Saturday, July 26, 2008

Weight Gain

7 years ago, I only weighed about a hundred pounds. Super payat ko talaga. So I also made an effort to gain weight. Hindi naman kasi maganda itsura ko then dahil mukha akong maysakit.

Pero may time na nag-overboard na yata ang weight gain. I have gained more than 30 pounds maximum in a span of about five to six years.

Waah! Bakit kaya ito nangyari?

Change of eating habits and lesser physical activity. Madalas ako ay nakaupo lang at nagco-computer o nag-iinternet. Dala na rin kasi ng trabaho.

And for the past 2 years, I have been making 'some' effort to lose weight.

Maybe I should spend less time using the Internet (like what I am doing now!) and spend more time biking :)

More about girls' weight gain at the article below:

NEW YORK—Girls and young women who devote much time to the Internet, get too little sleep or regularly drink alcohol are more likely than their peers to put on excess weight, a new study suggests.

The researchers, who followed more than 5,000 girls between 14 and 21 years old for a year, found that the more spare time girls spent on the Internet, the more their body mass index (BMI) increased.

Similar patterns were seen when the researchers looked at alcohol consumption and sleep. Too much alcohol and lack of sleep were linked to greater gains in BMI—a measure of weight in relation to height.

The findings, which were reported in The Journal of Pediatrics, add to the evidence implicating each of these three habits in promoting weight gain.

The effect of each habit on one’s weight may be small, but over time the pounds can add up, according to the researchers led by Dr. Catherine S. Berkey of Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Findings

The study involved 5,036 girls and young women who were surveyed regarding the number of recreational hours per week they spent on the Internet, which ranged from one to five hours, to 16-plus hours, as well as how long they typically slept each night (anywhere from five hours or less, to nine hours or more) and how much alcohol they usually drank (ranging from none to two or more drinks per week).

In general, the researchers found that as Internet use climbed, so did BMI, particularly among girls younger than 18 years old.

When it came to sleep, those who clocked five hours or less tended to gain more weight than those who got a standard eight hours.

And girls and women who had two or more alcoholic drinks per week put on more pounds than those who drank the least.

The effects of these habits over one year were modest, Berkey’s team points out.

Over time

For example, a 19-year-old of average weight and height would gain four pounds if she were in the high-risk groups for Internet use, sleep and alcohol consumption.

The researchers, however, add that over time that could translate into significant weight change.

Spending hours on the Internet likely contributes to weight gain by taking time away from physical activity, according to Berkey’s team.

Lack of sleep may make people too tired to be active during the day; sleep deprivation also affects hormones and metabolism in a way that might promote weight gain.

Alcohol contains a significant amount of calories, and research suggests that people usually don’t make an adjustment for liquid calories by eating or drinking less throughout the rest of the day.

Reuters

No comments: