Can Stress Cause Weight Gain in your life

February 14, 2015

Can Stress Cause Weight Gain in your life: How to keep the world’s woes from weighing you down

Can Stress Cause Weight Gain in your life? Irrespective of what causes weight gain a lasting solution should be found

Stress complicates everything and is also associated with nearly everything we do, think or places we go to. Much as I do not want to agree with the school of thought that stress is becoming part of people’s lives my introductory statement betrays me. I want therefore pose this question to you who is reading this article right now “can stress cause weight gain in your life?” are you able to see the connection between the two? This is what we want to find out and with the help of professionals at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care all these concerns are going to be adequately addressed. Therefore keep reading and find out the true position. Look at the environment around you and evaluate each like your job is hanging on the balance and it is only a matter of time before you get the termination letter, the credit-card bills are mounting. Your teenage children are threatening to quit school and become something else you’re troubled your spouse has filed a divorce in court. Everything around you is not just right and all your efforts to have them to manageable levels are not yielding anything consoling. You are stressed and hopeless. Irrespective of the reason or reasons, stress is a way of life in this generation. And because we are different stress will also affect us differently. If you are in that category where stress is beyond the normal feelings of anxiety and discomfort, then stress can mean facing each passing day gluttonously hungry and adding weight gain to their list of your problems.

Even though the immediate response to acute stress can be a temporary loss of appetite, it is however becoming evident that for some people, chronic stress can be tied to an increase in appetite and stress-induced weight gain. The problem in this case lies within our neuroendocrine system which is a brain-to-body connection that harkens back to evolutionary times and which helped our distant ancestors to survive. Though today the source of the stress is more likely to be an unpaid bill than a saber-toothed tiger, this system still activates a series of hormones whenever we feel threatened. These hormones give us the biochemical strength we need to fight or flee our stressors.

The hormones released when we’re stressed include adrenalin which gives us instant energy along with corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol. While high levels of adrenalin and CRH decrease appetite at first, the effects usually don’t last long. And cortisol works on a different timetable. Its job is to help us replenish our body after the stress has passed, and it hangs around a lot longer. It can remain elevated, increasing your appetite and ultimately driving you to eat more.

Can Stress Cause Weight Gain in your life: Fight, flee or chow down

While this system works fine when our stress comes in the form of physical danger — when we really need to “fight or flee”, and then replenish — it doesn’t serve the same purpose for today’s garden-variety stressors. Often, our response to stress today is to sit and stew in our frustration and anger, without expending any of the calories or food stores that we would if we were physically fighting our way out of stress or danger. In most cases in this respect eating becomes the activity that relieves the stress. In other words, since your Neuro-endocrine system doesn’t know you didn’t fight or flee, it still responds to stress with the hormonal signal to replenish nutritional stores which may make you feel hungry.

Following those stress signals can lead not only to weight gain, but also the tendency to store what is called visceral fat around the midsection. These fat cells that lie deep within the abdomen have been linked to an increase in both diabetes and heart disease. To further complicate matters, the “fuel” our muscles need during fight or flight is sugar one reason we crave for carbohydrates when we are stressed. Therefore to get out sugar from our blood to our muscles will require insulin, the hormone that opens the gates to the cells and lets the sugar in. So people, who are under stress, metabolically speaking, will gain weight for that very reason.

Can Stress Cause Weight Gain in your life: Mind over Matter

In the cause of trying to solve the riddle “can stress cause weight gain in your life” it would be very important that we do not put all the blames on stress for our weight gain, this is because eating in response to stress can also be a learned habit, that is to say that one can just be encouraged by brain chemistry into feeding heavily. Remember that when under the influence of stress, there’s that force, power or an impulse to do something, to get moving, and in most instances eating becomes the remedial activity that relieves the stress. It’s easy to do and it’s comforting. Nevertheless, it may be our bodies’ initial response to rising levels of cortisol that communicates us that there is comfort in sugary or starchy foods to relieve us from our current stressful situations. The result of this is that in the very first couple of days after encountering a stressful event, cortisol hormone would give you the urge and persuasion to eat high-carbohydrate foods. And the moment you give in and you comply; you quickly learn a behavioral response that you can feel almost destined to repeat the same action anytime you feel stressed again in the future.

Finally the good news is that whether your concern is can stress cause weight gain in your life or whether your urge to eat is driven by hormones or habits or a combination of both, research shows there are ways to interrupt the cycle, break the stress and stop the weight gain. Stopping weight gain is one activity that up on scheduling for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury will be done in the most natural and professional way with a team of able experts at the home of weight loss solution (AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center).

Can Stress Cause Weight Gain in your life: How to keep the world’s woes from weighing you down

Gaining Weight When Stressed Up

September 5, 2014

Gaining Weight When Stressed Up — Truth Exposed

Gaining Weight When Stressed Up. Stress is everywhere around us avoiding stress will go along way in keeping you healthy.

