5 Things You Do In The Mornings That Are Making You Add Weight

A lot of us have experienced the pain of doing all we can to shed weight but the extra pounds just sticks to us irrespective of our effort and commitment.

Maybe you’ve stopped the usual culprits like eating large quantity of food, fast foods and drinking excessively but you just can’t seem to shake it off.

There may however be something you’re doing wrong that you’ve failed to pay attention to- the way you start your day. Your mornings help to lay a foundation for the choices you will make the rest of the day and for a lot of the days that follow, which makes it imperative that you establish good habits that you can fall back on when other means fail.

Here are a number of mistakes that are affecting your weight-loss plans and how you can adjust them.

Skipping And Skimping Breakfast 

Research conducted at Tel Aviv University found that people that were on a diet filled with low calories and ate a balanced breakfast that contained 600 calories of lean protein, carbohydrates, and little of something sweet were more likely to be less hungry and have fewer cravings the rest of the day when compared to people who ate a low carbohydrate (300-calorie) breakfast.

Furthermore, it was also concluded that such people are better at sticking to their calorie limits and had lower levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin after having their meals.

The researchers suggest that satisfying your cravings first thing in the morning can help to keep you from feeling deprived of your needs all day and help control your weight.

Skipping The Scale

A research conducted in Cornell University which monitored 162 overweight women and men for two years, found that the ones that checked and monitored their weights everyday tend to be more successful when it comes to losing weight and staying that way.

It was also discovered that the best time to check your weight is early in the morning when the body weight is at its lowest. Your measurement will not only be very accurate since you’d be carrying less water weight, but you can also make adjustments if the number you see is higher than you envisage.

Sleeping Too Much

W heard it time and time again that a lack of sleep can cause you to lose weight, because of an increase in the cortisol hormone which is responsible for stimulating the appetite.

The reverse is however the case as getting too much sleep may not be good for you, if you’re thinking of losing weight. A recent study found that sleeping more than 10 hours a night also helped to increase the risk of having a higher body mass index (BMI) when compared to people who slept between 7 to 9 hours every night.

What this means is sleeping between seven to nine hours regularly will help stop you from gaining weight you don’t need.

You Prepare For Work In The Dark

According to a study published in the journal PLOS One, keeping your blinds shut after waking up can make you miss out on the weight-loss benefits provided by the sun.

The study authors concluded that people who were exposed to sun in the early morning were more likely to have lower BMIs than those who didn’t, irrespective of the amount of food they ate. The study found that exposing the body to as little as 20 to 30 minutes of daylight is enough to affect BMI, even when it’s overcast.

The reason for this is because the body tends to synchronise with your body’s internal clock and mechanism for metabolism, using the blue light waves from the early morning sun as a guide.

Failing To Make Your Bed

According to a survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation in the US, people who made their beds had a 19 percent chance of getting a good night’s sleep compared to people who failed to make their beds.

Furthermore, sleeping soundly has also been linked to having a lower BMI and a well made bed can make this happen, which is why you should adopt the habit.

Putting your bed back together in the morning can also spring a lot of good behaviours such as packing a healthy lunch.

Research has also shown that people who make their beds have a higher chance of sticking to budgets, which is a demonstration of willpower that can help you control your calorie count and inadvertently, your weight.