Stress impacts weight loss: Coach's explanation and advice
Illustrative photo (Freepik)
Endocrine-level stress manifests in an increase in cortisol levels in the blood. This, in turn, significantly impacts weight loss, according to fitness coach Viktor Mandziak, who shared some tips on what to do about it.
How stress affects weight loss
Endocrine-level stress manifests in an increase in cortisol levels in the blood. Cortisol makes the satiety hormone leptin less noticeable to brain structures (the lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus) that it should influence. Essentially, stress makes a person hungrier and less satiated.
Many people tend to "stress eat". Stress also affects sleep quality.
"Not only does stress worsen sleep, but poor and insufficient sleep also causes stress. You could be as carefree as a Buddhist monk on a mountainside, but if you're sleep-deprived, your body is stressed, you want to eat more, your craving for high-calorie food increases, and just like with stress, lack of sleep makes it harder to control yourself," Mandziak explained.
Therefore, stress and lack of sleep lead to weight gain through overeating. Physical exercise can be very helpful in overcoming stress.
"Therefore, it's important to minimize stress in life as much as possible. Physical activity, strong social connections, self-care, prosocial behavior, and optimism can all help," the expert emphasized.
Viktor advises allowing yourself to experience all emotions, including negative ones, as a way to control stress.
"By trying to eliminate unpleasant emotions, we signal to our brain that something extremely important is happening, making these emotions stronger and stress more pronounced. Conversely, when I don't neurotically try to rid myself of unpleasant feelings, the brain calms down, realizing that it's not such a big deal," the fitness coach concluded.
This material is for informational purposes only and should not be used for medical diagnosis or self-treatment. Our goal is to provide readers with accurate information about symptoms, causes, and methods of detecting diseases. RBС-Ukraine is not responsible for any diagnoses that readers may make based on materials from the resource. We do not recommend self-treatment and advise consulting a doctor in case of any health concerns.
