Stressful living can be a big factor when it comes to your weight loss efforts, so learning how to manage stress will give you an advantage on your journey. Here are some everyday examples of situations that can lead to the release of cortisol due to stress:
Being stuck in traffic
Meeting tight deadlines at work or school
Having a disagreement with a friend or family member
Preparing for a job interview or exam
Dealing with financial worries
Stress and weight gain
Stress releases cortisol, a hormone that contributes to weight gain by increasing glucose levels for immediate energy needs during the fight or flight response.
While stress is a natural response, chronic stress can lead to physiological changes promoting weight gain. Elevated cortisol levels can spike blood sugar and insulin, leading to cravings for calorie-dense foods high in fat and sugar. Additionally, stress disrupts hunger and satiety hormones, impairs self-regulation, and contributes to overeating.
Recognizing the stress-weight gain link is crucial for intervention. Strategies to manage cravings, such as hydration and distraction, can be effective.
Prioritizing relaxation, diet improvements, and exercise helps regulate cortisol levels and mitigate its impact on weight.
Practice relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or meditation.
Engage in regular physical exercise to reduce stress levels.
Ensure you have a balanced and healthy diet.
Get enough quality sleep each night.
Schedule time for activities you enjoy.
How to Prevent Future Health Issues
While reducing your stress levels might seem challenging at times, you can still control the impact of high cortisol levels. Starting with incorporating relaxation techniques such as mindfulness, meditation, yoga, or deep breathing can assist in lowering the secretion of this hormone to a healthy level.
You’ll also prevent the excess storage of empty calories by ensuring that you consume a diet high in quality foods. Even though your body may be craving a quick fix, aim to eat mostly whole, plant-based foods. Of course, making the decision to eat right isn’t always easy, but it’s worth it. By monitoring your diet, the calories you consume will be turned into energy, not converted into fat and stored by the body.
Finally, exercise is an excellent way to manage your stress hormones too. Whether you go out for a run, take a daily walk with your family or hit the gym, exercising will help maintain your lean body mass. This is especially important during prolonged periods of high cortisol levels.
Work on your stress to reduce weight. Chronic stress is the stress you feel from things like your job, family responsibilities, and money worries. This type of stress increases your cortisol levels and hinders weight loss. Many people over eat or drink more alcohol under stress.
Meditate – 5-10 minutes every day. A daily meditation practice helps with decreasing stress for weight loss by making you more aware of the chatter that goes on in your mind that can put you in a stressful mood. There are some very good apps to assist you. The app Calm is good. Meditation and mindfulness tools, can help you quiet the chatter and negative thoughts that can lead to increased stress levels.
Journal Every day – Gratitude journaling is a great way to relieve stress, as it will make you naturally more grateful and happy, which will lead to lower stress levels. Before going to bed, I write three things I am most grateful for that day and also next days three most important things. This keeps me focussed next day at my work.
Sleep at least 7 hours a day. Sleeping is the time when your body is regenerating, balancing hormones, and de-stressing from the day. Lack of sleep leads to bad mood, which in turn, makes you more irritated, angry, stressed and anxious.
Be part of a community.Whether you’re looking for motivation,support, or advice,your community will always be able to help you. A sports club, gym group or remote/online group helps. During Covid, The #100Days challenge is a live example as how collectively we have logged in workouts and motivated each other. Knowing that you’re in a community of like-minded people that share the same goal as you, allows you to talk about your journey and know what others are going through, or have been through the same things.
The research studies proves that managing stress is one of the key factors in making a healthy lifestyle change.
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