STRESS affects not only our health but also our weight loss efforts
The stress itself, at least in small doses, isn’t bad. It’s normal and needs to be dealt with. But, when it’s chronic as it often is, it can be detrimental to your efforts.
When that fight or flight response kicks in your body surges with hormones – at first adrenaline to keep you moving and later cortisol to store energy for future use and keep you ready to act. Constant stress means constant release of cortisol which, over time, can result in insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome (incl diabetes). In short, too much stress makes your body less efficient at processing sugars as they are absorbed into your body and you gain weight. (Cortisol is toxic as you will see below)
Even if you don’t pack on pounds, high levels of stress make it VERY hard to lose weight as your body clings to it.
So, stress is an issue we need to deal with.
Too much stress has a ton of other negative side effects too, all of which can in turn make it harder to lose weight. You sleep less, are hungry later at night, use food to release stress (due to the brain chemical link and dopamine release of eating rich and fatty foods) and more.
Excessive chronic stress can cause a person to gain weight or prevents weight loss… its the truth.
What ideas or tips do you have that would help others to manage stress? What techniques do you use that you find effective?
One major thing that helped me a lot when I was having a huge amount of stress was to really work on my physical health by limiting toxic foods like sugar, enriched flour, saturated fats and processed chemicals. Having a healthier diet helped me to feel physically better and have more physical and emotional energy.