Key to successful weight loss

SemperFi

Well-known member

When we are talking about weight loss and weight management, in all but a few rare cases, we are all talking about getting rid of excess and unneeded body fat. I know of no one who is wanting to control their weight by reducing healthy muscle mass. ;)

Any successful weight loss/weight management program must include a healthy lifestyle. We cannot expect to achieve the desired goal if we are not willing to make changes, in some cases extreme, in all areas of our life.

The single largest contributing factor to controlling and reducing body fat is stress management. Most of us, stress is a fact of life. Unfortunately, research reveals that it's also a fact of fat. Even if you usually eat well and exercise chronic high stress can prevent you from losing weight—or even add pounds.

When you have stress, your body releases certain survival stress hormones that are produced in the adrenal glands: cortisol, norepinephrine and epinephrine. When you first get stressed, these hormones kick into gear. Norepinephrine tells your body to stop producing insulin so that you can have plenty of fast-acting blood glucose ready. Epinephrine will relax the muscles in your stomach and intestines and decrease blood flow to these organs. Once the stressor has passed, cortisol tells the body to stop producing these hormones and to go back to digesting regularly. It's normal for your cortisol levels to go up and down throughout the day, but when you are chronically stressed your cortisol level goes up — and stays there.

When your stressed and cortisol levels are high, the body actually resists weight loss. Your body thinks times are hard and you might starve, so it hoards the fat you eat or have present on your body. Cortisol tends to retain and add fat in the abdomen which has more cortisol receptors. In the process, it turns healthy peripheral fat into unhealthy visceral fat that increases inflammation and insulin resistance in the body. This belly fat then leads to more cortisol because it has higher concentrations of an enzyme that converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol. The more belly fat you have, the more active cortisol will be converted by these enzymes — yet another vicious cycle created by visceral fat.

So how do we break this vicious cycle? In simple words we need to properly manage stress in our life. Easier said than done right?!

The key to stress management is different for each and every individual. There is simply no magic bullet. 

In the forum training section I provided a post concerning the importance of sleep and how it effects our body and the negative impact that stress and cortisol release has on the body.

If you want want to be more successful in your weight loss consider taking a different approach rather than simply focusing on diet, exercise and cardio. These are all very beneficial and necessary to a successful plan but are only treating the symptoms to weight management. Any long term successful weight management program needs to focus more on the root cause of the condition.... stress.

SEMPER FI

 

TKC432

New member

Nailed it!  Stress is the single biggest factor in my life that is making it hard to reach my bodyfat% goals.  I know it.  Won't go into detail but suffice it to say that the last 5 years of my life have been the most insanely stressful ..... and I am still trying to find that balance and the way to properly manage my stress so that I can get to where I want to be.  I have been through hell and back and seem to have been damaged significantly during the process.  I used to be able to handle things better ....  I used to think that I would stop stressing so much when the things in my life causing the stress went away.  I have since learned that there will always be something in my life causing stress and its more about finding the proper method to manage it.  Still working at it today.  Years ago I was guilty of self medicating to deal with it .... only causing myself more harm than good.   I sleep about 6-7 hours a night and always wake up tired .... for some reason I don't get enough quality sleep.  I know this only makes my stress that much worse.  I am making small positive steps each day towards reducing my stress levels .... I will get there.  This post really nailed it

 

Blahblah

New member

I've been thinking about searching, or starting a thread on Marijuana in general, but this looks good.

My state has recently legalized marijuana for recreational use.  Obviously this is fantastic for getting that appetite up to pack on some weight, but I have been thinking about the sleep and de-stressing benefits it might bring to the table as well.

How do you guys see marijuana use fitting into bodybuilding/strength training/ etc. Pros/Cons?

 

swolesam

Member

Love this post. Stress is literally a KILLER, simply because it affects the release of MANY hormones in the body causing hormone imbalances, and severe suppression in some hormones that can cause health problems and def weight issues.

I was reading about Stress and its role in somatostatin regulation/de-regulation. First off, if you're not familiar with somatostatin, here'a a short intro that explains its inhibitory nature:

http://www.hormone.org/hormones-and-health/what-do-hormones-do/somatostatin

This research shows how Chronic Mild Stress (CMS) impacts Somatostatin receptors in the brain:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4700104/

Very informative in regards to the impact on HGH in the body & Insulin.

 
B

bigmurph

Guest

This is the truth I see guys in my industry that are always stressing everything. Those are the guys and girls that tend to hold alot of fat around the midsection. Its amazing how much stress really affects our bodies. Getting good sleep is mandatory for everyone but especially for guys and girls like us working out heavy and training hard. Great read+1

 

Jl4cf

New member

We'll have gone from 280 down to 270 in two months but feeling a little sluggish, have to make myself workout, damn this age, back in the day I had enough energy to move a train.

 

 
Top