8 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight. Part 2
Last week we started looking at the 8 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight, even when you seem to be doing everything right. Number one was Don’t Fall for Gimmicks. This one might have seemed obvious but it affects your psychology. Falling for gimmicks or at the very least, questioning your current weight loss method derails your efforts.
The second point we covered was the lack of sleep and how your body perceives it as stress and the physiological impact this has on your ability to lose fat. We also discussed how it will impact your workout recovery and the long term effects this has.
Today, we are going to look at the effect Chronic Stress has on your ability to lose fat. We touched on this a little bit when discussing sleep, but today we are going to dive deeper into stress and its physiological effects.
I want to start by sharing a story about my first discovery of how stress triggers physiological changes in the body. Some people think stress is strictly psychological or behavioral and they don’t respect its ability to change your physiology. I think it’s common knowledge that stress is not good for your health, but unless you experience the physiological impact you can often underestimate the importance of controlling stress. I know I did.
My experience with stress impacting physiology dates back to when I was in my final days of college. I was living in Waukesha and was offered a three month long internship in Oshkosh. It didn’t make sense to move since the internship was temporary. My internship started at 6:00 a.m. each day which meant waking up at 3:00 a.m. and driving for an hour and a half. This wouldn’t have been a big deal but it was an unpaid internship. I still wanted this internship because I knew what I would learn was much more a valuable than getting paid but it also meant working a 4-5 hour night job to pay the bills.
I believe when a particular goal is focused on, one can get in a zone and as Nike says: “Just Do it.” Unfortunately, this decision had consequences I didn’t expect. I was only sleeping four hours every night for three months. I was willing to do whatever it took. Even though my mind wasn't tired, my body decided it was time to chill out. I started having stomach and digestive problems. These issues dissipated as soon as I returned to decent sleep patterns and allowed my body to rest.
To put this in perspective, I was in the best physical shape of my life. I had just completed my senior year of college football and had applied everything I learned in my exercise physiology courses. If stress can have that kind of effect on a 21 year old body in top physical condition, what kind of effect is it having on the many baby boomers struggling to lose weight?
Let’s look at the specifics and see.
First, as I mentioned last week, the body doesn’t know the difference between psychological and physical stress. Each one will trigger the release of Cortisol, which will decrease your ability to release fat as energy.
The second impact stress has is making it harder to stay on a good nutrition plan. A major contributor is the altering of Serotonin levels in the brain, which is the “feel good” hormone. An increase in Serotonin occurs when additional stress is present. Serotonin has a direct link to food cravings.
Let’s think about a typical pattern that can occur for many people. You come home from a stressful day at work. What type of food do we go after when we are stressed? Is it a chicken breast, brown rice and a salad? Not likely.
Serotonin kicks in and we typically reach for sugary, salty or fatty foods.
What we have to realize is that stress is the factor that triggered this action. We have strong chemicals produced by stress in our body, creating this response.
You could be trying to be good with your nutrition and working out consistently, but you don’t always think to evaluate your stress and the role it has on losing fat or fitness goals. You could have everything on track, but stress will sabotage all your other efforts.
How do we minimize these food cravings?
First, the obvious is to work on stress management. In addition, let’s look specifically at what we can do to address the food cravings. One of the keys is to eat every three to four hours with small supportive meals/snacks. This means incorporating a balanced meal of lean proteins, fibrous carbohydrates (fruits and veggies) and starchy carbohydrates (wheat breads, brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc). These smaller and more frequent meals not only stabilize insulin, control hunger and improve your metabolism but they also control cravings and serotonin levels. This can be a whole other topic in itself.
Another affect stress has is on your Adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands end up working overtime producing Cortisol, which sends a whole series of signals to your body inhibiting the recovery and building of muscle. Muscle is a critical component to increasing your body’s metabolism. A decrease in muscle that occurs as we age is one of the contributors to a decrease in metabolism and calorie demand as we get older.
Your Adrenal glands also produce Adrenalin. Most people are familiar with Adrenalin and the surge of energy that takes place in an emergency/stressful situation. It’s also produced naturally throughout the day and one of its responsibilities is going to a fat cell and opening it up to release it for fuel.
The Adrenal gland also produces Adrenalin’s sister call Noradrenalin which gets to the fat cell systemically through nerve endings.
Without getting too technical, just know that your Adrenal gland produces not only the “bad guy” Cortisol, but the "good guys" Adrenalin and Noradrenalin. We want the body to release Adrenalin and Noradrenalin, so we can get to the fat cell and release it for fuel. Without these two, “burning fat” won’t happen.
When you get into stressful situations for long periods of time, these Adrenal glands get overworked and no longer produce Adrenalin and Noradrenalin like they should and you start to lose acceptance of these hormones at the cell receptor site. Your body almost becomes resistant.
This is all a series of events that has a major impact on your ability to lose fat. It not only affects your eating patterns, but creates a physiological environment not conducive to fat loss.
As you can see stress is by far one of the most overlooked components to losing fat that most don’t take into consideration. If you feel you have the exercise and nutrition plan down, but just can’t get the results you want, I would highly recommend you look at your sleep and stress levels. If stress is currently part of your life, you need a plan to make improvements in this area just like you need an exercise and nutrition plan.
Next week we’ll look at the fourth reason you may not being losing fat.
Until then, thank you for allowing me to guide you through the health and fitness maze.
In Good HealthPete Piranio BS,
CSCSOwner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
Brookfield 262-780-6350
Delafield 262-646-5444
Wauwatosa 414-453-9800
Woodbury, MN 651-436-8137
http://www.fitnesstogether.net
P.S. Don't forget to check in and vote for our Fitness Together Transformation Competition contestants here: http://www.mycommunitynow.com.
