Stressed out? It wouldn’t be surprising. In today’s fast paced world stress is something that has become a regular part of our life; something we just learn to adapt to and tolerate.
But what is this doing to our waistline? More than you might think.
Even if you happen to be one of those people who tends to not eat when stressed, rather than turn your pantry to an all-you-can-eat buffet, stress is still likely to contribute to fat gain.
Why?
When you are highly stressed your body is going to release a hormone called cortisol. It’s cortisol’s job to prepare your body to fight since it is anticipating a battle (after all, that really is what stress is usually about).
In addition to this, cortisol also puts your body in a prime state for body fat accumulation, particularly around the waist region.
When cortisol levels are constantly high, your body may become so disrupted from being in a natural state that it leads to insulin resistance, which could further lead to diabetes.
This demonstrates just how important it is for you to take measures to help combat the amount of every day stress you encounter.
While training can definitely help reduce the amount of psychological stress you experience (think of a good cardio session where you ‘work’ out your anger and frustration), you do need to also keep in mind that exercise itself is a stressor.
That’s right. Every time you step into the gym, you are placing a stress on your body. The stress will be variable depending on the type of workout you do, but make no mistake about it. It’s there, and it’s affecting you.
So, when considering the total stress in your life, make sure you don’t leave this out.
The key is learning how to balance the stress you experience.
Exercising is good because as we just mentioned, it will take care of some of that psychological stress from work, relationships, or whatever else you have going in your life.
But, knowing how to properly plan your workout program so you do not put too much physical stress on your body will also be essential. It’s when this gets out of balance – when you are using working out too frequently to combat psychological stress, that overtraining occurs.
Overtraining, just like psychological stress, also leads to high levels of cortisol in the body, which again will lead to body fat accumulation.
As you can see, stress is more than just an annoyance. As far as your physique is concerned, stress most definitely will impact the progress you make.
Find something relaxing to do that only takes about an hour or two of your time and try and do this once or twice a week. This could be a yoga class, reading a good book, journaling – whatever gets you ‘in the zone’ and allows you to forget about your worries while relaxing your body.
Do this along with getting on a proper diet, and you will have the best defense against the accumulation of body fat around your middle.