Weight Out of Control? These 5 Eating Habits May Be to Blame

Ever wonder why you eat well and exercise regularly and still can’t lose the weight -- or worse, gain it? It may not be due to anything you are deliberately doing.

In fact, behaviors like mindless eating, not reading labels when grocery shopping and similar actions cause our good intentions to let us down and unintentional behaviors slip through the cracks.

Let’s look at several ways we need to change when it comes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and keep our weight down.

1) Not Paying Attention to When We Eat

Studies have emerged that tell us that it doesn’t matter when you eat -- even late at night -- the body still manages the calories the same way.

Well, I’m here to tell you differently, based on my own body and the bodies of many of my friends! And the reason why is not that eating at night will make us fat, but that most of us aren’t going to peel and chop fresh fruit and veg at 10 p.m. Many of us are not eating celery and carrots at night.

We’re eating easy pickings like chips, popcorn and ice cream. We’re stress eating. We’ve had a bad day, we just got the kids down and we’re going to treat ourselves. And with a couple glasses of wine on top, we’re adding calories with no nutrition that often make us want to eat more.

So by all means, pop those raw veggies in your mouth at night. But keep far away from anything else other than lean protein and good carbs.

Read both sides of the debate here.

Eating a breakfast of fiber, fruit and protein keep us full all morning and enables us to resist the temptation to hit the vending machine by 10:30 a.m. Eating good, healthy, small meals every few hours stops us from feeling like we’re starving and stops the urge to binge.

2) Not Paying Attention to What We Eat

Many of us are doing our best to check calorie and fat contents of foods but are we really reading the ingredients? As a vegetarian, I read labels quickly for animal broths or gelatins used in vegetarian-sounding foods but we need to take the time to read everything.

If you can’t pronounce half of it, or it reads like an endless novel, don’t buy it. Look for foods with as few ingredients as possible. These ingredients should be understandable.

We don’t need foods dyes. They can affect our sleep patterns, our energy levels and our temperaments.

Checking salt and sugar content is also important. Remember that about 40 grams of sugar is eight teaspoons!

Look for chemicals, additives and preservatives. Some foods that are canned have long use-by dates which is fine, but many processed cakes and the like have a lifespan of a year or more, which is terrifying.

Bake from scratch or buy fresh at a bakery to avoid these chemicals. Eat fresh as much as possible and avoid foods served in boxes and cans.

Look for vitamins, fiber and protein, as well as calories. A calorie is not a calorie. A hundred calorie cookie will give you sugar and not much else. A hundred calorie apple will give you lots of Vitamin C, antioxidants and fiber (as well as a free tooth brushing). Calories count in more ways than one.

3) Not Paying Attention to Where We Eat

Many of us sit before the television or our computers when eating. This is not good for us. We really need to get back to the dinner table and focus on our food (and stop posting pictures of it on social media, too!).

When we pay attention to our food, we eat more slowly, we appreciate it more and feel fuller afterward. We’re also less likely to mindlessly eat when we’re more focused on our food. Food is meant for nutrition, energy and preventative care -- but it’s also meant to be enjoyed.

Sitting down to a meal, either alone or with family, should be a regular event, not something only done at a restaurant. In addition, it’s a great way to get to know your kids better and keep track on what’s going on in their lives.

4)Not Paying Attention to Portion Control

It can be so disappointing to find a fabulous meal, see that the ingredients are good and the fat and calorie contents are low, only to read that the measurements are “per serving” not per container.

I’ve seen many a delicious offering and been under the impression it was 10 grams of fat and 250 calories. Great, right? Except I then see in small letters “per serving. Servings per container: 4”. So my low fat, low cal meal is now high fat and with a thousand calories.

Portion sizes have exploded in the last fifty years, as have the size of plates used in restaurants to accommodate them. Most of don’t even realize how large portions are compared to our grandparent’s generation.

The U..S. National Library of Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health, conducted a study to show how portions have expanded quite dramatically.

Super-sizing, double-gulping and other ways to increase portions are seen as benefits, not dangerous. The study shows, for example, that in the 1950s, McDonalds offered just one size of french fries. That size is now considered a “small” portion of fries, while it was considered a normal size back then.

Fast food restaurants in other parts of the world serve the same kinds of meals (from the same chains) but in smaller sizes. And ironically, per ounce, huge portions are cheaper to buy than their smaller counterparts.

To counter large portions in restaurants, ask for half your meal to be boxed and have half on the plate. Eat the leftover portion for a meal the next day.

Stay away from fast food altogether if you can or choose healthier options like veggie burgers, small portions of fries and ready-made salads with low fat dressings.

And remember, just because it's on your plate, doesn't mean you have to eat it.