Is Stress Ruining Your Fat Loss Progress?

Stress is close to unavoidable in today’s society. Work pressures, family responsibilities, and social pressures combine to leave us stretched thin on a daily basis. Tethered to our mobile phones we are exposed to a virtual environment where all we see are snippets of “perfection” of lives far removed from our own with self-imposed goals to achieve the same standards.

Stress is not a bad thing on it’s own merit. The type of stress and duration make all the difference.

Our nervous system operates in two modes – sympathetic and parasympathetic.

Sympathetic mode is our fight or flight stress response that prepares the body to fend off a percieved threat to life. When this system is called into action the hormone cortisol signals for blood flow to be increased to the large muscles in the limbs (to fight off the threat or run from it) and decreases activity in non-essential systems like the immune digestive and reproductive systems and makes sleeping well a challenge too.

The parasympathetic mode does the opposite job. This is our rest and digest mode. There is no immediate stress or danger and our digestive and reproduction systems can function optimally. During this mode we may also initiate recovery from injury and illness more efficiently. We also sleep better when in this mode.

Problems arise when our stress hormone cortisol is chronically high. Remember how I said that our fight or flight mode is a response to a percieved threat. There doesn’t need to be a Velociraptor at your kitchen door you may just be watching Jurassic Park 3 (again) and you are so engaged you live the experience with the characters. Or your friends are trying to arrange a baby shower for next week and you’ve been voted chief organiser (this never happened to me but I can only imagine the stress!).

When our stress levels are chronically high, so too will our cortisol levels which signal you body to suppress the non-essential systems mentioned above ie immunity, digestion and reproduction.

As a result you may get sick or just feel under the weather. You may suffer with constipation or diarrohea. Your libido may be on the floor meaning no mood for the fun stuff or malfunctioning tools even when you try. Your brain function is affected to as chronic raised cortisol can affect the part of your brain that controls concentration, social skills and memory so you struggle to focus on simple tasks, your mood changes and you something else….I can’t remember….I must be stressed.

Not only this but high stress causes a greater appetite and desire for energy rich, easily digestable foods like junk foods and those high in sugar especially. When was the last time you were stressed off your box and decided to dice vegetables for a curry?? No, you reach for a takeaway or bar of choloclate because you just “can’t concentrate on anything right now”.

This leads to over consuming calories and fat loss either stalls or increases. This occurs through no fault of your own. These are physiological signals designed to keep us alive! When your brain keeps shouting “CHOCOLATE SHARON – NOW!!” there’s only so may times you can resist.

The biggest kick in the teeth is that stress affects sleep. The lack of sleep raises stress. The raised stress leads to eating poor foods. This leads to being constantly hungry. This leads to weight gain. This stresses you out and the cycle continues.

The solution?

I am not an expert on stress and these are suggestions based on what worked for me and my clients. I still get stressed but recognise the signals and symptoms and implement some of these strategies when it happens.

1. Go walking. Alone or with a friend who has good vibes. Don’t go with the one friend or family member you’ll want to kill after 4.6 seconds.
2. Prioritise sleep. Create a sleep routine that can include no phone or TV for an hour before lights out, open your bedrom window to keep it cooler. Read a book or practice meditation. Have a cool shower. Light a relaxing scented candle. Play chilled out music.
3. Cut training days in half. Training is a stress on the body. Take it easy for a week or two or replace weight lifting with yoga for example.
4. Talk to someone. A friend, family member or a professional counsellor. It helps. There’s no problem too big, I promise.
5. Eat minimally processed whole foods. A good diet equals a better supply of vitamins and minerals and our systems simply work better with good quality fuel.
6. Punch someone. Messing! Kind of……

You can stress about your stress or take 1 step towards eradicating or dealing with it. It’s that simple. Simple, remember, does not mean easy. Conscious effort is required but it is achievable.

Mark

If you read this far I would love it if you could share this article on your own social media platform to spread the word. Information is power.

PS – Jurassic Park II was the best one. Don’t know why I used Jurassic Park 3 as an example. All on Netflix so make up your own mind. This was stressful….I’m off for a walk.