If You Want to Lose Weight, Calm Down -- 10 Stress-Management Strategies

A number of studies show that stress not only leads to weight gain, but it also inhibits weight loss in people who are seemingly doing everything right. For example, a recent study published in the journal Hormones found that chronic stress leads to overeating, co-elevation of cortisol and insulin, and suppression of certain anabolic hormones that lead to abdominal fat and increased inflammation. Insulin spikes are also known to inhibit fat burning. Another study found that stress can make it difficult to lose weight because of the complex metabolic effects it triggers.

So if you want to lose weight or avoid weight gain, one step is to get a handle on your stress. Sounds good, but what do you do when you're facing a really difficult problem and it's stressing you out? Here are some simple ways to manage the stress, calm down, and turn your fat-burning machine back on.

You now have more than enough strategies to help you calm down. Try as many of these as you can until you really get the hang of calming down. Once you get really good at managing your stress, your weight-loss and weight-maintenance goals may be much easier to achieve.

For more by Brant Secunda and Mark Allen, click here.

For more on stress, click here.

For more on mindfulness, click here.

 

Comments

[lilypuff]

09:47 PM on 04/19/2012

Exercising is a great way to start the stress reducing process. Once you do something that makes you feel better and feel less stressed, its a great feeling and motivates you too keep doing what your doing and then you will want to even more to better yourself further. Its always a good thing if you can relieve stress in a natural way!
http://naturalstressreliefsolutions.com

[jozey57]

09:13 PM on 02/25/2012

I find that interacting with the community and some members of my family cause so much stress that solitude is a blessing. Call me a loner but my life is easier by far without the drama.

[Nazaria]

06:49 PM on 02/25/2012

Good article. Change what you can, learn positive ways to deal with the things you can't.

[sjk09s]

05:38 PM on 02/25/2012

I actually find when I'm extremely stressed I lose weight - and quickly! And I don't even try. When I got divorced I lost 15 lbs, and when I have a stressful week I lose about 3 lbs in one week. Haven't you guys noticed a recently divorced person who all of a sudden looks pretty skinny? Stress.

[William Anderson LMHC]

09:26 AM on 02/24/2012

These are all good ideas, but it helps to understand that many overweight people have become dependent on eating as a stress management technique, like an addiction. They need to become dependent on a different one before they can lessen their dependence on food and gain control of their eating impulses.

This is why relaxation training, instruction and practice of a new meditation, is a part of effective behavior therapy for weight loss. Eating is a powerful meditation, the food focus a powerful mantra, involving all the senses. It takes you out of this world. Almost nothing works as well, but some work well enough to break the dependence on food.

I lost 140 pounds after 25 years of obesity and failure with diets when I discovered the solution as a behavior therapist and addictions counselor. I've maintained my ideal body weight and been helping others for the last 25 years. Please take a look at my website, and my work.

William Anderson, LMHC
Author of 'The Anderson Method - Secrets of Permanent Weight Loss'
www.TheAndersonMethod.com

[crazyryou]

07:12 PM on 02/25/2012

I began learning Tai Chi to take my mind off of food and put the focus somewhere else instead of the refrigerator.

[William Anderson LMHC]

08:31 PM on 02/25/2012

Excellent! You got it!

[RichardKuhns]

10:59 PM on 02/23/2012

How one handles stress creates emotions. The problem is that because most of us have more training and experience in avoiding or pretending we don't have emotion--particularly anger, boredom, confusion, and even uncertainty the emotions create stress themselves which leads to the need to soothe and eating is a great way to soothe emotions. Even emotions such as happiness are a result of a particular kind of stress--it's called eustress. If you google "scale conspiracy" you can find more information.

[Eden Godsoe]

08:16 PM on 02/23/2012

These are ok but someone generic. A little like saying reduce stress by stressing less. I do believe that staying still and stressing drives weight gain but thought this list from a professional body sculpter (still figuring out what that means) was really good in sharing practical advice.

10 Ways to Lose 5 Pounds without Dieting
http://www.skinnyscoop.com/list/bodysculpter/10-ways-to-lose-5-pounds-without-dieting

[dawglover704]

05:14 PM on 02/23/2012

I used to take a walk every night after a long day.
It would relax me and give me some exercise

[Callyson]

01:33 PM on 02/23/2012

Excellent tips, especially #3. Downloaded them all and will consult them regularly.

[livingbettertherapy]

01:00 PM on 02/23/2012

One way to reduce stress to enhance your weight management is to be careless. I don't mean that you should be sloppy or take unnecessary risks; you should simply care less about things beyond your control. If you can do something about a problem, don't worry about it- start doing what you can without whining that you have to do x, y or z. You don't have to be the solution; you have the privilege of being the solution. If you can't do something about a problem, don't worry about it-it's probably not your problem or responsibility.

[Cognitivebehavioralellen]

09:50 AM on 02/23/2012

Excellent article!