How Stress Is Sabotaging Your Weight Loss (And What To Do About It)
When it comes to gaining weight, it is easy to point out overeating and lack of exercise as the culprit. While you’re not wrong, there are actually many underlying causes of weight gain that have nothing to do with diet, exercise, or willpower.
We have talked about the importance of sleep on the blog before, but what about stress? As it turns out, long term and excessive stress can take a big toll on your health, and on your weight.
All About Cortisol
Cortisol is a hormone that is released by your body in response to stressful stimuli. In essence, cortisol is what activates the fight or flight response when your body senses danger or is confronted with a stressful situation.
Cortisol is an important hormone that helps protect us from physical harm. Our ancient ancestors needed this hormone to protect themselves when confronted by large predators or other danger. Today we may experience the same spike of cortisol when confronted by a big deadline at work.
You see, the process is still the same, but the stakes can be very different in our modern world. The problems with cortisol arise when we have too much of it over an extended period of time.
How Stress Effects Your Weight
Cortisol in the body will actually stimulate your appetite, explaining why some people turn to their favorite comfort food to deal with stressful situations or to reward themselves for making it through.
This wouldn’t be a problem if cortisol could rise and fall naturally, but when stress persists throughout our daily lives, it can lead to chronically high levels of cortisol in the body.
Further, cortisol can also lower our metabolisms and raise our insulin, making it harder for our bodies to work through the excess calories we’ve consumed. The cherry on top seems to be that stress related calories seem to be preferentially deposited on our waistline, where fat tends to cause the most health issues.
How to Respond to Stress
While I wish we could just simply eliminate all of the things that cause chronic stress in the first place, it is unlikely that we will pull that off in today’s busy world. What we should focus on though, is what we can control: how we respond and cope.
Often we turn to comfort foods or our favorite reality shows to destress after work, but we may be doing more harm than good.
Here are a few things you can do to reduce stress when it hits:
Exercise for 20 minutes
Try some breathing techniques
Meditate
Write in your journal
Go for a walk outside
Call a friend
Have a dance party in your living room
Tidy a corner of your home
How to Stress Less
While having good responses to stress will help you in the moment, let’s talk about how to reduce the overall stress in your life.
The first thing we can do is take stock of our lives and see if there is anything we can eliminate. Is there anything you can outsource or cut out entirely that will greatly reduce your stress while having minimal impact on your livelihood?
A big part of this is learning to say no. Figuring out your boundaries and how to exercise them will help you to cut out those parts of your busy schedule that aren’t really adding to your life.
Next, find a healthy way to cope. Consider cutting back on alcohol if that is a big part of your routine. While many people unwind with alcohol, drinking can actually make stress worse by messing with your serotonin and your sleep.
The same goes for other self-sabotaging habits like binge eating or binge watching television. While it feels good in the moment, too much of a good thing can worsen your stress over time. Ditch the quick fixes and get to the root of your stress.
Finally, go back to basics. Prioritize the parts of your routine that contribute to your health and wellness. Move your body, eat well, stay hydrated, and get at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Maintaining good lifestyle choices will compound over time, having a huge impact on your overall well being.
