Stress Management

You eat right. You work out. You even know the importance of a good night's sleep. But you don't see the results you think you should when you step on the scale.

So here's an element you may not have considered: Do you find yourself stressing over things more than you'd like? Believe it or not, high levels of stress can have just as much of an influence on your weight loss – or lack thereof – as many other factors.

Chronic stress may not cancel out the efforts you're making to lose weight entirely, but it compounds the effort significantly. If you've cleaned the autumn leaves from your home's gutters, you know it can be an arduous task. Now imagine climbing up and down that ladder and doing everyone's favorite fall chore with weights around your wrists and ankles. Sure, you will likely finish eventually, but why do that to yourself?

Cortisol (often called "the stress hormone") levels in your body increase when you're stressed or tense. This extra cortisol often causes a chain reaction that isn't good for you. Increased levels of cortisol, in turn, can cause your insulin levels to spike. This leads to a drop in blood sugar, making your body crave foods high in sugar and fat to compensate.

In summation, what does all this mean for you? Continually high levels of stress translate to high levels of cortisol, leading you to crave junk food, and in turn, contributing to increased belly fat. Compounding the matter is that too much fat can itself cause stress, as it can affect your body's natural tendencies to tell your brain to disable its stress responses.

Further Reading

Managing your stress is just one part of your overall wellness. Contact us today to find out how we believe our program as a whole will help you move to a healthy and sustainable lifestyle that includes: