How long between eating and gaining weight

If you love ice cream, for example, skip the fro-yo and have a small scoop of premium. If you're working out but gaining weight, the problem may lie in the amount of time you're spending exercising. There's no denying that working out is an important weight loss factor, but oddly enough, thinking about your upcoming sweat sessions too often can make it more difficult to lose weight.

An Obesity Reviews meta-analysis indicates that people tend to overestimate how many calories they burn when they work out—and will end up eating more on days they work out.

A separate study supported this finding, showing that people tend to increase their food intake after exercise and end up eating more calories than they burn. The solution: To prevent sudden weight gain, avoid excessive noshing after exercising. Pick up pre-portioned pre-workout snacks tailored to your fitness routine.

The solution: "I suggest eating a snack before heading out and shopping from a list. This way, you'll remember to add the healthy foods to your shopping cart," says Young. Portion size is just as important as eating healthy. The reason: Many nutritious foods—like avocados, oatmeal, quinoa, dark chocolate, nuts, and nut butters—can lead to weight gain when eaten in excess because they're calorically dense.

The solution: Unless it's a fruit or a vegetable, don't make the assumption that the healthy food you're eating is low in calories. Next time you're whipping up a meal, remember these three portion control cues:. With each passing birthday after the big , we start to lose muscle mass. That has got to be the worst birthday present of all time!

The solution: To keep your lean, youthful figure, Forberg says staying active is a must: "A combination of cardio and weight-bearing exercise will help preserve lean body mass and muscle tissue, keeping the metabolism elevated. A University of Birmingham study found that drinking two cups of water before each meal could significantly accelerate weight loss.

So it should come as no surprise that not drinking enough H2O can have the opposite effect on your waistline. Plus, when you're dehydrated, the body will conserve water for vital body functions, which can result in water retention and a higher number on the scale. The solution: Sip water continuously throughout the day.

And remember that water alone isn't the only way to stay hydrated, there are many water-rich foods you can eat along with other water-rich drinks like coffee, tea, and smoothies. A no-no for your weight loss efforts. A high-sodium diet can make you retain water and bloat. And when you retain water in your gut, it can make it seem like you've experienced a sudden weight gain in your stomach—when it's just water weight.

As Palumbo says, "sodium-related weight gain is easy come, easy go. The solution: Up your water intake and cut back on the sodium. Cooking more at home with fresh herbs instead of salt should help your belly deflate in a day or so.

Dining out? Scan nutrition info at home before you head out and pick a healthy restaurant dish with about 1, milligrams of sodium or less. The solution: One of the best ways to overcome a passing craving is to keep the foods you know you can't deny out of the house. Can't imagine kicking your favorite cookies out of the house for good?

Individually portion off the foods you tend to overeat. If you know each Ziploc bag of chips is calories, you'll be less likely to go back for a second serving.

The thyroid, a gland in the neck that sits above the Adam's apple, regulates a wide range of bodily functions including metabolism. But sometimes, for a variety of reasons, your thyroid may become under-active and result in a condition called hypothyroidism. One of the many symptoms of the condition? You guessed it, weight gain. Jemma O'Hanlon. As with anything related to the body, the amount of food we need to eat before it ends up as body weight depends on the individual.

Each person has their own energy requirement which varies depending on numerous factors such as age, height, illness and activity. We also use energy in order to complete conscious tasks such as walking, lifting and talking. On top of this, the body then uses up energy when we exercise, meaning the more exercise you do the more energy you will burn off. All the daily activities we complete like walking to the train station, taking the stairs or even doing household chores will add up.

To gain 0. In calories, this equates to an additional plus calories per day that our body doesn't burn off, which isn't much at all. It's often when we eat past the point of being full that we're likely to gain weight. While the actual rate people can gain weight varies and depends on the individual and their metabolism, age, height, fitness and state of health, it does not happen overnight.

Eat slowly and listen to your body, and stop when you feel comfortably satisfied. If you're eating until you're stuffed full, chances are you're eating more than your body needs. If you have weighed yourself at one time of the day and noticed your weight has increased a few hours later, O'Hanlon says this is not the result of 'instant weight gain'.

This food or drink will first be digested, the waste excreted to put it politely and the excess energy stored as fat. The food then travels through the large intestine where further digestion and absorption of water occurs, before it is then eliminated from the body. According to the Daily Mail , Oxford University research found that dietary fat takes an hour to enter our bloodstream post-meal, then two more hours to get into our adipose tissue i.

So, in a meal with roughly 30 grams of fat in it, you'll have a couple teaspoons of fat around your midsection after about three hours. Typically, the fat is used as energy and goes away unless of course you gorged yourself on delights like fried chicken and cake, as we tend to do more often than we should.

But weight gain isn't the only bodily process scientists have been able to time. Our bodies take about an hour to "pass" water and 24 hours to totally digest a meal, various research shows.

On a sexier note, researchers have also been able to quantify another kind of release: Orgasms.