Z. Johnson
The infamous stress! We’ve all experienced stress in different levels. It is part of our lives. The high pace living, projects, demanding jobs, family duties, deadlines, you name it. But, once you learn how to balance stress levels with healthy living, you are on good track. The problem with stress is that when it becomes chronic and frequent, it can have a serious havoc on your fitness and weight loss journey. Let me tell you how stress can affect your fitness results and what to do to avoid it.
Stress affects your appetite
Having too much stress on a regular basis is the main reason why we tend to overeat and make poor food choices. When you are stressed out, your body releases more hunger hormones, such as cortisol. These are responsible for making you crave more sugary and fatty foods, plus increases the amount of emotional eating. When you don’t have control over emotional eating, then it can lead to serious binge eating. This not only makes you gain weight, but causes more anxiety, feelings of guilt, deprivation and a vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting.
If you’ve ever craved those donuts or ice cream after a stressful day, you know what I’m talking about. Besides that, stress can affect your fitness results by making you eat less balanced meals. Skipping meals, or even choosing less fiber and protein foods, are just other main reasons that add to plate. If you feel like you’ve got too much going on in your life, start by focusing on making good food choices, as well as balanced meals, no matter how much stress your are facing. Eating quality foods is key to making your body keep a balance on your hunger hormones, plus a good metabolism.
Stress can affect your fitness results by increasing your body fat
Because stress tends to make you overeat, and not precisely sandwiches or salads, you will most likely store more body fat. Apart from that, cortisol, is a hormone that your body releases when you are stressed out. Cortisol causes your body to naturally store more body fat, instead of burning it. That’s why many people struggle to eliminate that excess body fat, especially around the waistline.
If you are looking to lose weight or trim your belly fat, then managing stress should be part of your daily strategy. Believe it or not, being constantly stressed out increases the amount of fat around your waistline, even without overeating. This is another main way in which stress can affect your fitness results.
Stress affects your workout performance
Have you ever felt like dragging your feet to the gym after a stressful day at work? Well, just in case you thought it was due to a simple lack of motivation, stress can have serious effect on our energy levels and even performance when working out. Stress can affect your fitness results by impacting your nervous system. It makes it even more tiresome or difficult to complete a routine. If you’ve ever tried to workout while been exhausted or sleep-deprived, you know what I mean. That day when you went on the treadmill for 20 minutes and was barely making out 15 mins, well.. there goes the reason. Excessive stress not only affects workout performance, but also physical recovery. This in turn, makes it harder to lose body fat and may even reduce muscle mass.
Stress can affect your fitness results with bad sleep patterns
Too much stress also causes your body to have more anxiety and sleep issues. If you’ve had insomnia, or problems to get a good night sleep, due to constant worries, you know what I’m talking about. Stress can affect your fitness results by causing lack of effective sleep. When we don’t sleep well, our body produces more of the hunger hormone ghrelin. This, is another reason why we wake up craving more food the next day. Lack of sleep increases sugar cravings and makes your body store more fat.
Stress can also affect your fitness results with excessive weight loss
On the other hand, some people may experience excessive weight loss while stressed out. Each body is different and everybody reacts in a different way due to stress. In most cases, people tend to overeat and gain weight, but it’s not always the case. Some people may even go through periods of fasting, food deprivation, that can later trigger a reverse effect on weight. Stress in these scenarios can cause you to dehydrate and even reduce your immune system function. Be careful with the way your relationship with food is affected through stress.
Stress can increase digestive issues
Some people can even develop digestive problems when being stressed out. It’s very common to hear people having colitis or even issues to poop. This has to do with many factors like: making poor food choices (eating too much sugar and fat, and less protein, fiber), skipping meals, starving, eating at irregular hours, etc. Symptoms like stomach cramping, constipation, heartburn and even diarrhea can result out of stress. Common cases of gastritis or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are caused by stress. Plus, when you have digestive problems, your body burns less fat. That’s why you feel bloated or have more weight gain.
What to do to avoid stress affecting your fitness results:
Managing stress is certainly not easy, but not a difficult task easier. It all depends on your lifestyle, regular habits, your attitude towards life and mindset in general. You can definitely avoid having stress affect your fitness results. All you need to do is follow these rules:
Focus on quality food intake
At all times, this is a must! Create a healthy lifestyle that includes selecting foods from all groups in a balanced way. Learn to eat intuitively, and stay away from fad diets that will only cause you more anxiety. Choosing quality foods that include mostly protein, healthy fats and good amounts of fiber will not only fuel your body, but help to control hunger and craving levels. Also, you can find a thorough guide on how to keep your body in fat burning mode by eating these fat burning foods.
Identify and deal with your emotions
Dealing with your own emotions is key to prevent affecting your fitness results. Do not rely on food to find peace and comfort. Rather than doing this, focus on seeking for help and advice from people who will lift you up and support you through the challenges.
Practice self-care as a priority
I wrote a previous blog post about taking better care of yourself. Putting your self care in first place is not being selfish, is acknowledging how much you love and respect your body. When you start taking time out to take better care of yourself, you will handle stress more effectively and even have less anxiety in the long run.
Workout regularly
Exercising regularly is key to maintaining a good physique, but also great mental health. If you refer to how fitness impacts mental health, I’m sure you can relate. Get on the right mindset, stay positive and make working out a lifestyle. Creating exercise habits takes time and consistency, however, it’s important to stay active, if you want to improve your health overall. Oh! And did I mention that more regular you are about your fitness routine, the less stress problems you’ll have? There’s no better therapy than effective workouts.
Pay attention to other lifestyle habits
Being in a toxic environment or surrounded by negative people only causes more stress in the long run. Really, these situations don’t help. So, if you want to have a positive result in your fitness life overall, focus on nurturing healthy relationships and environments.
Also, make sure you take care of better sleeping patterns. This is essential to ensure your body recovers well, reduces anxiety and stays away from unnecessary cravings. Relax and just take that time to rest. Keep going around the clock isn’t going to help you solve more problems or make you become more effective. So, it’s time you put these aspects into effect and as a priority to have positive long term results.
The bottom line…
Stress can be handled in an effective way. It’s easier than you thought. All you have to do is create healthy lifestyle habits. It’s also important that you live in the present and stop worrying about things that are still pending. Being a little bit more organized can go a long way. Let me know if you’re struggling with stress or food cravings. I may be able to help you out. What are your thoughts on stress management? Leave a comment below. Remember that sharing is also caring!
