It’s understandable
when you gain a few
pounds after vacation or if you
broke your ankle and spent six weeks
propped on the sofa bingeing on
obscure British cooking shows (and
chocolate scones to go with them).
But when there doesn’t seem to be
a reason, it can feel as if some dark
magic is at play. You may find yourself
standing on the bathroom scale
screaming into the void, “Why, oh why,
am I gaining weight?!”
Deep breath. You got this. Most
likely there’s something in your life
that has shifted just enough to
make a difference, but not so much
that you’d notice, says Alexandra
Sowa, M.D., an obesity specialist
and a clinical instructor of medicine
at NYU Langone Health. “I see this
all the time — you may not step on the
scale for a while, and you feel like
you haven’t changed anything, and
all of a sudden you go to the doctor’s
office and notice you’ve gained
10 or 20 pounds,” she says.
But that doesn’t mean it’s your
destiny to go up another size every
year. Here are some of the most likely
reasons for unexplained weight gain,
and how to reverse the cycle.- Yo ur insulin levels
may be out of whack.
If you’ve been battling weight issues
for a while and none of your efforts
are moving the needle, make an
appointment with your primary
care doc or a weight-management
physician, who can assess you for
insulin resistance or prediabetes.
(She can also test for hypothyroidism,
in which your thyroid gland doesn’t
produce enough hormone, slowing
down your metabolism and potentially
leading to weight gain.)
“Insulin is the hormone that
signals the body to pull glucose from
the bloodstream and store it in the
muscles, liver and fat,” says Tirissa
Reid, M.D., an obesity medicine
specialist at Columbia University
Medical Center. “But when you’re
overweight, cells may not respond to
the insulin as well — they’re resistant,
so the pancreas has to pump out more
insulin to maintain a normal blood
sugar.” This is also common in women
who have polycystic ovary syndrome.
High insulin levels keep the body in
storage mode and make weight loss
more difficult, says Dr. Reid.
What you can do: The most
effective way to reverse this trend
is to eat a diet low in refined carbs
and added sugars and to become
more physically active, since
muscles respond better to insulin
after exercise, says Dr. Reid. She
recommends using a fitness tracker
or an app if you don’t have time for
long sweat sessions. “If you’re at 2,000
steps per day, try to go up to 2,500
per day next week, and continue to
increase,” Dr. Reid says. Switching
to foods with a lower glycemic
index (GI) — which means they’re
digested more slowly, keeping blood
sugar steady — is also important
for controlling your insulin levels.
Dr. Sowa recommends these food
swaps: riced cauliflower instead of
white rice; zucchini spirals or shirataki
noodles (made from plant fiber)
instead of pasta; and pumpernickel
or stone-ground whole-wheat bread
instead of white bread or bagels.- Stress and
exhaustion are slowing
your metabolism.
If you’re up at night worrying about
your aging parents and hormonal
teens and the general state of the
world, know this: “Stress and lack of
sleep can cause a cascade of hormonal
changes that alter your metabolism
and affect your sense of hunger and
fullness,” Dr. Sowa explains. Stress
pumps up the hormones ghrelin
and cortisol, which increase your
appetite and can make you crave
carbs, while dialing down the hormone
leptin, which helps you feel full. Not
surprisingly, a recent Swedish study
of 3,872 women over 20 years found
that the more stressed they were by
work, the more likely they were to
gain weight. Stress also hinders sleep,
which further throws off metabolism
rates and hunger cues.
What you can do: It’s easy — just fix
the world and make everyone around
THE INSULIN
When your cells
become resistant
to insulin,
your pancreas
may need to
produce two or
more times the
normal amount
to stabilize your
blood sugar.2x
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