Things you are doing everyday may be hurting your weight loss goals.
We picked 5 things from this Reader's Digest list that you may not realize were making you fat.
1. Your diet soda habit. Studies have shown that subjects who drink two or more diet sodas a day have waist size increases up to six times greater than those of people who don't drink diet soda. Diet coke may be free of calories, but it's not free of consequences!
2. Lack of sleep. New research suggests sleepless nights don't just ruin your mood the next day-they could also damage your waistline. While sleepy folks seem to burn the same number of calories as well-rested people, they consume about 300 more calories a day.
3. Room temperature. Trying to lose weight? Turn down the thermostat. A cozy home could be contributing to making you fat. When our bodies are cold, we shiver, causing our muscles to contract to generate heat-and burn calories.
4. Your overweight friends. Those of us with very close friends who are obese have a 171-percent higher chance of becoming obese too. Here's the theory , you're influenced by your friends, and if they overeat, you may unwittingly follow their lead.
5. Your stress level. When you have chronic stress, your appetite increases. When you try to combat stress with food, you activate the reward center of your brain. And after that initial feel-good spell wears off, you'll reach again for the same thing that made you feel good in the first place -- more food.