Never forget that when it comes to fat loss, the only place SUCCESS comes before WORK is in the dictionary. So heads down and bums up for all of you who didn’t read the blog on how to Curb Christmas Cheer.

The Rules for Getting Waisted are:

1. Eat breakfast everyday. It stimulates your metabolism and helps you regulate your appetite so you won’t munch and crunch on foods you shouldn’t even have in your house!

2. Eat smaller serves; put your food on a plate, not in a bowl, less will like more!

3. Go for quality not quantity, avoid meal deals and smorgasbords

4. Put colour into your diet – two fruits and five vegetable serves every day

5. Choose reduced fat dairy food

6. Choose lean, fresh meat

7. Drink at least two litres of water daily

8. Limit the high kilojoule and high fat foods you probably snacked on over the Christmas period, or better still, just don’t have it. And, that includes soft drinks, cordial and alcohol!

9. Eat mindfully. Turn off the TV, don’t read a book an don’t be surfing on the internet while you eat. Don’t eat on the run or in your car!

10. Keep a food diary. People who record their food lose more weight.

11. Increase your activity levels. Sack your cleaner and your mower man!

12. Do regular exercise. People who exercise an hour a day lose more weight when moderating their food intake

13. Read the blog on making new year resolutions stick.

14. Oh! And, have fun……

Related posts:

1. The true meaning of Christmas is lost in an ocean of marketing mania, purchasing pillages and food fests
2. Celebrations Are Not A Reason To Eat More

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Post tags: Christmas binge, exercise and weight loss, holiday bulge, losing weight on Christmas, the psychology of weight loss, weight loss

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And, the culprit? Cortisol.

Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone and is secreted by the adrenal glands in response to stress.

It may surprise you, but the body interprets high intensity, frequent exercise as a stress.

Exercising too much, too often, & without a break, leads to consistent high cortisol levels, and can negatively affect weight loss attempts.

How does this come about?

Under stress, cortisol functions to help the body produce blood sugar and pour it into your bloodstream. The blood glucose provides you with the energy to mobilise your “fight or flight” response.

Scientists believe that in prehistoric times, the “flight or fight” response was designed to facilitate an intense physical effort, such as “fighting” your attacker or taking “flight” from a threat such as removing yourself from the path of a t-rex.

While in emergency situations our stress response is vital and valuable, in modern times, our stress response is often activated in situations where the response is not useful such as when you miss the bus, or when your boss upsets you. Our prevailing social and legal norms don’t encourage us to physically hit or verbally abuse people who upset us because we could be up for an assault or bullying charge!

The bad news for weight losers under chronic stress whether this stress be exercise-induced or otherwise, is that the blood sugar build-up stimulated by cortisol, if not utilised to fight or flee, is deposited as fat.

As well as causing fat gain, especially around the stomach, chronically elevated cortisol levels lead to:

• muscle loss (lowering your metabolism),
• a less effective immune system, and
• slower recovery from injury.

Cortisol can also inhibit thyroid function, which also lowers metabolism and prevents weight loss.

So, if you already have a stressful job on top of a stressful life juggling work, family and other commitments, too much exercise will only contribute to the maintenance of high cortisol levels, encouraging you to hold onto your fat.

And what’s worse, research shows that people with high lifestyle stress release MORE cortisol during an intense bout of exercise than someone who has a lower stress level.

The solution to the effect of stress in relation to weight loss is to create more balance in our lives and reduce both our stress levels, and our response to stress (ie don’t react in the first place).

So, how does stress affect appetite?

High blood cortisol, brought on by high stress levels, not only increases the production of blood sugar, it can stimulate our appetite, particularly for carbohydrates, fat, & sugar. One of the major excuses weight losers give for ‘giving up’ on their weight loss programs is ‘they were stressed’ and turned to food for comfort. Emotional eating is a major obstacle to weight loss so learning non-food related ways to manage stress is essential for those who wish to lose weight and keep it off.

There is also a relationship between stress and gender-based coping styles & eating behaviours

On top of these biological changes, we know that some people, especially men, cope with stress via social withdrawal, substance abuse, including food & alcohol, and aggression.

The easiest way to put on weight is to drink it one. Alcohol is 7 kilocalories or 29 kilojoules per gram and unfortunately we can drink a lot more than we can eat. While fat is more fattening (37 kilojoules or 9 kilocalories per gram), we aren’t going to sit down and drink cup after cup of fat. Watching what we drink be it juice, cordial, alcohol, or even milk, is a non-negotiable step in losing weight and keeping it off. And, of course, it will come of no surprise to learn that drinking either alcohol or soft drink does not “fix” your stress; it will likely just cause more!

Women tend to cope with their stress by “tending & befriending” their female friends, which may or may not involve food. The recommendation of course is going to be obvious. Talk and walk; don’t eat your problems away.

Most weight losers would have to admit that one of their main reasons for not losing weight is because of stress and/or emotional eating.

We were designed for short adrenaline and cortisol bursts to mobilise our “fight or flight” response, NOT the prolonged stress associated with modern-day life.

Apart from the disruptions it causes to our weight loss and metabolism, stress also disrupts our sexual response. Libido’s wane and sexual arousal is harder to maintain.

