Guess what? Worrying does actually make you fat!! Seriously…

“When I’m stressed I lose weight, what are you on about!?”

Correct, you will lose weight, in the form of muscle but you’ll actually gain more fat,.. around your belly too!

 

You see, stressing and worrying sets off a chain of chemical reactions in the body that basically commands us to store fat.

Your adrenal glands, (small glands on top of the kidneys that control stress and fluid balance) release the nasty hormone cortisol into the bloodstream, causing this chain of events to occur.

Hunger increases, metabolism slows down and you gain weight, simple really.

How? The hormone cortisol really is evil; studies have shown that the increased levels of cortisol in the bloodstream means you’ll become less sensitive to a hormone that tells you when you’re full. You probably know what happens then… you’re going to over eat. Yep, once you pop, you can’t stop! Some of you will then worry about how much you’ve eaten setting of the same chain of events again. Crazy huh?

This isn’t the worst of it though

Cortisol actually gets nastier. Yep, that’s right, not content with making you demolish the all you can eat buffet or that whole packet of chocolate covered Hob-Nob’s you keep in the cupboard ‘in case you get company’. Cortisol is also muscle tissue destroyer!

As I have said before, muscle speeds up your metabolism and burns fat, a huge bucket load of fat. Therefore it makes sense that the more lean muscle you have the more calories your body burns, the less fat you have right?

Well… Cortisol has other ideas…!

When cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands, it actually eats into your calorie burning, metabolism increasing muscle! Aaahhhh!

Muscle is also 5 times heavier than fat, hence the weight LOSS but fat GAIN

Not a good combination!

 

Does all of this mean relaxing will make you thinner?

YEP! The good news in all of this is that relaxing can actually help you lose fat. The body has a system called the parasympathetic system. This system is responsible for the relaxation process. It helps you digest food and increases fat burning by lowering your blood sugar. So, in effect, you switch off the genes that cause you to gain weight and switch on the hormones that help you lose weight.  In other words, relaxing is a great fat loss strategy, on top of a good resistance training plan and a supportive nutritional program of course! 

The Most Effective Relaxation Strategies to Help Burn Fat

1.      Stop bl_**dy worrying! Plan, prepare and chill out. Everything is fine and what you’re worrying about probably isn’t a life or death situation, put things into perspective.

2.      Chill out a bit more. Take saunas, steam rooms, get a massage, read a good book, meditate. Do whatever it takes to calm down and switch off those nasty stress hormones.

3.      Try some stress reducing herbs. Some herbs can actually help you adapt to stress better. These herbs are called adaptogenic. They include: Ginseng, Rhodiola, Siberian ginseng, Liquorice

4.     Eat more green veggies and drink plenty of green tea! Eating green veggies can help control cortisol. Cortisol also makes your body more acidic. Green Vegetables, particularly broccoli, watercress, cabbage and spinach can help you become more alkaline. Therefore the more alkaline you are the less damage cortisol can do.

So there you have it, relaxing more and stressing less can actually be a major factor in your fat loss goals!

Worried? Don’t be!