How Stress Affects Your Weight

If you're under a lot of stress you probably have noticed many different symptoms. You may not sleep as well as you'd like, your mood may be affected, you may crave more sugar and starches and you likely will notice weight gain especially around your midsection. Stress affects your weight the following ways:

1) Breaking down lean muscle tissue
Elevated stress hormones contribute to the breakdown of lean muscle tissue. The breakdown of muscle tissue is very detrimental because muscle tissue is metabolically much more active than fat, meaning it burns more calories. When you are breaking down muscle you are in a catabolic state as opposed to anabolic-building muscle.

2) Increased cravings
High cortisol levels from too much stress cause increased cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrates. Often one will reach for poor quality foods (sugar) to satisfy cravings and keep them going and as a result pack on more pounds.

3) Increased abdominal fat
Numerous studies have linked stress and the oversecretion of cortisol with obesity and increased storage of abdominal fat.

What to do about it:

* Practice stress management techniques 10-15 minutes each day.

* Exercise

* Include protein with each meal to stabilize blood sugar levels.

* Identify the stressor and work toward making changes if possible.

* Take nutritional supplements especially B-complex vitamins and vitamin C to help deal with stress. Those under lots of stress are depleting their bodies of vitamin B and C at a faster rate compared to those not under as much stress.

* Do saliva testing to evaluate stress hormone levels.

For more information, email ereardon@myboostfitness.com