2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
We hope you have only good associations with the word "home". However, some aspects of your normal home activities can work against your health. It is at home that we gain the most extra pounds. In this article, we will tell you how your own home can harm you, as well as give advice on how to change your life so that your health becomes stronger and your weight is less.
Scientists have investigated the causes of obesity and chronic disease. It turned out that these problems are often related to how we organize the space in which we live, and how we relate to it.
1. Your closets are full of "empty calories"
Empty calories are foods that are high in fat and carbohydrates, but low in bioavailability and nutritional value. Ice cream, candy, cookies, chips - these foods in the kitchen or office can provoke you and disrupt any healthy diet. This is especially true at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and before bedtime, when the urge to eat is very difficult to ignore.
Can't imagine your kitchen without your favorite cookies? Try to divide foods that you tend to overeat into small portions. For example, if you know that one packet of cookies contains 150 calories, you are unlikely to reach for the next portion.
2. You're letting in too much light into your bedroom
More and more studies show that room lighting affects sleep and weight. The results of one of these were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. For example, participants who slept in dark rooms were 21% less likely to be obese than those who slept in light ones. This is due to melatonin, a sleep hormone that is not produced when there is too much light. And if there is too little melatonin, then there will be problems with falling asleep and losing weight. Therefore, if you want to lose weight, turn off your nightlights and buy dark blackout curtains.
3. Gadgets live in your bedroom
One study found that children who spend their nights in front of a glowing computer or television screen tend to lead unhealthy lifestyles and little rest. Schoolchildren with one gadget in their room are almost twice as likely to be overweight as children without any gadgets in the bedroom. And if a child has three gadgets, then the likelihood of obesity is three times higher. So leave your iPad in your living room. The bedroom is for relaxation only.
4. Your plates are the wrong color and size
Place the same amount of food on a large plate and on a medium-sized plate. Due to the peculiarities of our perception, it will seem that the portion is smaller on a large plate. When serving food in a large bowl, we subconsciously want to fill the empty space and end up eating more. According to Cornell University, adults and children who ate from large plates consumed 44% more calories.
The color of the dishes also matters. It also affects how much food we put on. In the study, participants with white plates served themselves 22% more pasta than participants with red ones. It's all about the contrast: the more noticeable it is, the less we will eat.
5. Do you store fruits in the refrigerator
If healthy food is out of your sight, you are less likely to want to eat it. So why not keep the fruit in plain sight? Most of them don't need to be refrigerated. Moreover, the fruit on the table is beautiful.
Buy a fruit bowl and fill it with bright and healthy apples, oranges, pears. Another way to entice yourself with healthy food is to cut vegetables into slices and place them in a transparent container where they can be seen most in the refrigerator. This will make a great light snack.
6. It's too hot at home
When we sleep in a cool room in winter, we gradually get rid of our fat stores. Participants in one study spent several nights indoors at neutral 23 ° C, cool 18 ° C, and stuffy 30 ° C. After four weeks, subjects who slept at 18 ° C nearly doubled their brown fat, adipose tissue that can decompose quickly, providing the body with energy and warmth. In a cool room, brown fat begins to gradually burn, helping at the same time to burn stored fat, for example, on the stomach, which is very difficult to get rid of.
7. Lamps are too dim in the morning
After a bad sleep, your body can rebel, there is a strong feeling of hunger, you want unhealthy food. This is bad. But it can get worse if there is not enough light in the room in the morning.
In people with sleep disorders, with insufficient light in the morning, the level of the hormone leptin, which is necessary for the regulation of energy metabolism, decreases. It is thanks to leptin that we feel full and full of energy, and a decrease in its concentration leads to obesity. Most of the leptin is produced in people who have energy-saving lamps with a cold blue glow in their homes. Therefore, as soon as you get up, be sure to open the blackout curtains, and if the room is still dark, turn on the lamps.
8. You have too many TVs
The more you watch TV, the higher your risk of becoming obese. Never install a TV in the kitchen: if you put it there, you will be tempted to linger next to tempting food. And keep in mind that you need to reduce not only the number of televisions in the house, but also the number of programs on which you spend your time. Watch only your favorite shows.
9. Your living room is too cozy
It's so nice to come home after a long day at work, flop down on the couch and not get up from it until it's time to go to bed. And in this case, it doesn't matter what you do: read, buy something in online stores or work with a laptop on your lap. You still don't move, and that's bad. Scientists still have not come to a consensus why a sedentary lifestyle is harmful. The most obvious explanation: the less we move, the less energy we use. An excess of sugar is formed in the blood, which not only contributes to the development of diabetes, but also creates a host of other risks associated with weight.
10. You hide all sports equipment
When the dumbbells, bike, and treadmill are out of sight, they are out of your mind too - you forget to keep track of your form. Therefore, instead of hiding the dumbbells under the bed and putting the treadmill in the farthest corner, move them to those parts of your house where you spend the most time.
Recommended:
Why is it harmful to make psychological diagnoses to yourself and what to do instead
Self-diagnosis and coincidence with the "symptoms" from the Internet can lead to the fact that a person begins to "get used to the image", while not solving the true problems
5 reasons why home workouts don't work
Fix these mistakes and you won't have to buy a gym membership: you will see that home workouts are just as effective
9 reasons why your apartment may be taken away from you
Life hacker tells why your apartment may be taken away from you. The reasons may be different: from debts for housing and communal services to suddenly appeared heirs
Even moderate alcohol consumption is harmful to health: scientists have made the final verdict
There is an opinion that there is nothing wrong with a glass of wine. But this is a deadly myth. And the harm of alcohol is not at all in its quantity or type
6 reasons why homework is useless and even harmful
Teachers decide whether homework helps to learn the material or steals childhood, and schoolchildren hate homework, regardless of the conclusions of adults