Being stressed can make you fat. FACT!

Majiri Otobo from LuvMeandMy

In our day-to-day hustle and bustle, we sometimes do not realise how dealing with, let’s call them life’s challenges, affects both our mind and body. Being calm not only gives you peace, but also triggers certain signals to your body allowing it to focus its energy on key body functions.

Evidently our body is an amazing machine designed by nature. Our buildings, jobs, cars, roads are all human construct that have effected the way we interact with our environment. Our bodies were designed for a world where there were potentially fewer things to be stressed over with more disastrous consequences.

So a bit of traffic or your boss being a bit of an @&£ would be significantly low on the stressor list in comparison to becoming Mufasa’s lunch (Mufasa, THE Lion King ….for adults who no longer use Disney references).

Survival would be the ultimate reason for stress if we lived like the cavemen did.  Our bodies, would therefore use the bio-chemical signals of stress to make sure it stores as much energy in our body as fat in order to prepare for the perceived threat of a “famine”. Therefore when we are stressed our bodies make us fatter to protect us.

Not only do we retain weight longer, the fact we are stressed increases certain hormones that actually drive us to eat more. Some of the hormones released are adrenalin and cortisol. A surge of adrenalin as a “fight or flight” response leaves you feeling more peckish than normal. This would have been useful if we are replenishing our energy sources after fighting Mufasa (Disney reference numero deux) but not if our stress is more psychological and we are not actually doing any physical activity to burn off the excess calories. Cortisol is also a fat retaining hormone when in excessive levels, which is often the case when one is stressed.

Feeling at peace as much as possible, no matter the situation, is beneficial for both our mind and body. Our day-to-day challenges are not going away, however how we process these challenges and our reactions to our problems are completely in our control.

So how do we deal with stress?

1) Exercise: such as Kickboxing, Yoga, Aerobics the stress away (all at the LuvMeandMy Studio, details below) will not only make you look great, but feel great. It’s hard to keep feeling angry when you are gasping for air J. The feel good endorphins help calm your mind, the most important thing is to get involved.

2) Write it out: This could be in a journal or a scrap piece of paper, which you can tear up. Writing allows you to release the thoughts from constantly rummaging through your mind while the act of tearing up the paper can represent letting go.

3) Sleep well: Get the 8 hours you need, let your body rejuvenate as lack of sleep in itself can cause the stress.

4) My personal tip: Chill out music, comedy and/or a scenic view. Buddha bar playlist on YouTube works wonders when I’m low.