Weight loss is a huge issue for most Americans.
More than 42% of Americans are considered obese.
And, people don’t want to be overweight—losing weight is the number one New Year’s Eve resolution for Americans, along with increasing exercise and improving diet.
When it comes to body weight, there is a stigma and many emotions that can make it a very hard topic to handle fairly.
Many people blame themselves and turn to fad diets, desperate for lasting results.
Some, feel helpless and avoid the topic altogether in an attempt to practice body positivity.
But, obesity is a health condition that kills.
Health, not body weight, should be the ultimate goal to improve your quality of life.
Studies have found that stress plays a huge role in weight gain.
Though weight gain is often tied to food, there are many other potential causes.
Stress can cause weight gain due to stress eating and unhealthy habits.
But it can also increase body weight because of how stress hormones impact fat cell creation and storage.
At first, stress often has the opposite effect: causing many people to lose their appetite and lose weight.
But, long-term (chronic) stress will actually increase your hunger and change how your body stores food.
When the body experiences stress, it thinks it is under attack—even if the stress is just a really frustrating commute to work or a relationship on the rocks.
As the body goes into overdrive to make sure you survive, you will feel the drive to overeat as an attempt to replenish the calories your body think you will be burning as you fight the stressor or run away.
Of course, you don’t need extra calories to handle a tough workload or manage an overwhelming number of bills.
But, the body is programmed in a most basic sense to react to perceived threats.
Understanding this subconscious tendency is just the first step to creating a more healthy response to your stressors.
Before jumping into the hormonal changes you can’t control, we should cover the common behavior struggles that occur with stress and can lead to weight gain.
Eating Easy Foods: Fast food and processed foods are a huge temptation when you are stressed because they are EASY. But, they are also usually far higher in sugar and salt, while lacking severely in true nutrients. We tend to reach for the closest or quickest thing to eat when we are feeling stretched thin.
Exercising Less: When you are tired and stressed, taking time out to visit the gym or get in a home workout is probably the last thing on your mind. But, the lack of movement increases our feelings of stress and gives us even fewer chances to burn off excess calories.
Stress Eating: When we are feeling frustrated or nervous, food can feel comforting. Snacking can feel like a temporary relief. But, overeating can really impact weight—especially if you are craving salty or sugary foods over raw vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruits.
Sleeplessness: Sleep deprivation is extremely common when you are stressed and your mind is racing. It can be hard to turn off and relax to get a nice long stretch of sleep. But, lacking sleep often leads to lowered inhibition and impulse control—this makes it more likely you will overeat and avoid physical exercise.
Skipping Meals: Stress can cause you to skip meals as you juggle your schedule and responsibilities. But, skipping a healthy meal increases the chance of turning to fast foods later out of hunger or causing the body to store higher levels of fat because it believes you are starving. Inconsistent nutrition can cause weight gain.
Your brain creates the stress hormone cortisol when you are feeling under fire.
This hormone is closely connected with cravings—especially sugar cravings.
Foods that are starchy or high in carbs turn into sugars for the quick energy your body thinks it needs.
But, since you don’t really need that burst of energy and don’t burn it off running for your life, the body tends to store it as fat in preparation for future needs.
In order to store energy for the fight or flight response, cortisol slows the metabolism.
Researchers at Ohio State University found that stressed women burned fewer calories than non-stressed women at the rate of 11-pound weight gains per year.
This often causes abdominal fat and creates a vicious cycle: feel stressed, crave sugar, gain weight, feel more stressed, crave more sugar, gain more weight, etc., etc.
Stanford researchers looked at the effects of glucocorticoids and found they are increasing body fat.
Glucocorticoids are the steroid hormones products by the adrenal glands that increase to higher levels with increased stress.
What researchers found was consistent with weight gain caused by stress: high levels didn’t change anything at first, but if the high levels lasted for longer than 24 hours, there was a doubling of fat production.
The results are preliminary and need more testing, but they explain a lot about why long-term stress proves to be so much more harmful than short bursts.
The researchers believe that if we could even constrain our stress to daytime and stop it during the evenings and nighttime, stress might stop impacting our weight on a chemical level.
This is a tough cycle and the first step to weight control is breaking free of the continuous state of stress.
There are some key ways to do this:
Practice Mindfulness: You can drop your heart rate to levels similar to sleep when you practice meditation and mindfulness. Taking time throughout your day to focus on the present will help give your mind and body breaks from the never-ending to-do list.
Choose Distracting Exercise: Researchers say running on a treadmill might not be enough to really get your mind off of your stressors. Find activities that completely take your focus and energy, drawing the line on where your stressors can follow you. For some people, this might be a yoga class. While others would get this sensation from tennis, cycling or a pick-up basketball game.
Get Plenty of Rest: When you are able to reach the deeper levels of sleep, your brain can flush out the toxins that are released during the day. This is a crucial time for giving your body and mind the reset it needs to combat daytime stressors. Schedule enough time to get 7-9 hours every night and work on improving your sleep habits. If you are struggling, our Sleep supplement will have you feeling sleepy in 10-20 minutes.
Take Formulated Supplements: Most supplements are really a waste of money. But, if you choose a supplement that is specifically formulated to give you something you lack AND offers high absorption rates, then you can get an invaluable kickstart to improving your stress levels. Our Stress supplement is designed to help calm the brain and improve your hormone levels to reduce stress without making you feel sleepy!
With nanotechnology, our highly concentrated supplements will absorb right into the membranes of your mouth.
We use NanoZorb technology to ensure the supplement stays in nano form and doesn’t revert back to larger particles.
You can use Smile to break the cycle of chronic stress and gain back control over your weight.
Stop letting stress destroy your quality of life
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