Fighting stress requires more than just taking time out of your day to listen to music or engaging relaxing activities like filling in an adult coloring book. It also means exercising regularly and maintaining a diet that is largely free of unhealthy junk foods as excess weight can put considerable strain on your mental and physical health.

While it’s become common knowledge that foods and beverages like snack cakes, candy bars and sugary energy drinks and sodas, there are other foods that are highly fattening, but aren’t as well known. As this Authority Nutrition post explains, eating a number of seemingly innocuous foods might be undercutting your attempts to be fit and stress free.

For example, there are a number of alcoholic drinks that can expand your waist line. A few studies have found that alcohol can have a suppressing effect on the body’s metabolic process, meaning drinking too much or too frequently can lead to unexpected weight gain.

It’s also worth noting that many mixed drinks and beers have high caloric contents meaning that you can unintentionally burn through your daily caloric allowance after a few hours at the bar. Additionally, if your diet is heavy in carbohydrates and light in proteins, you may find yourself feeling hungry even after eating a full meal.

This can lead to the kind of habitual snacking that is a common cause of obesity among Americans.

Read the full article here: https://authoritynutrition.com/12-causes-of-belly-fat-gain/