Is Stress Preventing You from Losing Weight?
You can’t lose weight if you’re stressed out, says research experts. Stress is a major contributor as to why many of us find it hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Here are three tips to manage stress from experts to lose weight faster.
It’s hard to sleep when you’re stressed. When you’re tired, emotions can vary, while decision-making skills and energy levels decline.
As such during stressful times, you tend not to exercise. You reach for comfort foods that are most commonly high in sugar, fat, and salt. This tasty trio are well-known culprits of belly fat accumulation, blood pressure elevation, and increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. And, it’s worth trying as research says managing stress may be beneficial if you have been struggling to lose weight. Here are 3 tips that experts want you to know about how to manage stress, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and lose weight faster.
3 Tips to Better Manage Stress and Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
- Reframe stress
- Be realistic
- Get a support team
Why Stress Prevents Weight Loss
Stress, especially the chronic stress so many of us are tackling in today’s society, impacts the way the body functions. When stressed, the body creates different hormones than when it is relaxed. Stress-related hormones can alter appetite and metabolism. For some, stress can lead to weight gain.
Can Stress Management Help You Lose Weight?
Yes, stress management could help you lose weight, but the true measurement of weight loss success is whether you can keep it off. In a clinical trial, researchers had two groups of individuals start a weight loss plan. One group exercised and ate well. The other group added onto this plan some mindfulness-based stress reduction activities. In the end, both groups lost weight. However, what was so impressive was how long after the diet study ended, the weight loss was maintained by the group who had practiced stress-reducing habits.
3 Tips to Better Manage Stress and Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
Adding stress-reducing habits into your healthy lifestyle can help you maintain weight loss. Yes, you are capable of losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle – but, you need stress management skills. Come, it’s time to get empowered! Let’s find out what experts say are the best ways to deal with stress.
1. Reframe Stress
What’s happening when you are stressed? For some of us, stress can make us feel overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed. Perhaps when you are stressed you tend to eat comfort foods, drink alcohol, or cozy up on the couch and watch a good show. Since stress always exists in some form in our lives, it’s important to have a plan. How can you be prepared to better handle stress when it occurs? Perhaps you’re having a hard time exercising. “Is there a block there – something emotional, or a level of stress that is preventing you from succeeding,” asks Dr. Behbahani. “We can help you unlock that – at the Pritikin Center, we have a multi-disciplinary approach and work collaboratively with the guests… we talk together about why it doesn’t work for you, and what does.”
2. Be Realistic
“We live with this ideal that things are going to be perfect,” notes Dr. Behbahani. “We’re socialized that practice makes perfect,” but maybe what you’re trying to achieve isn’t practical in your lifestyle. Are your healthy lifestyle goals adding stress to your day? Be honest with your team of health advisors about what your day looks like and set realistic goals to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle. “We need to set realistic goals.” When you set an achievable goal, you can be successful, which builds motivation to keep with it. For example, if you want to exercise more as it helps you manage stress, and feels good. “Identify what isn’t necessary for your routine, to allow you to carve out the time you’d like to spend being active,” suggests Dr. Behbahani.
3. Get a Support Team
It’s hard to be motivated when those around you are not. If you’re finding it stressful to maintain your healthy lifestyle habits in your home or work environment, try reframing the conversation. Instead of saying “I need to eat this way” Dr. Behbahani suggests you talk about the intention behind the behavior, “I feel better when I eat this way.” The people in our lives will feel the meaning behind these choices when the attention is turned towards the intention of the behavior.
How to Better Handle Stress
With the right team behind you, you can feel inspired to make a change, and realize you are capable of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Society makes it look hard, all of the exercising, a good diet, and a successful career – yet, you are capable.
When it comes to making healthy lifestyle choices, it’s important to remember, “…it is an amazing gift to give yourself,” says Dr. Behbahani. “And, it is not a bad thing.” The experts at the Pritikin Center will help you discover solutions that you can adapt to your own lifestyle. You are capable of achieving health and through lectures at the Pritikin Center, you’ll leave feeling great. “It’s an honor to be a part of your wellness.”
You Can Lose Weight and Feel Great
When supported by a good team, armed with skills to manage stress, and a realistic eating plan, clinical studies have shown that you can not only lose weight faster but also reduce depression and anxiety.
Come be Empowered
At Pritikin, you will discover skills and tools to manage stress. Come work with clinical physicians and psychologists to learn what may be the underlying cause of your struggles with weight loss. Come to Pritikin to work with renowned healthy lifestyle experts and build a plan that will work for you.
References
- Keeping weight off: mindfulness-based stress reduction alters amygdala functional connectivity during weight loss maintenance in a randomized clinical trial. PLOS One 2021 Jan.
- Impact of a stress management program on weight loss, mental health and lifestyle in adults with obesity: a randomized controlled trial. J Mol Biochem 2018; 7(2): 78-84