It is often said that stress prevents a person from losing weight. Is this myth or fact? Well like anything else it depends on who you ask. But after considerable research it is apparent that stress does in fact prevent and get in the way of a person trying to lose weight.
Stress is evident in everyday life. We all have it to one extent or another. The key is learning how to control it.
Unfortunately a lot of people control their stress by overeating or binge eating. This is emotional eating and is not good. It only puts on added weight and prevents you from losing weight. But there is a deeper issue here.
Emotional eating usually can be overcome but it takes a lot of internal "figuring out" and lots of support from family, friends and loved ones. It's a bad habit to get into when we eat because we are upset or under stress. This only leads to the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish. This seems to be particularly true for single people. They tend to hibernate and eat too much out of loneliness. It's best to get out and be amongst people and friends if you can.
Let's look at other ways stress prevents you from losing weight.
1. Under stress, your body responds both physically and psychologically.
Your body goes into this flight or fight syndrome and you get a burst of adrenaline which releases cortisol from the brain. This tells the body to replenish energy that you haven't even used. The key is not to listen to this and to just acknowledge you are under stress.
2. Your hormones can get all out of whack and again, tell your brain you're hungry.
Just like mentioned above, your hormones when under stress go into a mixture of anxiety and energy and your brain tells you you're hungry and need to replenish. This again is just a symptom of stress.
3. Nervous Eating when under stress.
Let's say you're at a business meeting or on a date at a restaurant. You are nervous and don't want to screw up but your brain is telling you to eat and eat to calm you down. The portion sizes can be awful big at restaurants and if you're nervous and your brain is telling you to eat to calm down, then lots of time you overeat. This type of stress will definitely prevent you from losing weight.
From all the research the conclusion lies in this fight or flight syndrome that stress produces in our body causing the chemicals that make us think we are hungry to kick in. We need to learn when we are under stress that this is what it is and to not listen to what our stress not our body is telling us.