Fight the Enemies of Weight Loss - Fatigue, Stress, and Overeating!

Just the word ‘stress’ alone can make you feel stressed out. If you’re trying to lose weight, anxiety, and nervousness are the last things you need to live happily. Not only is it harder to stay away from sugary and fatty foods under tension, but research also shows that your reaction also makes it harder for your body to lose weight. It is because your brain is constantly your fears and worries, even when they don’t exist.

The other end of the bargain is called fatigue, the feeling of tiredness. It may or may not result from stress and could occur due to excessive physical or mental work. Its symptoms are headache, tiredness, aching muscles, soreness, weaker reflexes, and lowered energy levels. It may also cause you to sleep and eat more than usual.

Overeating or binge eating is more common than the above two phenomena. It usually affects all of us at some time in a month, especially when we are enjoying any festive occasion or social get-togethers with our friends. Most of us tend to eat and drink more than necessary, leading to a huge overload on the digestive system and can make the person quite ill. Some of its symptoms are nausea, hangover, weight gain, sugar or food cravings, and weak metabolism.

Let’s look at the factors in detail.

Stress and Weight Gain

Did you know that stress is related to 7 of the 10 most deadly diseases (like heart attack, cancer, and diabetes) in the United States? We do have a lot of stress factors in our daily personal and professional lives, and the economy, money, and family problems can only make it worse.

The key is to know that they should not be made an excuse to live overwhelmed.

We tend to fuss over a lot of things every day- most of the time without even knowing. For example, poor sleep is a major factor yet most people report not getting enough sleep. They don’t think it’s that important or just don’t know how much of an impact sleep can have on their well-being.

Effects of stress on the body

Cortisol, the so-called stress hormone, is released when your body receives a stressor and acts almost like a type of adrenalin. If you’ve heard of stress-hormone before, you probably know that it is bad even disastrous) for your physical and mental well-being.

It is a diurnal hormone, which means your levels of stress should peak in the morning (to help give you energy for the day) and slowly drop down as the day progresses so you can fall asleep at night and recharge for the next day.

The issue arises when these levels do not drop but rather increase through the day. This leads us to feel frustrated, angry, irritated, feel desperate or helpless, and worried. It can also cause an increase in blood pressure and blood sugar levels, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, and pains in several parts of the body.

Cortisol and fat loss

Symptoms and Causes of Overeating

Cortisol makes the body cells less responsive and makes it harder for them to lose weight. This hormone may also increase inflammation, even though its effect on different individuals is debated. Here’s a free resource that describes the relationship between stress and weight gain.

Fatigue and Weight Loss

Fatigue is a feeling of exhaustion, lethargy, tiredness which is different from stress and weakness. Unlike weakness, stress and fatigue can be alleviated by periods of rest. It can have both a physical and mental state of being tired and weak. Physical and mental fatigue are different but they can exist together. If a person is physically exhausted for a long time, they will also be mentally tired.

Fatigue includes inflammation, chronic pain, hormonal changes, anemia, poor sleep, depression, and stress. If you’re very stressed out and have trouble losing weight (even after trying a lot), your cortisol levels might be the culprit. It would also help you to exercise regularly and get enough sleep.

Overeating and Weight Gain

The love for eating often results in overeating. It is best identified with binge eating or eating uncontrollably even when not physically hungry. Eating much more rapidly than normal or eating alone due to shame and embarrassment. Here’s a free resource explaining to you now about the number of calories that you actually need in a day.

Laziness too is to blame for overeating and accompanying weight issues in a majority of cases wherein people just "give up” their right to choose their food consumption and weight. A lack of this willpower drives the truck opposite to moderation, weight loss, and overall health. Lazy and undisciplined people often take the shorter path for their cravings and this only backfires sooner than they had expected.

How to Lose Weight Faster?

Losing weight is a result of many conscious decisions. A professional nutritionist can help you make a better decision about your lifestyle and your dietary practices. She can also help you make a transition from a more stressful and indulgent lifestyle to one that’s tension-free and has a disciplined way of eating. All this counts towards living healthy and living free.

In addition to them, here are a few more smart ways that you can follow to live a stress-free life:

Be particular about your choices

When choosing the food items be particular to select those options which will help you feel and satiated. To simplify the selection process you can go for foods with complex carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. These food choices make your body feel full for a longer duration as the body needs more time to digest them.

Listen to Your Body

Listen to your body signals and don’t confuse hunger with boredom. Generally, compulsive eating results from boredom and leads to the consumption of unnecessary calories. When you feel hungry, first have a glass of water and then rethink if you are still hungry enough to go snacking.

To avoid overeating, ask yourself if you are truly hungry or are you bored? If you aren’t sure, you should try something else. You may read a book, do some housework or go for a walk. If you don’t feel hungry during the activity, you probably do not need to eat anything.

Stay Satiated

The best way to avoid overindulgence and overeating is to feed yourself nutrient-dense foods. The more energized and satiated you feel the less likely you are to overeat. 15 minutes before you sit to eat food drink a full glass of water as it will help you feel less hungry and signal your brain to eat a healthier meal and curb your cravings for unhealthy and greasy food options.

It is also important to spend that energy on tasks more meaningful. For example, you can join Zumba classes or have some yoga classes for the best results. They are all available online from qualified trainers and you can get on with them from your smartphone.

Say no to Trigger Foods

To avoid overeating it is strictly recommended to keep trigger foods out of sight. Trigger foods indicate your favorite food options. You are more likely to go towards overeating mostly on your favorite foods. For example, if chocolates are your guilty pleasure avoid storing them in the refrigerator.

Also read: What foods make you fat (and what are their alternatives)?

If you do not have the food near you, you are less tempted to eat it. If you find yourself driving to the grocery store to buy the same, don’t forget to remind yourself as to why you are dieting and what you have to gain in the long term to stop yourself from indulging in unhealthier practices.

Plan about long term in advance

Indulgence in simple words is an action for quick gratification. To avoid this, it is advised to have a well-defined plan for the future to minimize the occurrence of any uncertainty. Further, thinking about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and keeping inspiration for your goals in your kitchen will be helpful when you are having a weak moment of craving. This will help in lowering the chances of overeating.

A little bit of even these three limiting factors is good because it propels us to be our best but the issue arises when we take it too far. The key is to understand where the trio is causing health issues to the extent of self-harm, and we should stop before that.

We recommend you get some help from a virtual health professional. It can be availed of from your smartphone through audio-video conferencing sessions using an app-based interface and is available on-demand. You won’t need to make any appointments or fill any paperwork for the setup to work, and you can get all that at a fraction of the cost that you’d pay to your local healthcare expert.

You could be just one step away from making a positive change to your life- and let your weight loss results show it!