Is Stress Bringing Your Metabolism Down?

The Less You Stress the Easier it is to Lose Weight!

Most people have heard of the fight-or-flight response, and you probably know that it's the way your body reacts to danger or stress. But do you know what the fight-or-flight response is? If you guessed hormones you’d be right.

When you're faced with a danger, your adrenal glands release three hormones: norepinephrine, epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), and cortisol. Norepinephrine and epinephrine cause several changes to help you survive the danger. These include a pause in insulin release so you have lots of blood sugar available for energy, an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, and a suspension of your appetite. After the danger has passed, cortisol tells the body to stop producing norepinephrine and epinephrine and stimulates your appetite again.

This response evolved to help people deal with short-term survival situations, like an attack by a predator. The trouble is, it occurs in response to all stressors, including the deadlines pummeling you at work and the traffic that drives you crazy. When stress is always present, your body can't get rid of the excess cortisol built up in the blood. That cortisol just hangs around, causing lots of trouble: It turns young fat cells into mature fat cells that stick with you forever, and increases your cravings for high-fat, high-carb foods.

When you give in to those cravings, your body releases a cascade of rewarding brain chemicals that can set up an addictive relationship with food — you stress, you eat. If you don't consciously control the pattern, you can become physically and psychologically dependent on that release to manage stress. In fact, people who self-medicate with food tend have hair-trigger epinephrine reactions and chronic high levels of cortisol.

You can help yourself keep cortisol in check by limiting caffeine intake to 200 milligrams a day; avoiding simple carbs, processed foods, and refined grains; and getting plenty of high-quality protein. It's also crucial that you get adequate sleep, a daily dose of exercise and find stress-relief techniques that work for you. If you can tame your stress response and lower cortisol levels, you'll have a much easier time losing weight.

Stay tuned for my simple tips for lowering cortisol levels and keeping stress in check.

If You Want to Lose Weight, Be Careful of When You Eat

If You Want to Lose Weight, Be Careful of When You Eat

When you eat is just as important as what you eat if you are trying to lose weight. If you are over weight and have been following a healthy diet and exercising consistently for at least six weeks and you are not seeing a significant fat loss, it may be because of when you are eating.

Don’t eat right before bed or just before you work out. You want your body to be in “fat’burning mode during your work outs and while you are sleeping.

Your body has two main sources of energy: stored fat and stored carbohydrates. When you eat or drink substances like energy bars, cereals, pastas, bagels or sports drinks (all high in carbs/sugars) your body’s insulin levels rise to cope with the additional carbohydrates in your system. That means, during the time you process those carbs through your bloodstream, your body’s hormones are focused on burning that type of fuel for energy. Thus, if you consume those carbs before your workout, you will be in the mode to burn the carbs in your body more than the stored fat around your waist and thighs!
The most advantagous time to work out if you want to burn fat and lose weight is first thing in the morning, before you eat breakfast. If you feel faint not eating anything before your morning exercise, try having a low carb/sugar protein shake an hour before your workout. Then eat your breakfast when you are finished exercising. If you can’t work out in first thing in the morning, don’t eat for 3 hours before you exercise latter in the day.

Stop eating 3 hours before bedtime. By allowing your body to sleep in “fasting mode” – meaning you are not in the midst of digesting a meal – your body will access stored fat for energy. You might start getting hungry before you go to sleep but if you can control yourself you will enjoy 8 hours of solid fat burning!

If you follow these guidelines and limit your carbs before exercise and sleep, you will allow your body to access it’s fat stores for fuel and function as an effective fat-burning machine!