The Philippine Online Chronicles

You know the basics of becoming obese -- if you eat too much and not exercise enough, you’re putting yourself at risk of excessive weight gain and a gamut of diseases.  There are other contributors to obesity aside from overeating and a lack of physical activity. You may not even be aware that they’re part of your daily habits.

The following five daily habits can trim the waistline day by day.

Take a look at your bedtime routine. How late do you sleep? How many hours of sleep do you get per night? The less you sleep, the more likely you will eat more. Cutting down on sleep hours causes leptin to be produced. Leptin is the hormone that helps the stomach recognize it is full. Lack of sleep also increases the production of the hormone ghrelin, an appetite stimulant. We eat more and lack a full-stomach alert? Hello, eating with a tummy like a bottomless pit! Now that is why we need to sleep well. Mayo Clinic recommends that adults get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, school-age children get 10 to 11 hours, toddlers get 12 to 14 hours and infants get 14 to 15 hours. Getting enough sleep helps fight obesity.

Next, check your beverage intake for one day. How much soda do you drink? How much coffee? How much juice? How much water? While it’s important to stay hydrated through the day, your choice of beverage can help determine whether you’ll gain or lose weight. Drinking an excess in soft drinks and highly sugared juices for example, can lead to weight gain. Replace these high calorie drinks with water instead. Some studies point to water helping in weight loss. Or think about it as just drinking to good health. Water is a great body cleanser after all. It flushes the toxins out of our organs. Try replacing your sugared drinks with water. Monitor as well that you get 8 to 9 cups of water a day.

Do you force yourself or your child to finish every single morsel on the plate even if you’re both already full? Rethink this practice. The Science Daily shares that “The Clean Plate Club” can trigger children to be overeaters. The more controlling the parent were about telling their child to finish all their food, the more likely the kids were to request larger portions of sweetened cereal the next day. Sweet compensation, the kids are probably thinking. Instead of heaping food on a plate, consider providing moderate amounts of different foods. If the children want additional food, they can request for more.

Dairy products can also help in fighting obesity. Review your food intake for one day. How much cheese, milk, yogurt, eggs and other dairy do you consume? High calcium intake can help the body fight fat. How does this work? Calcium has the capacity to bind with fat in the intestines, which helps avoid fat from being absorbed into our body. This unabsorbed fat then gets flushed out our body along with feces, called fecal lipid loss. Load up on calcium through dairy products and dark, leafy greens. Do remember that Vitamin D helps in better calcium absorption! So go get some sunlight, salmon and other foods that are rich in Vitamin D.

How stressed out are you? The more stressed out you are, the more likely you are prone to obesity. A biological connection exists between stress and obesity. Hormones are the central players here. For example, when we crave for comfort foods high in fat and sugar at times of stress, it raises our body’s serotonin level. Serotonin is the feel-good hormone. Then there’s the hormone cortisol, which manages fat storage and energy use in our bodies. When we’re stressed, our bodies release abundant amounts of cortisol, which increase our appetite. Finally, there’s Neuropeptide Y. This is a molecule that is released from nerve cells at times of stress and encourages the accumulation of fat. When our diet is high in fat and sugar as well, more of this molecule is released.

Sleep better. Drink more water. Don’t force yourself to finish a whole plate. Take calcium. Chill. These are five little things you can do every day to help yourself fight obesity. Add this to being conscious about your food intake and exercise regimen.  Make these daily habits and little by little, you’ll be distancing yourself from obesity and its risks more and more. Daily habits add up after all, and before you know it you’ll be leading a solid, healthy lifestyle far from obesity. Good luck!

Photo: “Full-Figured Man” by Tony Alter, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved