What impact can stress have on my weight loss goals?
Recently I took a mini break to the vibrant city of London.
Whilst I was strolling in the morning sun taking in the spectacular sights, I took up a temporary new hobby – face gazing.
Yes, I know it sounds odd, but so interesting (you should try it - just not too often). Do you know what I noticed? You can spot stress a mile off!
Walking across Blackfriars Bridge at 8am I was met with a sea of frowns, hunched shoulders and grim expressions - it was mission commute - navigating transport delays, meeting prep on the go, breakfast in one hand coffee in another. I looked a bit closer and you could see a pattern – eye bags, pale slightly swollen faces, tired dry skin - the look that says:
“I am stressed.”
It got me thinking about the impact that stress can have, not only on your physical appearance, but how it could hamper your chances of achieving your weight loss goals.
If you are taking the time to eat well and exercise, then the last thing you want is your good efforts to be derailed by stress. To help you, I’ve put together some pointers on what stress is, how it can impact your weight loss goals and most importantly what you can do to manage it.
What is Stress?
Stress is something that goes on inside the body without us sometimes even noticing. Subtle clues like quicker, more shallow breaths and increased heart rate may indicate that the body is in a highly alert state and will be pumping out the stress hormone cortisol to put us into fight or flight mode.
Stress can be a physical reaction in the body to something like: shutting your hand in the car door, falling asleep on your sun lounger and over heating or flying back from America and spending 5 days like a zombie recovering from jet leg …
All these things in isolation the body can cope with but when it is one thing after another it can get too much for a person to deal with. And then you add one of the most damaging types of stress – psychological stress into the mix with worries like “What if I lose my job in the company restructure” or “How am I going to afford to pay for the house if interest rates go up?” then it really can be the perfect storm for creating chaos in your body.
Our modern world isn’t exactly helping either - a recent survey showed that 85% of UK adults are experiencing regular stress with the most common causes being money, followed by work, health concerns, failure to get enough sleep and finally household chores.
But the good news is – if you are aware of it then you can do something about it. Below are three ways that stress can hamper your weight loss goals:
Mind Set
When we are stressed, we are in survival mode, going through life with our blinkers on – we need to drive home as soon as we can, get the kids in bed, grab some toast then have a glass of wine to switch off. This is often referred to as automatic pilot and when we are in this mind set, we can make poor choices.
A study in 2019 reported that 46% of respondents said that they ate too much or ate unhealthily due to stress and 29% reported that they started drinking or increased their drinking.
A good way to get yourself out of automatic pilot mode is through retraining your mind to be in the in the present moment, not constantly ten steps ahead – firefighting something that hasn’t even happened yet!
Everyone has triggers that make them realise that they are getting tense and agitated. Instead of ignoring these, take a couple of seconds to acknowledge them and then alter your mindset. Take this example of inner dialogue from an office worker on her way home:
“WILL THIS TRAFFIC NEVER MOVE?!! - I am going to be 10 minutes late home again, why does this keep happening to me no matter what time I leave work? it’s always the same. It’s not like I enjoy work anyway …. In fact, I wouldn’t have to work if we had a smaller house - why did we move last year? My life is so frustrating!”
Instead how much better would she feel if she reframed the situation to:
“There is traffic around the corner, I guess that is to be expected, there are so many people leaving work at the same time each day. Let me find the classical channel and take some deep breaths and think of all the nice things that have happened to me today – the weather was lovely and I managed to grab a quick walk with a colleague at lunch time who I haven’t seen in ages, I finished a document that I am really pleased with and my car wasn’t frozen when I left – winner! – Oh I am moving now, great - can’t wait to get home and have a cup of tea.”
Both scenarios are the same, but the reactions are totally different. At first it might seem alien to you but with a bit of practice and some talking aloud (this really helps) it will become second nature. I love this proverb.
““Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.””
Sleep
There is one area that really suffers when we are not relaxed and that is sleep. Having disrupted sleep patterns can affect the hormones that regulate hunger and feeling full, leaving you susceptible to eating heavy, starchy foods and overeating.
Everyone will know the feeling of not being able to drop off or waking up in the early hours - this can be due to large amounts of cortisol or adrenalin still circulating in the body after a stressful day.
You know that feeling “why can’t my brain switch off?”
The key is to be relaxed by the time you retire to bed. So, make sure you have a good bedtime routine – a relaxing bath, read a book, shut down electronic devices at least an hour before you go to bed and follow a relaxation programme. Studies show that using meditation to quieten the mind and to focus on the present moment is a useful tool to help you wind down - Just 5 minutes before bed could make all the difference!
Stubborn fat around your middle…
Have you ever found that no matter how good your eating habits are or how much you exercise there is still a layer of fat in your stomach area that refuses to budge? Well it could be in part due to stress levels and that pesky cortisol hormone promoting fat accumulation around your middle.
Following a recent study Dr Susan Fried of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York describes how chronically high cortisol is thought to promote fat accumulation around the waist.
Just like you plan to exercise or go to the shops to buy food - make sure you plan time for you each day. You really need to do this regularly to get the full benefit, so think of times that you can stick to; maybe you can manage 20 minutes meditation a day on Saturday and Sunday and in the week 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening to help you wind down.
Try experimenting with a few styles you may like, just type in 10-minute meditation into YouTube or you can also download an app such as Calm or Head Space.
Remember a healthy, well balanced body is naturally lean but there is nothing like stress to completely throw everything out of whack. If you get your stress levels under control you will naturally want to move more, eat better and enjoy better sleep – and that is definitely good for the waistline.