Have you taken a good look at what is happening around you? I mean things that trigger your emotions making you sad or tired in the mind body and spirit? I am referring to things and situations like your job are hanging by a thread probably the board is currently discussing your dismissal, your teenage boy is becoming unruly and he is threatening quitting school for no reason are we together now? These are things that cause us to be very much stressed with life. Irrespective of how you look at it dear reader, stress is actually a way of life in this 21^st century. Because of the effects of stress many people are affected in different ways and the effects often go beyond feelings of anxiety and discomfort. For instance have you found yourself eating heavily junk food while trying to beat certain work deadline? Or endlessly stocking and eating cookies in your car while driving and many similar behaviors! Stress is a force which can rearrange your daily programs. It (stress) will increase your appetite causing you to be holding onto fats which interferes with your ability to live a healthy lifestyle. How then does stress leads to weight gain?

Hormones

When your brain senses the presence of any threat whether it is burning fire, irritating employer or an accumulation of debts with no expectation of income to foot the bills, it will triggers the release of adrenaline, CRH (corticotrophin releasing hormone), and cortisol. With the release of these chemicals, your body and brain position themselves to handle the threats by causing you to be more alert and ready to take action and contain any injury which may arise. For a while the adrenaline will help you feel less hungry as your blood flows away from the internal organs and to your large muscles to be ready for fight or flight. However, once the effects of adrenaline wear off, cortisol, known as the stress hormone, stays around and begins signaling the body to replenish your food supply.

Belly Fat

In the days when our ancestors were fighting off tigers and famine, their bodies adapted by learning to store fat supplies for the long haul. The unfortunate result for you and me is that when we are chronically stressed by life crises and work-life demands, we are prone to getting an extra layer of “visceral fat” deep in our bellies. Your belly has an ample supply of blood vessels and cortisol receptors to make the whole process flow more efficiently.

The downside is that excess belly fat is unhealthy and difficult to get rid of. The fat releases chemicals triggering inflammation, which increases the likelihood that we will develop heart disease or diabetes. And it can make it more difficult to fit into those lovely jeans you splurged on, leading to more stress about money wasted! Unfortunately, excess cortisol also slows down your metabolism, because your body wants to maintain an adequate supply of glucose for all that hard mental and physical work dealing with the threat.

Anxiety

When we have a surge of adrenaline as part of our fight/flight response, we get fidgety and activated. Adrenaline is the reason for the “wired up” feeling we get when we’re stressed. While we may burn off some extra calories fidgeting or running around cleaning because we can’t sit still, anxiety can also trigger “emotional eating.” Overeating or eating unhealthy foods in response to stress or as a way to calm down is a very common response. Anxiety can also make you eat more “mindlessly” as you churn around worrying thoughts in your head, not even focusing on the taste of the food, how much you’ve eaten, or when you are feeling full.

Cravings and Fast Food

When we are chronically stressed, we crave for junk foods which tend to be easy to eat, highly processed, and high in fat, sugar, or salt. We crave these foods for both biological and psychological reasons. Stress may mess up our brain’s reward system or cortisol may cause us to crave more fat and sugar. When we are stressed, we also may be more likely to drive through the Fast Food place, rather than taking the time and mental energy to plan and cook a meal.

Less Sleep

Take some time and have adequate sleep. It actually causes you nothing to sleep well yet the benefit is life changing, don’t occupy your mind with the worries of life, they are the reasons why you have insomnia. Even if you’re to sit an exam still read but ensures you have enough sleep because sleep is a powerful factor influencing weight gain or loss. Lack of sleep may disrupt the functioning of ghrelin and leptin—chemicals that control appetite.

Reducing Weight Gain When You’re Stressed

Excessive weight is certainly not good for your health and the best you can do for yourself is to make effort of cutting down on your weight. The following are some of the ways you can use to reduce your weight for a better health ahead of you.

Physical Activities

Aerobic exercise has a one-two punch. It can decrease cortisol and trigger release of chemicals that relieve pain and improve mood. It can also help speed your metabolism so you burn off the Learn Mindful Eating

Mindful Eating programs train you in meditation, which helps you cope with stress, and change your consciousness around eating. You learn to slow down and tune in to your sensory experience of the food, including its sight, texture or smell. You also learn to tune into your subjective feelings of hunger or fullness, rather than eating just because it’s a mealtime or because there is food in front of you. A well-designed study of binge-eaters showed that participating in a Mindful Eating program led to fewer binges and reduced depression.

Engage in Rewarding Activities

It is true that food can keep you busy but this would be a very poor option especially when you’re making effort to cutting down on your weight and managing stress. Therefore finding activities like hiking, reading, attending yoga class, getting a massage, patting your dog, or making time for friends and family can help to relieve stress without adding on the pounds.

Although you may feel that you don’t have time for leisure activities with looming deadlines, taking time to relieve stress helps you to feel refreshed, lets you think more clearly, and improves your mood, so you are less likely to overeat.

Finally writing down your healthy eating and exercise goals may make you more conscious of your desire to live a healthier lifestyle and intensify your commitment. Researchers have established that writing expressively or about life goals can improve both mood and health. Finally your good health should be your number one priority. The fact that stress is very common in our day today life is not reason enough to have you get to other life complications relating to weight gain and obesity. It will be necessary that you talk to Dr. Dalal Akoury, Founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, a professional in her own right and have been of help to many in the same situation. Doctor Akoury has been in practice for the last 20years offering her exclusive NER Recovery Treatment to everyone including other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. Just like qualified professional are calling her for help in their desire to manage their stress and weight you can also do the same and get your life back on the recovery path for a long and fulfilling life a head of you.

Gaining Weight When Stressed Up — Truth Exposed

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