The 7 Reasons Why Stress is Making You Fat
Stress is a fact of life that we all have to deal with. Stress is something that we all have to deal with on a day-to-day basis and we now have to deal with more stress than ever before.
Unfortunately the negative effects of stress are numerous and can make a huge impact on our fat loss and fitness results. Here are 7 Reasons Why Stress is Making You Fat and what you can do about it.
1. Stress increases cortisol:
Cortisol is our primary stress hormone and is essential for life. However when we are constantly producing too much cortisol (like when we are under chronic stress) we will have a tendency to start storing fat on our bellies
2. Stress alters our blood sugar response:
Having stable blood sugar is a pre-requisite for successful weight loss. if we cannot regulate our blood sugar effectively we will be more inclined to eat sugary foods that lead to weight gain and we will also not do as well with regular, balanced meals.
3. Stress affects sleep:
Sleep is the primary time in which our body produces growth hormone, which is our primary repair and fat loss hormone. High levels of cortisol from chronic stress stop us from falling into deep sleep. This will affect your recovery and performance the next day. Another side effect of disturbed sleep is that after 5 days of poor sleep your blood sugar control starts to diminish leading to a vicious cycle.
4. Stress depletes mineral and nutrient levels:
Chronic stress depletes our bodies mineral and vitamin reserves as these nutrients are needed to produce the stress hormones required for the stress response. A deficiency in magnesium for example will lead to impaired blood sugar, lowered metabolic rate and a host of other issues that will slow fat loss.
5. Stress impairs Thyroid hormones:
Our Thyroid hormones are the masters of our metabolism. They govern our metabolic rate and tell our body how fast to burn calories. Unfortunately, high levels of stress slow down the conversion of the Thyroid hormone T4 (the inactive one) into the active Thyroid Hormone T3. This means stress will directly slow down your metabolic rate making it harder to lose body fat.
6: Stress leads to gut issues:
Our gut is the key to our health. If our gut is affected, all other functions slow down. Stress has a terrible effect on our digestive health, increasing the permeability of our intestinal wall, leading to a condition called leaky gut. This condition leads to excessive inflammation which again makes it hard to lose body fat.
7: Stress weakens the immune system:
Our immune system is constantly working to keep us healthy, fighting off pathogens and looking for foreign bodies to fight against. Stress hormones weaken the protective barriers of the lungs, gut and blood brain barrier, which makes our immune system work harder and makes us more susceptible to colds, flu's and other conditions.
Now we know the 7 Reason Why Stress is Making us Fat, here are some easy to implement tips to help you reduce the deleterious effects of excess stress.
1. Avoid or reduce stimulants. This means no coffee after 2pm!
2. Stabilise blood sugar. It is ideal to eat 4-5 meals a day with a good balance of protein, fats and vegetables.
3. Practice stress management and relaxation techniques. A good way to do this is either meditation or yoga.
4. Avoid foods that cause inflammation: Wheat, dairy and processed foods area good start.
5. Ensure adequate intake of fish oils: Fish oils directly reduce inflammation and from that stress hormones.
To get the best possible results, you need to attack fat loss from all angles. Make sure stress is not your achilles heel and tackle it using the above strategies!
About the Author
Paul Meldrum has been training clients for over 10 years. He specialises in fat loss, muscle gain and rehabilitation. He was the winner of the 05/06 Personal Trainer of the year award. To receive his 3 part video series on the 8 Things you need to know to lose fat http://dchealthperformance.com.au/
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