Losing weight can be a stressful process and if you are chronically under stress (personal, professional, psychosocial, physical, etc.), it can prove to be an uphill battle. Studies have found a direct link between stress and weight gain, hence stress can become a bane in multiple ways – it can not only prevent weight loss, it can add extra pounds too. You can have literally nothing on your plate but if stress is on your mind, shedding extra fat layers can become quite difficult. Apart from lowering metabolism, the stress hormone “cortisol” increases appetite, cravings, and also directs the body to store fat around the belly region. The ability to burn fat also flattens out with increase in anxiety and stress. Above normal level of the stress hormone “cortisol” can trigger emotional eating where you tend to lean towards sweet or salty foods to calm the nerves. These foods then trigger the release of “pleasure chemicals” that have a soothing effect and help relax and take the load off. Remember how eating a tub of ice cream can instantly help you loosen up and cool down. The problem is the kind of food we resort to during stressful situations can become addictive and we may seek them out too often, leading to rapid weight gain. Now comes the scary part, the hormone cortisol tends to mobilize fat from other areas of the body to the tummy area, increasing the waist circumference! That’s why it becomes important to beat stress to successfully lose weight. In this post, we list out ways to keep stress under check to prevent putting on weight.
1. Keep a Tabs on Emotional Eating: Emotional eating is a situation where one eats to feel good and pleasant, to cope up with trauma, to relieve stress rather than to satisfy hunger. The food that emotional eaters choose are usually high-fat, high sugar, calorie-rich food full of transfat and other toxic ingredients, extremely unhealthy for the human body. In the current times, when the stress levels are high, more and more people are resorting to unhealthy food habits and binge eating to find comfort. In this post, we list out ways to control emotional eating so that you can avoid weight gain.
2. Eat These Things When You are Stressed Out without Falling off Diet: It becomes extremely important to stay away from unhealthy food while trying to battle stressful situations to avoid putting on weight. So, here’s what you should eat when stressed out without gaining weight.
3. Find Ways to Boost Metabolism: As we have mentioned earlier, stress lowers metabolism and the pace at which body burns calories. Metabolism is that engine which torches calories and for losing weight, the metabolism should be robust. So, read about 21 tricks to boost metabolism in this post.
4. Exercise is the Best Stress Reliever: Regular exercise helps keep stress under control. Yoga, deep breathing, and even brisk walking can help battle stress. When you are stressed, head out for a walk, or a run or indulge in any sport you like. This will ensure that your mind is distracted and also you get to burn some calories. Exercise improves blood circulation and helps to flush out cortisol, thus busting out the stress.
5. Cut down the Caffeine: Unknown to many of us, caffeine can actually take cortisol levels up and keep it high for quite a few hours! Cut down the caffeine intake to lower stress, or limit its consumption to just one or two cups in a day.
6. Get More Zzz’s: Just like exercise, good-quality sleep reduces stress by a great degree. Sleeping for 7 hours or more would bring back stress hormone to its optimum level and you will feel more energetic in the morning.
7. Eat Magnesium-Rich Food: Magnesium deficiency can lead to anxiety and stress, and that’s why magnesium-rich food like spinach, almonds, avocado, tamarind, seafood, peanuts can calm your nerves.
Do try to implement these tips to fight chronic stress and lose weight successfully by following weight loss diets on the Rati Beauty app.
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