Stress and Metabolism
Is stress impacting your fat loss efforts?
“Stress management” and “self-care” are two things that have been talked about a lot more recently, almost trendy right? But honestly, it makes sense with everything that has happened over the past couple years… But did you know your stress not only impacts your mental health but your physical health too? And even can impact your metabolism and weight loss efforts too.
It does this in a several different ways, but for today we’ll be focused on two: minerals and cortisol.
Let’s break these down:
You burn through way more minerals!
When your body is stressed it will burn through some nutrients a bit quicker. Things like sodium, potassium, magnesium and vitamin C are all used up at a higher rate and therefore needed more during times of high stress. I see this show up often with my clients, especially when we do a hair mineral analysis test we see that if they’ve been stressed for awhile their minerals are drained! And need some major support.
Stress hormones can skyrocket (or tank)
Cortisol is one of our stress hormones and usually gets a bad reputation, but actually plays a really important role. We need cortisol to live, it helps keep us alive in stressful situations, keeps our blood sugar from dropping too low, helps wake us up in the morning and much more. However if it starts to get high and stay that way it can start to negatively impact our metabolism and fat loss efforts.
Let’s go through a scenario to talk about how.
You are waking up at the crack of dawn to get your workout in before heading off to your demanding full time job (this includes being a full time mom). You want to lose weight and you just don’t have time to stop so you skip lunch and fill up on caffeine to keep focused. Then finally after a long day you head home to relax but only to stay up late watching Netflix which means you end up getting less than 7 hours of sleep because of course you’re waking up to start the same routine all over again. Does any of this sound familiar to you?
The thing is all of those are stressors on the body:
The demanding job
Skipping meals
Prioritizing sleep over exercise
Too much caffeine
And even the extra blue light at night
So this routine day in and day out can be taxing on the body causing it to produce more and more cortisol and burning through those minerals like crazy.
Depleted minerals and imbalance stress hormones can lead to a number of different things, but a few ways it will impact your health goals are:
Blood sugar dysregulation
Remember when I mentioned earlier we can’t live without cortisol? One of the reasons for that is its role in blood sugar regulation. When our blood sugar starts to drop too low or when we go long periods of time without eating, cortisol has your back. It is responsible for mobilizing stored energy into the blood for immediate use. This can be life saving. However if it is chronic it can lead to blood sugar swings, high blood sugar and insulin resistance.
Cravings
Along with the blood sugar dysregulation and cortisol’s role to increase blood sugar comes cravings, usually for sweets and starches. This is because the body is in a state of panic thinking that it needs energy and needs energy FAST! And carbohydrates and sugar are the quickest form of energy we can get from food. Therefore this can lead to eating a little more sweets and carbohydrates than you might not otherwise.
Break down of muscle/increase in body fat storage
Muscle mass is extremely important for our metabolic health. And if fat loss or “looking toned” is something you are looking for, you want more muscle mass. The thing is though that cortisol can prevent you from building up that muscle and actually cause some of it to break down. This is because again, our body thinks it needs energy now, so it is going to break down muscle mass to be turned into energy. Along with this comes increased body fat storage.
High cortisol = more body fat storage. Unfortunately this fat is usually stored in the form of visceral fat. This is the fat around our vital organs that has been shown to be more metabolically active, in a not so good way. That is why many people notice weight gain around their midsection when stress is high.
Now I’m not saying all this to cause you stress over how much stress you have. Some stress can actually be beneficial, however it's the chronic high levels of stress that can become problematic. If you suspect stress is impacting your metabolism and fat loss, apply for a call to see how you can have a plan to manage your stress and reach your nutrition goals!