Is Stress the Reason You’re Not Losing Weight?
What is stress? Stress can be defined as a threat to homeostasis. We experience physiological and behavioural responses to counterbalance the interruption of homeostasis. When we experience stress our adrenal glands release stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones prepare the body to deal with external stress. Adrenaline increases the heart rate and blood pressure. Cortisol suppresses any non-essential functions like the digestive system and regulates and mobilizes stored carbs, fats, and protein, to be used as fuel sources to fulfil the body’s physical demands.
While this can be beneficial when dealing with a potentially harmful situation, it can also have negative impacts on our health if it remains elevated due to chronic stress. It can also be the underlying reason you are not achieving your fat loss goal.
How Stress Is Stopping You From Losing Weight
Intensifies Cravings & Hunger
Stress can cause you to overeat due to an increase in cravings & hunger. Once the threat is gone, and our body returns to homeostasis, we will need energy to replenish the depleted energy stores. Due to this, we crave things like sugar because it digests quickly, making it an easy and fast way for the body to get the energy it needs. Foods that are higher in sugar are typically calorie dense, and extremely palatable, making it easy to over consume. Over eating or binge eating is a common method used to manage one's stress, and provide comfort during challenging times.
Slows Down Metabolism
Stress can slow down your metabolism. In a fight or flight response, cortisol suppresses non essential functions such as the digestive system, and inhibit thyroid production. Thyroid hormones are responsible for regulating the rate at which your body uses energy, and the speed that food moves through your digestive system. While this can be beneficial in acute stressful situations to aid our bodies in dealing with a potential threat, it can also become a huge burden if the stress persists. If our metabolic rate slows down that means you will burn fewer calories at rest and during exercise. If you don’t adjust your caloric intake to account for this during chronic stress it can make it difficult to lose body fat, and even potentially lead to fat gain.
Interferes With Your Sleep
We have natural rises and falls of cortisol production throughout the day. In the morning the body will increase cortisol production to transition us into a state of wakefulness. Over the course of the day, cortisol levels will drop. Stress keeps our bodies in a fight or flight response, leaving us feeling tense and unable to sleep due to high cortisol and adrenaline levels. High cortisol levels can cause sleep problems, and poor sleep quality.
Why is sleep so important? Sleep is important in reducing cortisol levels, so getting less sleep quality and quantity can result in elevated cortisol levels for the following day and the vicious cycle continues. Sleep deficiency can affect your day to day function, and if experienced long term can lead to health problems like:
Obesity
Weight gain
Drains Energy & Takes Priority
Stress can negatively impact your mindset and energy levels. We tend to overthink situations when we are stressed, which takes up a large amount of mental space. In turn, this exhausts our energy, and limits our mental capacity for things such as exercising, maintaining relationships, and preparing nutritious meals. Not to mention the stress, and the urgency you are feeling in a particular situation takes priority over all else, causing your long-term goals to be set on the back burner.
Stress is a reality of life. While we don't always have control over external circumstances, we do have control over how we react to stressful situations and the impact they have on us. Interested in learning how you can better manage your stress levels? Make sure you are subscribed to my blog - next week I'll be talking about 8 healthy stress management tools that can help YOU reach your weight loss goals.
Xx,
Laura
