Reducing
Cortisol Levels Can Help You To Lose Weight
Women's
Health and Fitness - Reducing Cortisol Levels Can Help You To Lose Weight
It is now known that stress can actually stop you
losing weight especially around your middle. Stress can cause your body to
secrete high levels of cortisol hormone into your bloodstream, because of your
body's "flight or fight" response to stress. Stress can be either
psychological (mental and emotional) or physical.
Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands and is
actually important for the regulation of blood pressure, the immune system and
many other functions. Cortisol can be good in small amounts but high levels can
lead to an increase of abdominal fat, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes
and can also increase your bad cholesterol levels and decrease your good
cholesterol levels.
High levels of cortisol can also decrease your bone
density, leading to osteoporosis and loss of muscle tissue, which will also
slow down your metabolic rate, and it can also increase your blood pressure
along with other problems.
Each of you will react differently to stress; some
of you will produce more cortisol to a particular stress while others will
produce less. It has been found that those of you that produce more cortisol
will actually eat more food as well, in particular carbohydrates.
What you need to do to combat producing too much
cortisol is to learn ways to relax and also to maybe change your lifestyle.
Relaxation can be achieved in a number of ways
either by exercising, mediation, yoga or breathing to start with.
Maybe one of the easiest and simplest ways is
breathing. This is done by gently breathing in through the nose, gently
expanding your abdomen and then gently expelling the air through your nose
pulling in your abdomen at the same time. Whilst breathing out the air you need
to focus on that breath. After several breaths in and out you should start to
feel yourself relax. You need to practice doing this exercise a few minutes a
day to start with building up to five minutes in the end. You can also practice
this when you are feeling stressed or when things are getting on top of you.
Just a few minutes can slow your body down and help it to feel relax.
Life style changes can be like changing your eating
habits for a healthier diet, getting enough sleep, or even organizing your time
more efficiently so that you do not feel so stressed. Also looking after your
body will help your body to cope with stresses that you come across during your
day.
So if you are exercising frequently and eating
properly but still not losing any weight especially from around the middle then
maybe you are suffering from high levels of cortisol caused by stress. Look at
ways to solve the problem and hopefully then you should see a difference in
your weight and around your middle.
References:
Gill Webster
No comments:
Post a Comment