Unintentional weight gain occurs when you put on weight without increasing your consumption of food or liquid and without decreasing your activity. This occurs when you're not trying to gain weight. It's often due to fluid retention, abnormal growths, constipation, or pregnancy.
It simply takes time. Another common reason why people report not losing weight despite reducing their calories is that they don't give it enough time. Our bodies will do their utmost to hold on to our fat reserves and you often have to be in a calorie deficit for a while before you will see any meaningful weight loss.
Undereating may cause weight gain for some people, but even if it doesn't, it's important not to eat so little that it adversely affects your health. From constipation to immune dysfunction, not eating enough can lead to a host of health issues.
Starving your body, whether consistently or inconsistently, can result in weight gain since your body is confused. Your metabolism is slowed so you're not burning through calories, or excess fat. Additionally, starving yourself can lead to fits of binge eating later, since you're so hungry.
It's often due to fluid retention, abnormal growths, constipation, or pregnancy. Unintentional weight gain can be periodic, continuous, or rapid. Periodic unintentional weight gain includes regular fluctuations in weight. One example of unintentional weight gain is experienced during a woman's menstrual cycle.
You've gained muscle.
And here's an often overlooked fact: Muscle tissue is more dense than fat tissue. So as you gain more muscle and lose fat, you change your overall body composition, which can result in a higher weight, but a smaller figure and better health.
Hardly eating doesn't help with long-term weight loss because severe calorie restriction sends your body into conservation, or "survival," mode. Your body holds onto fat when it doesn't have enough calories to support normal functioning, according to the Waldo County General Hospital website.
If you have a high metabolic rate, you may be able to eat much more than others and still not gain weight. Genes are just one variable that influence your BMR. Others include your age, height, starting weight, physical activity level and muscle mass percentage.
Over time, your body responds to calorie deprivation by reducing your resting metabolic rate (RMR) via adaptive thermogenesis (metabolic adaptation). This makes your body less effective at burning calories in an effort to preserve as much energy as possible ( 7 , 8 , 9 ).
Some causes may be related to stress, alcohol consumption, or medications. Other causes can be a result of health conditions like hypothyroidism or PCOS. Many causes of stomach swelling and weight gain can be treated with lifestyle changes and medications. However, others, such as ascites, can be serious.
Endo belly is the colloquial term for abdominal distension caused by endometriosis. Unlike the short-term bloating that sometimes accompanies your period, endo belly is much more severe, triggering physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.
If you push on your skin with your finger or thumb and your skin remains depressed, you're probably experiencing water retention. Fat cells are more springy, so the skin will bounce back. Do you feel bloated after eating?
When your body is losing more fluid than you can take in, you become dehydrated. With less water moving through your body, your urine becomes more concentrated. This can make other substances in your urine, such as fats, more visible.
Symptoms of water retention
bloating, especially in the abdominal area. swollen legs, feet, and ankles. puffiness of the abdomen, face, and hips. stiff joints.
swelling of affected body parts (feet, ankles and hands are commonly affected) aching of affected body parts. stiff joints. rapid weight gain over a few days or weeks.
It might be as simple as eating too much too fast, or you could have a food intolerance or other condition that causes gas and digestive contents to build up. Your menstrual cycle is another common cause of temporary bloating. Sometimes a bloated stomach can indicate a more serious medical condition.
The most common reason for bloating is having a lot of gas in your gut. This can be caused by some food and drinks, such as some vegetables and fizzy drinks, or by swallowing air when you eat. It can also be caused by a problem with your digestion, such as: constipation.
You could have a condition called Diastasis Recti Abdominus, or DRA. DRA is caused by an increase in abdominal pressure and occurs when the rectus abdominus, the abdominal muscle that runs down the center of your stomach, separates.
Certain types of cancer can cause weight gain. Ovarian and colorectal cancer, for example, may cause fluid buildup in the legs or abdomen.
"Gastrointestinal and digestive issues can definitely have a large effect on the way we eat and how our bodies absorb and digest foods, causing us to gain or lose weight," says Kenneth Brown, M.D., a board-certified gastroenterologist.
While body weight and fat are distributed equally in weight gain due to excess caloric intake, people with hormonal weight gain usually notice increased weight around specific body parts, such as the waist, arms, thighs, chest, and lower body.
If you're consuming too few calories your body essentially goes into starvation mode and receives the message that it needs to protect itself. This means holding onto weight for protection's sake. The body perceives reduced calorie intake as a stressor.