Q: What makes you fat?

A: The most basic answer is that your are eating more calories than your body is using. Extra calories that your body has no use for get stored as fat on your body. However the full story is more involved. It comes down to the kinds of calories you consume and to how your body uses them...

Not all calories are equal. Your will gain much more fat from eating 1000 calories worth of chips then from eating 1000 calories worth of spinach! I explain what foods are 'good' and what foods are 'bad' in my nutrition article but the gist of it is that whole foods that are as close to their natural state as possible are good and all sort of processed, refined, ingredient- and preservative-packed foods are bad. For example: plain old strawberries are perfectly good but strawberry jam or strawberry ice cream are bad. So it's not just the total amount of calories that matter, but also what kinds of foods these calories come from.

Our bodies also are very individual when it comes to burning calories. If you never exercise and eat poorly, your metabolism will be very low and you won't be burning many calories at all. So overeating even a little bit will make you gain fat. On the other hand, if you're physically active and eat healthy, your body will be able to burn many more calories so you can afford to eat more and not gain fat. Some people are also simply luckier than others in that they naturally have higher metabolism. But EVERYONE can greatly improve their metabolism and fat-burning ability by exercising and eating right.

Check out my fat loss article for my prescription of how to go about losing extra fat. Hope that helps!