Why You Only Have Yourself to Blame for Weight Gain

Nobody wants to think that it is their own fault they've gained weight. It is much easier to tell yourself that your bad eating habits stem from childhood – that your parents are to blame for never teaching you how to eat properly. Even if they did encourage you to eat healthily and exercise regularly, it may be down to your genes or perhaps you're just unlucky enough to have a slow metabolism. Although there are genuine reasons for gaining weight that don't always relate to eating too much and not doing enough exercise, for most people the cause of weight gain is precisely that.

Clearly, if you consume more calories than your body burns, the inevitable result is weight gain. You may want to blame your family for not instilling you with good eating and exercise habits from an early age or your friends and partner for encouraging you to make poor decisions, but at the end of the day you're an adult who can make choices for yourself. Although family and friends may have some influence over the way you eat, you can't blame everyone else for your weight gain when nobody is forcing you to eat large amounts of junk food.

If you're unhappy with your weight and know that what you're eating is exacerbating the problem it is up to you to take action, rather than looking for someone else to blame. It would be nice to think you could rely on the support and encouragement of friends and family, because the last thing you want is for family members to tease you with their calorific goodies and try to get you to be 'bad'. However, even with support you still need to have some willpower and realise that it is up to you to find a way of controlling your weight in the long term.

What you don't want to do is waste your time blaming everyone else for your weight gain when this is not going to do anything to improve the situation. If you're gaining weight, you usually know whether your eating and exercise habits are to blame or not. It may cross your mind that there could be something medically wrong with you, but if you eat lots of junk food and rarely exercise it is a safe bet that you are the one causing yourself to gain weight. By facing up to that fact you can then take the necessary steps to stop you piling on more pounds and maybe even enable you to reverse the situation.