Chronic stress also contributes to gastro-intestinal changes including diarrhoea, constipation, bloating, reflux, flatulence and abdominal pain.

And, the solution is obvious. Manage stress for better sex, improved coping, a more normal appetite control and a happier gastro-intestinal tract.

Stress also affects sleep. High cortisol levels lead to restless sleep, which also negatively impacts on weight loss. We need sufficient relaxation and sleep to produce enough growth hormone. Growth hormone is involved in fat mobilisation and helps make us leaner and stronger.

The effects of not enough sleep on obesity is also at least partly due to the the hormones leptin (leptin has a role in hunger control) and ghrelin (grehlin triggers hunger). One study has shown that people who slept only 4 hours a night for 2 nights saw an 18% decrease in levels of leptin, & a 28% increase in ghrelin. They also had a 24% increase in appetite, craved sweet, starchy and salty food, and lost interest in fruit, vegetables, protein and dairy products.

Again, the solution is obvious. Sleep 7-8 hours every night.

Recent research has suggested that supplementing the diet with fish oils can reduce cortisol levels.

6 Recommendations to Optimise Weight Loss:

1) Optimise exercise, but with the following caveats in mind:

• Exercise but ensure down times  between intense exercise sessions
• Mix up your workouts. For every hard workout with strenuous cardio and weights, do two easy days, either resting or doing yoga, gentle cycling or walking, keeping your heart rate below 70 beats per minute.
• For every 3-4 weeks of exercise, have an “unloading week” that perhaps includes massage, gentle yoga-type exercises, walking, gentle cycling and stretching. When you head back to the gym, your body will be fully rested and you will be able to train harder, which will mean greater weight loss and an improvement in strength.

2) Manage stress in the following ways:

• Identify your stressors
• Learn & implement stress management strategies such as breathing techniques & stretching
• Monitor stress levels

3) Optimise your home-work balance

4) Take fish oil supplements

5) Have adequate sleep, remembering you need more in winter

6) Embrace positive psychology by

• Firstly, keeping a gratitude journal. On a daily basis, write down 3 things that have gone well and that you are grateful for
• Secondly, by focusing on positive events & feelings because this has been clinically proved to reduce stress and elevate mood

Photo credit:  sxc.hu

Related posts:

1. A Bit of Motivation from Buddha for Those Who Have Lost Their Weight Loss Mojo or Think Losing Weight is Just Too Hard
2. Is Cutting Calories Sufficient for Weight Loss?
3. To Add Years To Your Life You Need to Exercise – Here’s Why!

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Post tags: how stress affects weight, over-exercise, stress and eating, stress and exercise, stress and weight, stress and weight loss

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Get Off the Couch!

Many people say time appears to be moving faster, and they feel older than they are.

They complain about their knees, lower back, feet and energy levels when they are overweight.

They say their bodily ailments are a constant reminder of their age!

Many studies have proven a commonly held belief – to add years to your life you need to exercise!

For example, researchers at the King’s College in London measured the length of telomeres – the DNA cap at the end of your chromosomes – in 2401 twins. These ‘DNA bookends’ shorten each time your cells divide. When they become too short, the cell cannot reproduce, making you frail and aged.

If you don’t exercise enough in your spare time, you are likely to have shorter telomeres and overall, your biology is a decade older than people who are active!

Not getting enough activity shortens telomeres regardless of whether you smoke, are overweight, or already have a chronic disease. This adds support to the ‘fit but fat’ rule in health promotion – more activity improves your health regardless of how much you weigh and your other health behaviours!

So, the moral of the story is – better to be fit and fat, then slim and not fit!

But some may say, I get my exercise at work!

Many people justify not doing regular exercise because they think they get enough exercise or activity at work – lifting, walking, carrying etc. But unfortunately, slogging away in manual jobs tends to shorten telomeres because of work-related psychological stress. The results show that exercise alleviates stress and benefits your DNA only if you do it as part of your leisure.

But it’s in my genes some may say, not because I exercise!

Twins share both their genes and environment. The research at King’s College in London was able to show that twins who did more exercise had significantly longer telomeres than their twin who did less exercise, throwing the ‘it’s in my genes’ theory out the window.

Regardless of your genetic background, your health is in your hands!

Getting active is the key

What we do know is that exercise can slow down the shortening of your telomeres, even if you’ve been a couch potato in the past. These days, we spend loads of money on dietary supplements and meal replacements in the hope of losing weight and slowing down the ageing process. This research shows that the easiest way is to get out for a walk and do your mind, body, and spirit a favour for life!

“The U.S. guidelines recommend that 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity at least five days a week can have significant health benefits,” the authors write. “Our results underscore the vital importance of these guidelines. They show that adults who partake in regular physical activity are biologically younger than sedentary individuals. This conclusion provides a powerful message that could be used by clinicians to promote the potential anti-aging effect of regular exercise.”

Ref: Tim Spector et al, Arch Intern Med. 2008;168[2]:154-158.

“Motivation doesn’t last, and neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily!”

So, GET MOTIVATED & STAY MOTIVATED with DietPsyche!

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Related posts:

1. How Stress & Over-exercise Can Prevent Weight-Loss

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Post tags: Exercise, exercise and anti-ageing, exercise for weight loss, weight loss, why I need to exercise

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