Weight loss and stress

kasey39

Not that it's an excuse, but has anyone out there struggled with weight loss due to stress, and how did you overcome that (more specific than the obvious...deal with the stress appropriately!)

MelanieCN77

I actually find that the ritual and routine of taking care of my activity and diet helps me feel more in control and there's less room for anxiety about other things. It's a tool in and of itself.

laurenebargar

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

I actually find that the ritual and routine of taking care of my activity and diet helps me feel more in control and there's less room for anxiety about other things. It's a tool in and of itself.

I agree 100% I'm currently working full time, going to school full time (18 credit hours) taking care of my house, dog, and loosing weight. Sometimes I feel like giving up on my diet, but once I get up and actually go for a walk or go to the gym I wind up feeling 100% better.

Comparing this year @ currently 169 to last year at 220 I would say that my stress level/ way of dealing with stress is down considerably. Once you get into the swing of things I really think that weight loss and activity have a significant impact on stress.

ahoy_m8

I'm not sure what you mean, OP, but I do have experience with emotional eating -- eating to soothe stress (and other feelings) rather than because of hunger. A couple things have helped.

1) adequate nutrition and sleep
2) pre-planning meals for the day (adequate calories, good macro balance)
3) greater self awareness of my urge to eat vs. actual hunger. When I find myself wanting to eat something not on plan I ask, "Is this actual hunger or is it arising from some feeling?"
4) greater self awareness of my feelings. Sometimes you just have to sit with the feelings, acknowledge them intellectually but also just feel them without rushing/stuffing them. Sometimes it helps to acknowledge them to a friend. E.g. almost everyone in the course of normal conversation throws out a "How are things?" Sometimes it helps to respond, "I have a little sadness that caught me by surprise. These 3 things happened so it makes sense, but it still caught me a little off guard." Just giving voice to it, and the empathy of friends, is soothing too.
5) other forms of self care. For me, that's exercise, a hot bath, solitude, gratitude.

Specifically regarding stress, being aware of and grateful for the stressors that are NOT in my life -- a bad diagnosis, chronic pain, looming deadlines, kids in jail, etc.-- can put things in perspective.

If your question is more about the chemistry of cortisol, that would go back to enough sleep and fat in your diet. And of course the obvious dealing with the source.

maggibailey

I agree that it is a stress reducer to have that area I can control and that has pretty consistent results. When everything else in my life is shot to hell I can focus and take comfort in something going right. That being said if this is not a working solution for you finding ways to distract yourself, hobbies to keep your humans and mind busy might be better.

Rosemary7391

I managed to eliminate one source of stress that was particularly frustrating (the sort where nothing you do is right) - having done that I can now deal with all the other stressful things much more positively. So it can snowball once you get past a tipping point!

Getting organised helps, so I'm not flapping about overdue things. Learning to let go and leave behind mistakes. Whatever "looking after yourself" means to you - for me, it includes music, prayer, craft and I've managed to make running a part of that too Also, looking at things as a work in progress - for example, instead of getting stressed about my flat being a tip, I look at the bag of stuff waiting to go out to the bin/charity shop and focus on what I have done rather than what I haven't. And I keep count of what I've done, because feeling like I'm achieving something is really helpful

kasey39

I was just curious, because it has been suggested that stress can affect weight loss in a negative way, not necessarily because of stress eating itself, but the body just doesn't cooperate and hangs onto the pounds, and I wondered if anyone had experienced that. Thank you for all the suggestions! It is pretty stressful at home right now, and even with walking during lunch most days (either 1 or 1.5 miles) somehow last week I gained 7 lbs in 2 days. I've never even gained water like that, and it took me up to a new high. My calorie counts aren't perfect at dinner so I don't expect to be losing 10lbs a week, but I shouldn't still be gaining. I'm going nowhere fast, and do have a lot of stress right now, and this ironically adds to it. My thyroid numbers finally leveled out at my last lab, so maybe I still need to be patient with that too (had half my thyroid removed last year.) I don't eat perfect, but I also don't eat to the point I should still be gaining. My PA may have me visit endo just to make sure there isn't something else going on, but I was curious about the stress factor as well.

jelleigh

From what I understand, stress increases cortisol which is a steroid hormone that aids in the metabolism of fat, protein, and carbs. Quote from wiki on it "Several studies have shown that cortisol can have a lipolytic effect (promote the breakdown of fat). Under some conditions, however, cortisol may somewhat suppress lipolysis.". Meaning for some people , stress might aid in breaking down fat, for others it's the opposite.

But it doesn't negate CICO. In my experience, it just took a bit longer to see the results I was expecting. As in, I needed three to six weeks of a consistent routine before I started dropping in the expected fashion. (Water retention issues I think. Interesting that cortisol promotes sodium absorption , which would 8ncrease water retention )

I think generally what happens with stressful life situations is that we make poorer food choices because we don't feel we have the brain space to devote to health. And comfot eating is a thing. But for me, making changes and seeing results actually lessened my stress.

MegaMooseEsq

Just a personal example, but I didn’t lose as expected the first week of the California Wine Country wildfires - I don’t live there but grew up there and had family and friends in danger. I was sleeping for crap too. Once things calmed down the next week the weight did drop off as expected.

ahoy_m8

Cortisol promotes water retention which can mask weight loss, depending on the time period that you haven't seen loss expected. E.g. I can maintain a steady deficit and see no significant scale movement for 3 weeks. Then over a couple days, whoosh, 3 weeks worth of loss. So it ends up as expected but not in a linear fashion. This tends to coincide with my menstrual cycle with the whoosh slightly after follicle rupture rather than with stress of any kind, but the point it, there can be several factors at play. Adequate sleep and nutrition help everything.