Battling to beat the bulge and can’t understand why you keep putting on weight? You might be surprised by these strange reasons you could be putting on weight.

Make for the Pub

Without realising it, you may be drinking thousands of calories hidden in your favourite tipple – and you don’t have to be a serial binge drinker to see the results. Alcoholic drinks tend to be hugely calorie-laden: wine and champagne contain about 100 calories for a small glass, and sweeter wines can contain up to 200 calories. Beer is about 150 calories a pint, although you can find lower calorie beers that will cost you about 100 calories. A shot of spirits contains about 50 calories (and if you’re having it with a mixer that adds calories too) and a large cocktail can contain up to 400 calories.

And if you don’t think that sounds like a lot, try adding it all up. Having just one beer a night adds a massive 1000 calories a week, so if you don’t work it off you’ll put on 15 pounds a year! And just three small glasses of wine a week will cost you over 300 calories – that’s three miles on the treadmill.

Be a Workaholic

Skipping your lunch break could be a lot more dangerous than you thought. You may not realise it, but most office workers sit cramped behind a desk for such lengthy periods that they are actually at risk for Deep Vein Thrombosis, a condition in which a blood clot forms within a deep vein in the leg.

Sitting at a desk all day makes you so inactive that you’ll hardly expend any energy and will gain lots of weight. Try taking as much of your lunch break as you can and spend it walking briskly or heading to the gym. And while you’re at work, get up and walk around every hour, making sure you climb the stairs.

Sit Still

Believe it or not, people who fidget tend to lose more weight and stay slimmer than those who sit still! It may not seem like crossing and uncrossing your legs is a vigorous workout, studies have shown that fidgeting actually makes a massive difference in weight control. (Read more: Fidgeters Less Likely to be Fat).

It makes sense: people whose feet are tapping even while they are sitting at a computer are burning more energy. Basically, fidgeters are benefiting from a gentle but prolonged exercise regime. So if you’re the type of person that just can’t sit still, you've probably managed to keep yourself in relatively good shape!

Stay Up All Night

Most people don’t get their recommended eight hours a night, but sleep is vital for healthy functioning, and not getting enough z’s is known to increase your risk of being overweight. Tons of studies have shown that the less you sleep, the greater your body mass index will be, and the more weight you’ll gain over time. Plus, regular sleep deprivation makes you twice as likely to be obese.

The reason? Lack of sleep causes hormonal changes that increase appetite, and also changes your metabolism, making it difficult for your body to process and store carbohydrates or regulate hormone secretion.

Some experts even link increasingly busy lifestyles and lack of sleep with the obesity epidemic. "The 'epidemic' of obesity is paralleled by a 'silent epidemic' of reduced sleep duration with short sleep duration linked to increased risk of obesity both in adults and in children,” says US medical Professor Francesco Cappuccio “These trends are detectable in adults as well as in children as young as 5 years old."

One recent study has found that children who don’t get enough sleep are also more likely to be overweight. To read more, Click Here.

Drink Fizzy Drinks

Fizzy drinks contain chemicals that interfere with your metabolism, making it harder to lose weight. Instead, drink green tea to increase your metablosm and as much water as possible. You need at least 8 glasses of water a day to flush out toxins and help you lose weight. Plus, people often mistake dehydration for hunger, and fizzy drinks don’t actually hydrate you effectively.

Feel Guilty

Feeling guilty about the food you eat is a tried and tested way of gaining weight. Why? Because it can actually lead to compulsive overeating, a type of eating disorder.

People who try to lose weight by banning food and feeling guilty about eating experience sugar cravings, overeating and weight gain as soon as they “slip up” or give up the diet. And it’s not because they don’t have enough willpower, it’s our natural biological reaction to starving ourselves. But since the overeater does not realise this, it causes their self esteem to fall even lower, and try even harder to refrain from eating. The sporadic binge eating causes surges of blood sugar, so the pancreas overproduces insulin, blood sugar falls and cravings continue to increase. In turn, this leads to even more guilt. The compulsive overeater blames herself for her perceived greediness and weakness, and the vicious cycle continues.

Not only will you continue to gain weight, but the blood sugar fluctuations can also cause headaches, stomach aches, depression and panic attacks.
The answer? We’ve said it before, but the only real way to lose weight and keep it off is a healthy attitude to food and a healthy, balanced diet!

Eat Processed Food

Processed foods are a product of modern life – we’re too busy to bake or cook using healthy ingredients, so we buy them food instead. But in order to provide products that look and taste fresh even after they’ve been on the shelf for ages, manufacturers include additives like preservatives, colourants, flavourants and way too much salt.

They look harmless and identical to something you’d rustle up yourself at home if you had the time. You may even think you’re being healthy by choosing them instead of a piece of freshly baked cake or a sandwich. But don’t be fooled: processed foods are packed with saturated fat, sugars and hidden salts – all linked to weight gain.

Processed foods are the main reason the NHS is calling for a simple traffic light food labelling system, so people are able to quickly assess a product’s sugar, salt and fat content and make healthy eating decisions – like saving processed foods for special occasions! (Read more: Lights or Signposts: Food Labelling Explained).

Channel your inner Jamie Oliver instead. Not only will you be sure that your cooking contains a lot less trans fat and salt than your average microwave meal, but you’ll burn 54 calories every half an hour you’re in the kitchen cooking up a storm.

Skip Meals

One surefire way of gaining weight is skipping meals – and it’s not just because we don’t think you have the willpower to do it. Skipping meals tricks the body into thinking there is a shortage of food. And when that happens, your metabolism is genetically programmed to slow down and actually build up fat reserves! Prevent your body stocking up on flab by eating small amounts of food regularly throughout the day – and whatever you do, don’t miss breakfast.

Eating breakfast is vital for losing weight and keeping it that way. It increases your metabolism and stops unhealthy binge snacking later. If you skip breakfast, your metabolism won't work at its optimum level until lunch time, by which point you have already lost 3-4 hours of prime calorie burning time. Lots of studies have found that people who eat breakfast keep weight off for longer and lose weight quicker than those who do not.

For maximum weight loss, make sure you stick to healthy breakfast choices, ones low in sugar and salt. Try including a banana with your cereal – they’re full of metabolism-boosting potassium and balance your body’s water retention. Also, eating whole-grain breakfast cereals on a daily basis will also lower your risk of heart failure, according to a recent study. (Read more: Breakfast Cereals Reduce Heart Failure Risk).

Be a Wallflower

Skinny people don’t sit in the corner on a night out, they boogie till dawn! Next time you’re painting the town red with your mates make sure you hit the dance-floor for a sneaky fat-burning session! Dancing even at a moderate pace burns 100 calories every 20 minutes.

Two problems though – you’ll undo your hard night’s work if you skimp on sleep or down too many drinks. If you can’t trust yourself to stay on the straight and narrow, try a day-time dance class instead. Try ballroom, pole dancing or belly dancing – whatever gets you moving! We recommend a hip hop funk class. You’ll learn the high-energy tricks of the music video trade and burn up to 400 calories in an hour-long class – more than most other dance classes. Dancing’s also great because the tricky moves will take the focus away from the fat-burning aspect. Plus, with the huge number of solo dancing classes on offer, you won’t be the loser left standing in a corner if you haven’t brought a partner.

Still not convinced? If you’re worried about putting your two left feet on public display, pop in a workout video. Just ten minutes of lunging, kicking, lifting and generally following instructions burns 100 calories.

Gobble your Food

People who wolf down their food quickly and finish everything on their plate tend to gain more weight than people who eat slowly. Taking time over food gives your stomach a chance to send the message to your brain that it’s full – so you’ll eat less and lose weight!