subject: The Life Long Link Between Weight Loss and Stress [print this page] The Life Long Link Between Weight Loss and Stress
There are countless people across the country struggling with their weight every day. They try fad diets and "guaranteed" exercise programs, but nothing seems to work.Sure, losing weight is hard. But why has it become such an insurmountable obstacle for so many people? There are a lot of reasons.
In theory, of course, weight loss is the result of a simple calculation. If you consume less calories than you burn, you'll lose weight. All things being equal, that should work. But they rarely are. Every process your body goes through is complex and can be influenced by a wide variety of factors. That's why, more often than not, weight loss doesn't follow simple mathematical rules.
The Stress Factor
Our lives are full of stress nowadays. There's pressure at work. The kids need new clothes. Gotta get to soccer practice. The car broke down again. So, what's for dinner? It's easy to go through a day (or days) without taking even a few moments for yourself. Aside from the obvious fact that this kind of a schedule can make it hard to eat right, the stress that comes with it can doom your weight loss efforts to failure before they even begin.
When we experience any kind of stress, our bodies go into overdrive. We could be fighting for survival or fighting for a parking space - our bodies don't know the difference. All they know is that they're under duress, and they respond accordingly.
How Stress Relates to Weight Loss
One of the body's most significant responses to stress is to flood your system with a hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol's main function is to increase glucose production in order to raise your blood sugar and give you extra energy when you're in a stressful situation. Normally, the stressful situation would be resolved quickly and your Cortisol levels could return to normal.
When you're operating in a constant state of stress, however, your body never adjusts back to normal levels of Cortisol production. This means that you're always producing extra glucose that you're not going to be able to use. When you don't use this glucose, it winds up getting stored as fat. This process can lead quickly to weight gain, and can make it very difficult to get that weight off again.
Stress and Your Health
Unfortunately, helping you pack on the pounds isn't the only thing stress can do to have a negative impact on your health. Both stress and being overweight contribute to an increased risk of developing a number of serious health concerns. High blood pressure, hypertension, and high cholesterol are just a few of the conditions that you are much more likely to develop and that can be made much worse by the combination of stress and obesity.
Losing weight isn't just important because it'll make you look better. It will significantly improve your health. But you probably won't get very far down the road to weight loss without doing something to bring down the level of stress in your life as well. The two go hand in hand, and if you can conquer one, you'll be well on your way to conquering the other.
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