Eating Habits
A change in eating habits can lead to a slight increase of calories for a short period. For regular diets, this could spell disaster. But for a low calorie diet plan, it's not too bad. Enter the common unusual circumstances. Wow, what an oxymoron! What do I mean by common unusual circumstances? I am referring to situations that most people don't look at as being a factor in weight gain. They are common occurrences, but unusual in that they are not usually identified as part of the problem. Let me explain.Experts will add working night shift to the long list of causes of obesity. But what they don't tell us is why it IS one of the causes. Yeah, stress is one of the reasons, but the main reason is simply the number of calories consumed each day or our eating habits. Look at this comparison: This is on of my normal day shift schedules when I worked shifts:- Get up at 5 am- Eat breakfast (400 cal)- Get to work by 7 am- Have a sensible mid morning snack between 9 and 10 am ( 150 cal)- Lunch 12:30 pm (550 cal)- Have a sensible afternoon snack between 2 and 3 pm (150 cal)- Go home 3:30 pm- Eat dinner between 5 and 6 pm (550 cal)- Go to bed at 9 pm In the above example, I was awake for 16 hours and consumed 1800 calories. That's not a bad day. However, if you change the same work hours to to night shift, you see a different picture. - Get up at 1 pm (because I worked the night before)- Eat breakfast (500 cal) (I ate more calories because I don't eat breakfast food at 1 pm)- I eat dinner between 5:30 and 6 pm before I leave for work. (550 cal)(I have already eaten 1050 cal before work and my day just started)- Get to work by 7 pm- Have a sensible snack between 9 and 10 pm ( 150 cal)(Now you seem to be back on schedule)- Lunch 12:30 pm (550 cal)(Oh oh, is this the second lunch or second dinner?)- Have a sensible snack between 2 and 3 am (150 cal)- Go home 3:30 am- I try to unwind before you got to bed so I would eat something while watching tv (maybe 400 cal)- Go to bed at 5 am Ok, this time I still managed to be awake for 16 hours, but in those 16 hours, I consumed 2300. But, even if I hadn't eaten that last meal before bed, I would have consumed 1900 calories. If I are on a 1700 calorie diet, I will gain 1 pound in about every 2 weeks. That, of course is about 2 pounds a month or 24 pounds a year. But get this; if I ate that last meal before bed, I would gain over a pound a week or more than 52 pounds in a year. That my friends, is how our weight gain sneaks up on us. So what happened? In our second example, we changed our habits when we changed our shifts. It is important to try to keep your habits as stable as possible. When life changes, we need to keep our eating habits the same.
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