps simply being mindful about the relationship between exposure to appetizing food and subsequent eating behavior may be enough to influence one’s diet.  Cooking shows are for entertainment.  Understand that movement during television watching is very similar to sleep.  You aren’t burning many calories.  Watch television while doing activities and be mindful of the influence advertising has on your purchases. 
  • Lack of sleep – This one is difficult for caregivers.  NGK’s are probably also in charge of sleep schedules; many NGK’s use the time they should be sleeping to take care of their own personal or other’s business.  The good news is children need longer periods of sleep than adults.  Training children early is the best protection against sleep problems for parents.  It’s tempting to try to do it all and use valuable sleep time.  If you have a stubborn weight problem, you should consider completing those chores that are absolutely necessary and giving yourself a break on others that lead to less time for personal care.  A sleepy NGK is an unhappy NGK not to mention hungry NGK!
  • According to Harvard University’s Division of Sleep Medicine, 12 Simple Tips to Improve Your Sleep, there are known guidelines to a restful night’s sleep:
    • Avoid caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and other stimulants.  Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, chocolate, and cola and causes adrenalin (a hormone) to be released.  Adrenalin increases your heart rate which increases the amount of oxygen to your brain which makes you more alert.  This is great for the morning but not at night.   
    • Create the right environment – quiet, dark, and cool.
    • Ease into sleep – As bedtime approaches, transition to relaxing activities.  This makes the actual process of falling asleep much easier.
    • Sleep when you’re tired – After 20 minutes of unsuccessful sleep, go do something else in another room until you feel tired.
    • Use natural light as you a sleep/wake gauge.  Natural light sets the body’s internal clock and helps you keep a regular, consistent routine – another important aspect of restful sleep.
    • If you nap, keep it short and make it before 5 pm or it will interfere with your body’s natural sleep/wake cycle.
    • Don’t eat too late (this also leads to weight gain – see above).  Food in the stomach is more likely to flow backward and cause indigestion if you are lying down.  Don’t complete a large me less than three hours prior to sleeping.
    • Don’t exercise too late – while exercise increases the likelihood of sleep (fall asleep faster and more sounding), it stimulates the body and creates more alertness. 
  • Overweight friends – Not only is it impractical, but it is also not possible to eliminate overweight friends and family from your life.  I recommend you expand your friendships and acquaintances to include people who are steadfast in their commitment to health.  You may have been avoiding these people for a variety of reasons, but they will bring a positive influence on your eating behavior.  You shouldn’t necessarily follow anyone’s particular philosophy as many of them may not be sustainable.  However, there are many behaviors they exhibit which you can readily adopt.  The point is to glean what you can that appeals to you and leave the rest.  As to friends and family who do not share your health goals, simply be mindful of their unhealthy behaviors (never judgmental) and reaffirm your own commitment by writing statements that reflect positive eating behaviors.  You might even have a positive influence on the eating behavior of your overweight friends and family when they witness the effect it has on your own life.
  • Marriage – Researchers Prichard and Tiggemann found that brides who dieted before their wedding regained the weight and even more post-matrimony.  Understand that dieting for short-term goals do not work in the long run and may increase your weight.  It’s good to have a happy marriage (a contributor to weight gain), but that doesn’t mean you have to give up your own health goals as a result.  Reflect on the changes to your health habits that occur when you’re sharing meals and fitness goals.  One area that is often overlooked is the difference in the amount of food that is eaten.  Suppose you are a women weighing about 150 pounds, and your spouse is much larger (in weight and/or height).  Most couples eat an amount of food that sustains the heavier and/or taller of the pair.  It makes sense that a 150 pound person eating similar to someone who weighs much more is likely to pack on the pounds over the years.  Plateware size should be smaller for the smaller person.  Wansink and colleagues at Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab have studied the effect of plate size on food consumption and the results are clear.  Larger plates give the illusion that food servings are reasonable when in fact, they may be unreasonable for a smaller person.   Using a smaller plate has the same effect giving the illusion that the serving size is a reasonable one.  The difference is in the details.  Those using a smaller plate eat less naturally without feeling deprived.  There are estimates that the difference amount to 18 pounds of a year.  The same principle goes for bowl and cup size.  If aesthetics is important to you, use the salad plate to your partner’s regular dinner plate for all meals.
  • Sitting – Endeavor to stand and move around more.  It’s natural to want to sit and relax, but that’s not good for our health or our weight.  Convenience is the enemy of weight management.  While physical activity is recommended and good for us, the amount of calories used by an hour vigorous activity is paltry when compared the amount of calories in an average meal!  Many more calories are used as we go about our daily activities.  For instance, let’s use a 185 pound person to look at the approximate differences in calorie expenditure depending on how they spend their day.  I’ll use Harvard Medical School’s estimate of calorie expenditure for various activities. 
185 pound person1 hour9 hours
Aerobics488 calories4,392 calories
Sitting100 calories900 calories
Standing activities300 calories2700 calories

