But I Hardly Eat Anything...
So Why Am I Gaining Weight?

It is a commonly held belief in medical circles that as a nation we gaining pounds because we are less active than we used to be and that extra calories have little to do with our expanding waistbands.

But if you look at the facts, evidence from surveys tell us that we are more or less living at the same levels of sedentary lifestyles as we were in the mid-1980's. And even though according to food surveys we are apparently eating less than we used to, personally, I simply don't buy it.

Here are 5 main reasons that you are probably eating more than you think. Take a look at each one and jot down whether you have fallen prey to the problem, listing the kinds of foods you may be inadvertently eating and are clocking up the calories without you realising.

Don't feel bad about it if the list begins to stack up. We all do it. Just use the information to help you move forward and to start gradually cutting back. It is great how quickly you can begin cutting back and how your weight will as a result, begin to fall.

1. Portion Distortion

As you will see from our photographs comparing two muffins and two croissants, a portion is no longer a good guide to help you keep tabs on what you are eating. One of the muffins weighed in at 156g while another was 116g. That is a difference of 153 calories if you happened to choose the large one versus the small.

If you made this choice everyday, that would be a total of 1071 calories per week and 55,692 calories per year, which would lead to a weight gain of 1 stone and 2lb - just from choosing one muffin compared to another. Obviously, not many people eat a muffin everyday of the year, but you get the idea how important it is to keep an eye on your portion sizes.

We found croissants ranging in size from 44g which give you 164 calories to 72g will give you 269 calories. How many people do you know who take a look at the size of a croissant and think, 'oh that's big, I'll just eat half' or 'this bag of crisps is 50g, I'll just eat 30g which is the size they used to be'?

It simply doesn't happen. We eat in the serving sizes we are given. This goes for snacks like muffins, for ready meals and for cartons of popcorn at the cinema. The best advice is to be vigilant and to check serving sizes before you buy. If you are aware that you have a mutant sized muffin on your hands, or an especially large baguette from the sandwich shop, then deliberately share it with someone. It halves not only the calories, but the cost as well.

If you buy bumper packs of foods like nuts and raisins, divide them into smaller portions so that you are not tempted to sit and scoff the lot in one go. With family sized pots of yoghurt, weigh out 150g so that you having the same as you would have had you bought individual pots.

There are lots of ways of getting your portions under control. Forewarned is forearmed. The more attention you pay, the less likely you are to be fooled.

2. Liquid Calories

We now not only drink more sugary beverages than we used to like fizzy pop and so on, but more fruit juices and a lot more milk based drinks like cappuccinos. The end result is that it is easy to gulp down a good 500 calories a day before even uttering the words 'I'm thirsty.'

Make a note of each time you have a drink which is not water, a herbal tea or an ordinary tea or coffee in which you have just a splash of milk. Resolve to replace the calorie packed beverages with water and herbal teas whenever you can.

3. Eating Out

Eating on the go and grabbing things from coffee shops for breakfast, at sandwich bars for lunch and having evening meals in restaurants or fast food places makes it hard to keep a handle on what you are actually eating. It has been shown that people who eat out around just three times a week eat on average almost a third more calories over a month than those who eat out just once a week.

Jot down all the times you eat away from home and the types and amounts of the foods you are eating. Now try and think of some healthier alternatives which are also on offer that you could chose instead. For example having a fruit salad and yoghurt with 200 calories instead of a Danish pastry at the coffee shop with 640 calories saves 440 calories. Selecting a baked potato with baked beans with 350 calories rather than a tuna mayonnaise baguette with 865 saves a further 515. And when it comes to eating in restaurants, a simple swap from say a pasta carbonarra dish to a spaghetti with a tomato based seafood sauce saves a whacking 600 extra calories.

4. Between Meal Grazing

Also of course known as snacking and one of the main culprits when it comes to dietary amnesia. When I run through people's food intake with them, asking what they ate on the previous day, I would say that 9 times out of 10, they forget to mention any snacks.

Not that I am any better. I do exactly the same. We seem to have a wire loose when it comes to remembering the little extras we nibble on throughout any normal day. Like the little slice of birthday cake which came round for a colleague's birthday celebration in the office. Or the small bar of chocolate you munched on the way to the bus stop after work or the packet of cheese snacks you bought along with your petrol and munched on your way to see a friend.

Snack amnesia is easily done... and easily stopped. Again writing down every morsel you eat is the way to get a handle on when you do it, and will give you an idea of how to stop it. For instance if you always snack when you have your morning coffee break, make sure you have fruit available instead of the usual biscuits. If you always head for the cake tin the moment you get home through the door in the evening, have an alternative in the fridge like a bunch of grapes that you can turn to instead.

Breaking the bad snacking habits is all in the owning up to what you usually do and planning ways to do things differently in the future.

5. Too Many Flavours

There is a lot to be said for eating the way our grandparents used to. Their meals were straight forward, tasty and relatively simple based usually on meat or fish, potatoes and two vegetables.

Nowadays we are exposed to a monster number of flavours and textures and scientists have been able to show that the more variety we have within a meal, the less our taste buds get bored and the more we go on eating.

Let me give you a simple example. If you eat a strawberry yoghurt and are then offered another strawberry yoghurt, the chances are you won't fancy it. If however the second one you are offered is another flavour, say, peach for instance, it is more likely that you will say 'yes' and tuck in.

You can translate this into meal times as well. It is known for example that we eat more pasta if we are given two or three shapes compared to if just given one.

Now consider this. With hundreds of new products being launched every year by a food industry intent on getting us to consume and consume and consume, is it surprising that you get tempted by new lines, new dishes and extra ingredients within meals?

To counter against the desire to overeat because of too much variety, the best rule is to keep meals simple. Take a leaf out of your grandparents' book. You don't need to eat boring food, but making things less frenetic on your plate will allow you natural appetite controls to kick in rather than being over stimulated by excessive flavours and textures.

And More Over...

Did you know that fast food manufacturers put ice in your drinks not necessarily to bulk out the drink so that they serve you less, but because the ice makes the sphincter at the top of your stomach expand and allows food to be swallowed more rapidly. The more quickly you eat, the less likely you are to feel full after your food (it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to register its presence in your stomach) which means that you are more likely to go up and order extra.