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Here are the top reasons why your battle with weight might be getting the best of you.

1. Insufficient Exercise and Poor Eating Habits

Adequate exercise and healthy eating habits go together for weight loss. Most Americans simply don’t get enough exercise. Just consuming calories without burning them equals weight gain.

A healthy individual wanting to maintain their weight needs about 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day. If you want to lose weight, 60 minutes of cardio a day is recommended until you reach your target weight. Then you can go down to 30 minutes a day.

Keep a diary of what, when and how much you are eating. After a week, evaluate your list and identify the problem areas and make adjustments accordingly.

A healthy eating program will be high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low in saturated fats, sugar and salt. Determine what your daily caloric intake should be and don’t eat more.

2. Syndrome X

Syndrome X is a metabolic disorder that affects one out of every four Americans and can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes if left untreated. Syndrome X is chiefly characterized by insulin resistance. When food is consumed by a healthy individual, the body releases insulin to escort glucose into the cells where it can be burned efficiently. When insulin resistance is present, the cells fail to recognize the glucose and deny it entry. The glucose is then left to build up in the bloodstream. The liver detects that the cells are not getting enough glucose and pumps more out to remedy the situation. This further clogs the bloodstream with sugar. Eventually all of this glucose makes its way to the liver where it is converted to fat and stored throughout the body.

While weight gain due to insulin resistance is not necessarily caused by overeating, insulin resistance is caused by obesity and lack of exercise. If you suspect that you might be insulin resistant, see your doctor for a simple test.

3. Stress

Stressors have the ability to add unwanted pounds to your body because of a physiological response called “fight or flight”. Immediate danger signals the body to produce adrenaline. After the danger is passed the adrenaline dissipates but the body continues to pump out cortisol. The cortisol served to stimulate insulin release and maintain the blood sugar levels resulting in an intense hunger.

Every time your workload becomes too much to handle or your children drive you nuts your body responds as if it was in mortal danger. Stressful events on a daily basis tells your adrenal glands to pump out the calming hormone cortisol on a regular basis.

Many people eat in response to stress. This makes sense since the cortisol pumping through your body is effectively telling you to eat. The food you consume in response to a stressful event is not necessary - it’s likely extra calories.

The simplest way to overcome this type of “overeating” is to find a way to manage your stress more effectively. When you feel a stressful situation coming, go for a walk or engage in some other type of exercise. Since your body is expecting a physical response, give it what it wants in a healthy way.

4. Hypothyroidism

Have your thyroid tested. The thyroid gland is located at the base of your skull and regulates your body’s metabolism. If thyroid hormone levels decrease, everything in your body slows down. This is a condition called hypothyroidism. As a result, your cells need less calories. While you may feel like you’re eating normal your body will no longer need that much energy to keep going. All of the “extra” calories that you are consuming become stored as fat resulting in weight gain. Hypothyroidism can be treated by your doctor by supplementing with thyroid hormones.

Obesity is a very complex medical problem in our society and achieving an ideal weight requires a complex approach oftentimes. Losing weight is not an easy task. If it was, we would all be thin!