As you can see, by simply being active throughout the day, you burn a lot more calories than if you exercised for an hour but sat for the majority of your day.  Overtime, sitting and/or relying upon convenience leads to significant weight gain.  The Take a Stand Project showed research participants who stood at their desks for parts of their workday (as opposed to sitting) reported being happier, less stressed, more focused and productive.

  • Ask your employer to purchase a standing desk or purchase one yourself.  Suggest standing meetings or lunch with colleagues.  Ikea has one called the Bekant for under $500.  See it as an investment in your health.
  • Stand more at your personal computer, watching TV, or engaging in conversation.
  • Try to replace as many conveniences with their less convenient counterpart.  Don’t use conveniences meant for those who are truly handicapped like automatic doors.  Take the elevator whenever possible.  Walk instead of using your car for short distances.  Walk to your colleague’s office instead of sending an email.  All of these “inconveniences” use calories and can add up to a slimmer you.
  • Timing – Eat the majority of your calories earlier rather than later in the day.  Exactly when you do this is not as important as being consistent about the times you choose to eat.  You might consider modifying your plate size depending on the time of day, e.g. using a very small plate for evening eating occurrences.  Also, endeavor to eat with your family and make the eating occurrence as enjoyable as possible.  Another study from Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab identified a relationship between parental weight and mealtime ritual.  Those caregivers who ate with their family at a table, engaged in meaningful discussion with family and remained at the table until a meal was complete had lower weight than those who did not.  I found that talking to my teens about their day didn’t lead to much discussion.  So, I purchased Table Topics, a fun and engaging conversation starter of interesting questions for everyone to answer.  You get to learn more about how your family and friends think, and of course, this brings you closer.  It also brings the attention away from food and makes eating thoroughly enjoyable. 
  • Exposure – Because visibility and convenience are the major players in how much we eat, it makes sense to clear food from your line of vision as much as possible.  This means putting unhealthy food in cabinets or in the back of the refrigerator.  Conversely, place foods that are healthy such as fresh fruit and vegetables in your line of vision and in a convenient spot.  Family style eating where all of the food is within easy reach at the table also encourages extra eating.  Don’t eat and serve food from the same area.  In Wansink’s latest book, Slim by Design, he says kitchen clutter leads to more random eating occurrences.  Stress may be at play in a cluttered environment, which we know leads to overeating.  Perform your own experiment and note how much you eat depending on your ability to both see the food and reach it easily.  Sometimes it’s best not to have problematic food around at all.  This will eliminate late night snacking when it would be inconvenient to go out to a store to obtain it.
  • Stress – Stress is a strange phenomenon.  We often don’t realize its presence nor the effect it is having on our health or weight.  Because NGKs’ are very busy, taking time to relax will take a back seat if we let our schedule completely dictate what we do. You probably know what you can do to relieve stress, but you might not have taken the step to actually do something about it.  Realizing that stress plays a role in your body weight might just be enough to get you to act.  You might consider becoming a member of a yoga, meditation, and/or exercise class where you have some obligation to participate.  Your job is to figure how what, when and where you can do something about your stress, and then do it.

I’ve given you a lot to chew on – so to speak.  Virtually none of it is related to food deprivation as a way to lose or maintain your weight.  Losing weight and keeping it off is akin to war.  You will need to use all of the techniques you know are effective as part of your daily arsenal in staying healthy and fit.  Changing your environment is a very important part of that arsenal.  It may be the missing link to the problem with weight loss success.  If you still want some good old fashioned nutrition advice, I recommend you check out the Harvard School of Public Health’s Healthy Eating Plate.  It’s excellent!