By Janet Martin

Some people complain that no amount of exercising or dieting can help them lose their weight. It seems that even if they reduce the amount of calories they take in daily or increase their exercise regimen, the drop in their weight stays marginal at best. There are also a number of individuals who shed a few pounds in the first few weeks of their diet program and encounter a weight loss plateau after a month or two.

If you are one of the individuals who feel so frustrated with losing weight naturally, then you need to realize that eating a lot of food and/or too little exercise are not the only reasons why you gain weight. In fact, there are a number of conditions or situations that make it harder for a person to lose weight the natural way. Here are some of them:

Medications

The drugs that you take may actually be the hidden cause of your widening waist. Weight gain is actually a common side effect in some drugs. The only way to minimize weight gain induced by medication is actually minimizing your dependency on these pills or simply increasing your weight-loss efforts by three fold.

Steroids are some of the drugs that almost always make a person double his or her size. Studies have shown that the use of this drug for an extended period of time can boost your appetite and cause a weight gain of 20 pounds or even more. However, since steroids are often prescribed to individuals with severe illnesses, you can't simply stop taking your medications just because you are packing on pounds. If this is the case, then you better be disciplined with your choice of foods.
Other medications that can wreak havoc to your waistline include anti-depressants, oral contraceptives, and even anti-diabetes tablets.