Lose the Stress,
Lose the Weight
Are you having a much harder time losing
weight than when you were in high school? Did you start gaining all that weight
when you started working in the office? It’s more than just the hormones that
you gain or lose at a certain age. There’s a huge chance that you’re having a
hard time losing weight now, specifically belly fat, because you’re busier, you
have less time to relax, and you’re stressed out all the time.
It
all goes back to the visceral fat. When you’re stressed out, you trigger a
flight or fight response in your body which, when you break it down, means that
you are producing stress hormones like cortisol, norepinephrine, and
epinephrine. These hormones affect your insulin levels,your
muscles, and your digestion.
It’s actually normal for these hormones to go up
or down throughout the day. But if you’re constantly stressed out, if you’re in
a prolonged state of anxiety and tension, then your cortisol levels go high and
stay high.
High cortisol levels are the culprit
when it comes to retaining belly fat. It might not affect your subcutaneous fat
too much, but it’s almost directly responsible for gaining and retaining
visceral fat. When your cortisol level is high, your body actually resists
weight loss because it thinks that it needs all that energy to deal with what’s
stressing you out. Stress presents itself to your body in simple forms.
Your
body doesn’t know that it doesn’t need to flee from danger or that it doesn’t
have to deal with disappearing food sources. Your body doesn’t know that you’re
worrying and anxious because of pressure at the office or emotional upheavals.
All it knows is that you’re stressed out, that you’re in trouble and that you
need as much energy – hence fat – to either fight or run.
High cortisol causes a lot more trouble
than making you gain belly fat, though that causes a lot of problems already in
terms of health. It also causes memory loss, loss of muscle mass, and loss of
libido. And while cortisol is natural and necessary, constantly high cortisol
levels can be very detrimental.
The role of stress is so significant
when it comes to having a lot of belly fat that a study by Yale University
actually pinpoints cortisol as the direct culprit for excessive abdominal fat
in otherwise healthy and slender women. This means that you don’t even have to
be fat to be affected by abdominal weight gain via stress and that your belly
fat, whether you’re losing or gaining, is more dependent on your mood than what
food you eat.
This is why losing belly fat fast calls
for a lifestyle change and not just spot exercises. But don’t worry; a lot of
the ways on how to lose belly fat fast that we’ve discussed in this book
already contributes a lot in maintaining a healthy and less stressful lifestyle.
Getting the right amount of sleep, drinking water to help organ functions
(including brain functions), short but regular exercise, and good eating habits
all help in keeping you relaxed and in a much better state of body and mind to
lose weight from the mid-section.
There are also other ways of reducing
stress and keeping your cortisol levels down, such as drinking green tea or
aromatherapy or yoga. But developing a routine that will help you unwind is
something that’s personal and can be different for every individual. For some,
it was as simple as changing their sleeping patterns. For others, larger steps
had to be taken, like making an effort to leave work at the office or making
time out of their busy schedules for personal time. It could be as simple as
having the occasional dinner with friends or a weekend trip with your special
someone.
There are many ways to fight stress; you
just have to identify your daily stressors and recognize when they’re
triggering your moods. By knowing what’s stressing you out and making you
anxious, you can either deal with it better or avoid another encounter. You can
even go as far as writing down possible stressors so that you have a list with
you, and then you can work on creating a personal routine that can help fight
stress.
After you’ve identified your stressors,
you can start designing a stress-fighting routine for yourself. Close your eyes
and think of your own, personal Zen place. Imagine yourself transported to that
place then try to identify and remember what you find in those places – whether
it’s a beach, a book, a person or just an aura or feeling that you get. When
you know what relaxes you and puts you in a better state of mind, you can
insert those things into your routine so that you always have a pit stop every
day for your body and your mind.
Establishing a routine and living by it
every day can be challenging at first but pretty soon you’ll be looking forward
to these emotional pit stops and you’ll be making these stops without even
thinking about it. Taking care of yourself physically and emotionally will be
automatic. Once you’ve reached this stage, both your body and your mind will
also respond to these stops better and will recognize them as a chance to relax
and unwind.
Before we end the chapter, let’s talk
about the slight chance that your long-term mood swings and anxiety may be
caused by hormonal imbalance. This can be caused by a lot of external factors,
including eating habits, or it can be caused by heredity. If you suspect that
you are suffering from hormonal imbalance, you should go see a doctor and ask
for an opinion. Keep in mind that actual hormonal imbalance is rare and that
chances are you are feeling anxious and stressed because of environmental and
social factors.
This is an excerpt from the book: The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast
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