P.P.S. If you need help putting together a complete program to achieve your fitness goals and want a support system to implement customized plan, come see us for a complimentary introductory session and consultation. Learn more here.
The second point we covered was the lack of sleep and how your body perceives it as stress and the physiological impact this has on your ability to lose fat. We also discussed how it will impact your workout recovery and the long term effects this has.
Today, we are going to look at the effect Chronic Stress has on your ability to lose fat. We touched on this a little bit when discussing sleep, but today we are going to dive deeper into stress and its physiological effects.
I want to start by sharing a story about my first discovery of how stress triggers physiological changes in the body. Some people think stress is strictly psychological or behavioral and they don’t respect its ability to change your physiology. I think it’s common knowledge that stress is not good for your health, but unless you experience the physiological impact you can often underestimate the importance of controlling stress. I know I did.
My experience with stress impacting physiology dates back to when I was in my final days of college. I was living in Waukesha and was offered a three month long internship in Oshkosh. It didn’t make sense to move since the internship was temporary. My internship started at 6:00 a.m. each day which meant waking up at 3:00 a.m. and driving for an hour and a half. This wouldn’t have been a big deal but it was an unpaid internship. I still wanted this internship because I knew what I would learn was much more a valuable than getting paid but it also meant working a 4-5 hour night job to pay the bills.
I believe when a particular goal is focused on, one can get in a zone and as Nike says: “Just Do it.” Unfortunately, this decision had consequences I didn’t expect. I was only sleeping four hours every night for three months. I was willing to do whatever it took. Even though my mind wasn't tired, my body decided it was time to chill out. I started having stomach and digestive problems. These issues dissipated as soon as I returned to decent sleep patterns and allowed my body to rest.
To put this in perspective, I was in the best physical shape of my life. I had just completed my senior year of college football and had applied everything I learned in my exercise physiology courses. If stress can have that kind of effect on a 21 year old body in top physical condition, what kind of effect is it having on the many baby boomers struggling to lose weight?
Let’s look at the specifics and see.
First, as I mentioned last week, the body doesn’t know the difference between psychological and physical stress. Each one will trigger the release of Cortisol, which will decrease your ability to release fat as energy.
The second impact stress has is making it harder to stay on a good nutrition plan. A major contributor is the altering of Serotonin levels in the brain, which is the “feel good” hormone. An increase in Serotonin occurs when additional stress is present. Serotonin has a direct link to food cravings.
Let’s think about a typical pattern that can occur for many people. You come home from a stressful day at work. What type of food do we go after when we are stressed? Is it a chicken breast, brown rice and a salad? Not likely.
Serotonin kicks in and we typically reach for sugary, salty or fatty foods.
What we have to realize is that stress is the factor that triggered this action. We have strong chemicals produced by stress in our body, creating this response.
You could be trying to be good with your nutrition and working out consistently, but you don’t always think to evaluate your stress and the role it has on losing fat or fitness goals. You could have everything on track, but stress will sabotage all your other efforts.
How do we minimize these food cravings?
First, the obvious is to work on stress management. In addition, let’s look specifically at what we can do to address the food cravings. One of the keys is to eat every three to four hours with small supportive meals/snacks. This means incorporating a balanced meal of lean proteins, fibrous carbohydrates (fruits and veggies) and starchy carbohydrates (wheat breads, brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc). These smaller and more frequent meals not only stabilize insulin, control hunger and improve your metabolism but they also control cravings and serotonin levels. This can be a whole other topic in itself.
Another affect stress has is on your Adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands end up working overtime producing Cortisol, which sends a whole series of signals to your body inhibiting the recovery and building of muscle. Muscle is a critical component to increasing your body’s metabolism. A decrease in muscle that occurs as we age is one of the contributors to a decrease in metabolism and calorie demand as we get older.
Your Adrenal glands also produce Adrenalin. Most people are familiar with Adrenalin and the surge of energy that takes place in an emergency/stressful situation. It’s also produced naturally throughout the day and one of its responsibilities is going to a fat cell and opening it up to release it for fuel.
The Adrenal gland also produces Adrenalin’s sister call Noradrenalin which gets to the fat cell systemically through nerve endings.
Without getting too technical, just know that your Adrenal gland produces not only the “bad guy” Cortisol, but the "good guys" Adrenalin and Noradrenalin. We want the body to release Adrenalin and Noradrenalin, so we can get to the fat cell and release it for fuel. Without these two, “burning fat” won’t happen.
When you get into stressful situations for long periods of time, these Adrenal glands get overworked and no longer produce Adrenalin and Noradrenalin like they should and you start to lose acceptance of these hormones at the cell receptor site. Your body almost becomes resistant.
This is all a series of events that has a major impact on your ability to lose fat. It not only affects your eating patterns, but creates a physiological environment not conducive to fat loss.
As you can see stress is by far one of the most overlooked components to losing fat that most don’t take into consideration. If you feel you have the exercise and nutrition plan down, but just can’t get the results you want, I would highly recommend you look at your sleep and stress levels. If stress is currently part of your life, you need a plan to make improvements in this area just like you need an exercise and nutrition plan.
Next week we’ll look at the fourth reason you may not being losing fat.
Until then, thank you for allowing me to guide you through the health and fitness maze.
In Good HealthPete Piranio BS,
CSCSOwner/Fitness Consultant
Fitness Together
Brookfield 262-780-6350
Delafield 262-646-5444
Wauwatosa 414-453-9800
Woodbury, MN 651-436-8137
http://www.fitnesstogether.net
P.S. Don't forget to check in and vote for our Fitness Together Transformation Competition contestants here: http://www.mycommunitynow.com.
P.P.S. If you need help putting together a complete program to achieve your fitness goals and want a support system to implement customized plan, come see us for a complimentary introductory session and consultation. Learn more here.
posted by Fitness Together at
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