Are you dieting and stressed out? You may not realize it, but stress can sabotage your weight in many ways! In fact, stress has been implicated as the cause of belly fat.
When I first speak with my new clients, the first question I ask them is: was there a stressful event the came right before you started gaining weight? The vast majority of people responded that they were going through hard times: “Oh, that was when I was going through my divorce”, or “I hated my boss but I couldn’t find another job”.
Gaining weight can be the result of many different causes. Research has found that identical twins separated at birth and raised by different families are almost the identical weight in the adulthood. Although you may have parents and siblings who are overweight this is not guarantee that you will inherit being overweight from your parents. Like an acorn that has the genetic code to grow tall, unless the conditions such as enough sunlight and water are present in its environment, the oak may have stunted growth.
The one condition these studies can not accurately test is the effect of stress. Stress is the condition that can make all the difference in whether you end up heavier or maintain a more slender frame.
Stress can affect your physiology in three ways that can create overweight:
- Stress can make you over-eat and binge.
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You choose food as a self-medication for feelings of anxiety, anger, fear, sadness and any other negative emotion. The food you choose is even called “comfort food”. But it isn’t really comforting at all.
2. Stress can make you under-eat.
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When I was feeling sad, it was hard for me to eat at all. I wasn’t hungry, and would go days before I felt able to start eating normally. Under-eating slows down your metabolism as the body struggles to maintain your weight. When you start eating normally again, the same amount of food that used to sustain you now makes you gain weight due to your impaired metabolism. Each time you under-eat, the metabolism slows down, and deposits more fat after each bout of under-eating. That is know as yo-yo dieting – but it’s not your fault!
3. Stress alone can change your metabolism without changing any of your eating behaviors.
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When you’re feeling stressed, it’s often difficult to sleep as well. Lack of sleep changes hunger/satiation hormones. Research has found that the people who sleep the least have the most weight challenges.
One of the biggest stressors for women that sets off weight gain is their own thoughts and self talk known as mindset: it is hating your own body. Here’s why: the part of your brain that protects you from threatening enemies doesn’t differentiate between your hateful self-talk and the threat from a dangerous enemy that is attacking you! That negative conversation in your head and the names you call yourself put your body into stress and fight or flight mode. In this stressful condition losing weight is virtually impossible.
Attempting to lose weight while hating your body, or not dealing with the stress that is changing your physiology is like removing the “check engine light” in your car instead of fixing the motor! You’ll simply become one of the 95% of people who regain the weight you battle to lose. But there is a better way which I describe in my #1 Amazon Best selling book Diet Industry Lies that Make Your Gain Weight. It’s available on Amazon.
Your weight is the check engine light of your body. Pay attention: Stop dieting, start living and find your happy weight.
PS: I really value your comments- please let me know what you think! And you’ll be helping others as well – because they’ll realize that they are not the only one with that issue!
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