The Stress of Following a Weight Loss Program Could Be Fattening

When you are trying to follow a really intensive weight loss program your life can become very stressful. You have to think about all of the places you go to eat, what type of foods you are allowed, how much of any type of food are you allowed, and is the restaurant you are eating dinner at tonight going to let you have the Chef's Special without sauces, butter or any other integral part of the recipe? What is more alarming that incurring a chef's displeasure though, is that the stress you are putting yourself through so you can lose a few (or a lot of) pounds, can be making it harder for you to lose weight at all.

Stress can contribute to increased weight gain in three major ways. Firstly studies have shown that many people are prone to eat comfort foods (those yummy things you eat when you feel a bit down, and that have no nutritional value at all) when they are feeling stressed. If you eat to feel better then you are going to be compromising your weight loss efforts.

A second way that stress can cause you to gain weight is that stress causes your body to release the hormone Cortisol. Cortisol is only released in the body during times of stress or danger to help divert your body's resources to the places where it is needed the most for fight or flight. Unfortunately when cortisol is raging around your blood system your body is going to store the energy taken from the foods you eat and store it into fat in case it needs that energy at a later stage. A second problem with this issue is that the body doesn't know the difference between your stress at being stuck in a traffic jam and your stress from meeting up with an uncaged tiger.

The third issue with stress is found in people who live a totally stressful life from one day to the next. Whether the stress is real or imagined, the human body will respond in the same way. If Cortisol is being released virtually every day over time the body starts to build a protective layer of solid belly fat around the major organs. While the body feels it is protecting you, solid belly fat can signal some major health problems if the fat reaches a level where it starts to impede the normal functions of these organs.

For more information on how stress can be making you fat look for "The Happiness Diet: How to lose weight quickly and with a minimum of fuss" by Lisa Oliver on Amazon.com. Providing quality counselling articles, hynotherapy writings and other mind help resources online, hypnotherapist, counsellor and life coach in London.