4 Reasons Stress is Preventing You Losing Weight (and 5 ways to create stress resilience)
If you can’t shift the weight or feel like your middle is getting bigger no matter how much you try take a look at your stress levels. It’s not your imagination. If you’ve been under stress for quite some time it is very likely that elevated cortisol levels are contributing to your increasing waist-line and even your peri menopause symptoms. Cortisol is one of the adrenal hormones produced in times of stress. It was developed in a time when we got chased by bears and other predators. Even though the stress is not usually life threatening our brain perceives the threat in the same way.
But don't stress (pun intended)! You can proactively manage your stress levels using natural remedies and holistic health practices that work with your body's systems rather than against them so you can reduce your peri menopause symptoms AND lose weight.
How Stress Affects Your Body - Unravelling the Truth
Cortisol is quite the hormone. In a perfect world it’s the hormone that gets us up and outta bed in the mornings. Mornings are when it should be highest. As the day goes on it is meant to decrease and be at its lowest in the middle of the night. It also ensures we remain on alert when danger is near. It sharpens our memory and our responses, it mobilises glucose for the brain to use and it shuts down non-essential things like digestion and muscle repair. Basically it preps the body to run from a bear! It’s really useful!
Once the danger has passed cortisol is meant to decrease to regular levels so our body can chill, digest, sleep and repair itself. But, in chronic stress it simply doesn’t get the chance. It stays in high alert levels for the majority of the time leaving us tired and wired, digestion not what it should be and craving sugar and carbs. Because in peri menopause we don’t have enough to worry about lol!
Here’s what you need to know about the importance of reducing stress to reduce weight.
● Craving sugar and carbs? This is where things get complicated as long term heightened cortisol levels results in cells that are insulin resistance. The cortisol increases blood sugar levels but the muscle and fat cells refuse to take the insulin in a bid to stop the enormous flow of glucose and redirect it to the brain. Insulin is needed for glucose to enter muscle and fat cells but not brain cells however. The excess insulin makes you want to eat more but the excess glucose that isn’t being used gets turned to fat. Whoa! Complicated hey?
● Belly fat? It gets better! Why the middle fat? Cortisol also encourages more fat around the middle as this visceral fat is better able to make cortisol and also has more receptors. This means not only are the adrenals pumping out cortisol but now you have extra being made in your belly fat! Super! Can you hear the sarcasm?
● It may also be because while your body is in fight or flight it ain’t digesting food well at all. Part of that belly could be bloating from poor digestion. Stress (and age) will decrease our production of stomach acid making it difficult to get our nutrients from our food. We end up overweight but malnourished.
● Can’t sleep? Lack of sleep comes into play here too. High cortisol levels means we are tired and wired. By the time we relax enough to sleep, it’s time to wake up. Only our cortisol has only just reduced. We struggle to get out of bed, reach for coffee, more coffee and then a side of coffee with that coffee. But by night our cortisol is back up to danger speed and off we go again. And what happens when we’re tired? Our body craves food for energy. Enter more weight gain!
● Emotional eating? We often turn to comfort food in times of stress. Comfort food is usually high carb or sugar or both. But cortisol is causing insulin resistance so all the excess glucose gets turned to…you guessed it! Fat!
Keep Your Cool: Manage Stress Naturally
Now that you know stress can take a toll on both your hormonal and metabolic health what can you do to overcome this? Often, we turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, junk food, mindless scrolling, Netflix without the chill... but why not try some natural ways to manage your stress that actually work?
Here are my top five tips I give my clients to help establishing a regular sleep pattern:
Gentle exercise- exercise is great for stress! But make sure it’s the right type. Anything that simulates being chased by a bear will encourage that fight and flight response. Go easy. A gentle swim, a morning walk by the river, yoga….no bear there!
Try a short meditation – Try the Smiling Minds app! It’s free and has meditations as short as 5min. Often it’s the intention that is important so turn up on the mat daily and 80% of the work is done. If you struggle to let go of your thoughts don’t try! Just watch them zip on by and disappear as another takes its place. Meditation isn’t about clearing your mind, it’s about acknowledging how busy it is but letting it have some ‘free time’ play.
Breathe- totally under rated tool. Breathe in through your nose to the count of 4, hold for the count of 7 then breathe out through your pursed mouth (not a whistle but a whoosh noise) to the count of 8. Keep doing that about 4 times. Oxygenated blood, calmer mood, regulated breathing…I do believe you just dropped out of fight and flight! Well done!
Eat more good fats, protein and fresh fruit and veg – The proteins keep sugar levels balanced as there’s no big spike up meaning no big down. Just steady even energy. The fruit and veg give your bowel the fibre it needs to stay happy and make more serotonin. They are also bursting with antioxidants that are like a clean up crew for damaged cells in the body. Stress causes a lot of oxidation that needs to be mopped up- hello antioxidants!
The nervous system loves good fats! You need lots of essential fatty acids found in oily fish, avocado, extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds. They are like a massage for your nervous system.
Reduce your coffee and alcohol- this takes time but stop interrupting the natural sleep cycles with alcohol and caffeine. Allow your body a chance to get back to normal patterns. You’ll also avoid the rollercoaster of an energy spike followed by a slump. Coffee is an amazing boost so save it for when you really need it! Otherwise it just fuels anxiety. Yeah, I hate being the bearer of bad news.
Stress is part of life, but it doesn't have to control your life.
I’m sure that you are now crystal clear on why you need to create some stress resilience so that you can move forward to losing weight and having those happy hormones you hear so much about!
By taking care of yourself and practising healthy habits, you can manage your stress levels, fit back into your favourite jeans and show the world that peri menopause can be a fabulous time of life!
Find this helpful? You might like to grab my webinar recording, Sparkling Vitality, for even more tips on losing weight in peri menopause as well as an introduction into how my program ‘The Sparkle Method’ can help you.
Or If you’re ready to finally lose weight and get on top of peri menopause feel free to book in a Hormonal Freedom call to learn more about how my program The Sparkle Method can help you!