.MedicationThere are lots of meds out there that can pack on the pounds. Certain classes of anti depressants can stimulate your appetite. Other medications that can mess with your weight include diabetes drugs, migraine and blood pressure medications, steroids and some cancer therapies. It might be a good time to watch what you put in your mouth besides food and review your medications. Many people take more than they truly need. A medication might no longer be necessary or might have become ineffective; or it can duplicate, or overlap, with the effect of another drug you’re taking for a different condition..SleepThere are a few things at work when you don’t get enough sleep. First, maybe it’s because you’re up late; more hours might translate into more snacking time. But the less obvious reason lack of sleep is bad for your waistline is this: biochemically, your body is doing all sorts of things when you’re not sleeping enough. The production of two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, are busy getting all out of whack. Skimping on sleep drives leptin levels down. It results into failure to wave the white flag when you’re full. And ghrelin rises as sleep quantity and quality fall, stimulating your appetite and setting you up for overeating..Eating after exercisingYou’d think that an hour at the gym gives you permission to indulge in dessert later.  It’s fine to eat after exercising, but so often we overestimate the amount of calories we burn. A study showed that overweight women who exercised one to two hours a week without dieting lost several pounds in six months. But women, who exercised the most, about three hours a week, didn’t lose as much as they should have. Chances are they rewarded all their hard work with too many calories, consuming more than they actually burned. .Stress Sure, life can get out of control and stress levels peak. We’re only human, after all. But what also peaks is secretion of the "stress hormone” cortisol, which causes an increase in your appetite. When we’re stressed, we probably aren’t stuffing carrot sticks into our mouths, but rather things like chocolate, ice cream and chips..HypothyroidismYou might not realize the reason you’re feeling tired and constipated or have difficulties with concentration or dealing with cold temperatures is a sluggish thyroid, which can also account for a slower metabolism and subsequent weight gain. Thyroid disease, which goes largely undiagnosed, affects far more women than it does men. Have you had yours checked lately? Usually it’s done with a simple TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) blood test.www.healthywomen.com