Want To Build Belly Fat? Stay Stressed Out!
Belly fat just loves to feed off stress. And boy, do we give it plenty of food to grow on. Stress is one of those things in life that’s ok in small doses. It can actually be good for us in that it can motivate us to hit the gym, meditate, take yoga, finish an assignment or take on any number of tasks. It’s the constant doses of unreleased stress that’s the big problem. It increases belly fat and destroys health. Stress releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline which allow us to react quickly to a life threatening situation-like running from a tiger. It’s the old “fight or flight” phenomenon. Let’s face it though, how many times do we have to outrun a tiger. It’s after we get all worked up and stressed out and don’t have a way to release these hormones, that’s when the problems begin. Stress hormones increase our belly fat and start tearing us up. Imagine the woman who drags herself out of bed in the morning still drowsy from a night of too little sleep. She rushes to get the kids fed and off to school on time. Her breakfast is a cup or two of coffee. Just like she thought, traffic is a nightmare. She feels her blood pressure rising when she realizes that once again she’ll be late for work. She reports to a job she hates and coworkers she doesn’t want to spend the next 10-12 hours with. Lunch is fast food like every other day. Hating her job and her life she returns home depressed, tired and drained. Just in time to play mom and spouse because well, that’s her job. After helping to get the kids to bed she stumbles into bed dreading the fact that in too few short hours she’ll have to do this all over again.
…What happens in the mind of man is always reflected in the disease of his body….René Dubos According to The American Institute of Stress (AIS), a 1996 Prevention magazine survey found that almost 75% feel they have “great stress” one day a week with one out of three indicating they feel this way more than twice a week. Today, stress has become the #1 health problem in the US. It has been estimated that 75-90% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress related problems. More so than financial or family problems, job stress in the leading cause of stress in adults. In the 2000 annual “Attitudes in The American Workplace VI” it was found that 80% of workers feel stress on the job, nearly half say they need help managing it. Kids are also taking a licking from stress. Stress in kids is rising sharply. Things like peer and academic pressure; unhealthy life style habits; social isolation and loneliness; poor nutrition and the erosion of family and religious values all add to their rising stress levels.
Many of the effects of stress are related to the outpouring of cortisol, adrenaline and other stress related hormones. Cortisol has shown to increase dangerous belly fat which is also called “central fat.” This fat surrounds the organs. Cortisol has been shown to:
Whereas it is impossible to remove all stress from your life, there are many things you can do to reduce it. For example you can get more sleep, change jobs, avoid excess caffeine, exercise, eat properly, take nutritional supplements, lose belly fat, laugh, take up a hobby, volunteer in your community or join a group that nourishes you. Staying “stressed out” will make you unhealthier and fatter over time. If left unchecked it will wreck your health and increase belly fat which can have very dangerous consequences. You only have one life to live so why not have a long, happy and healthy one.
This Too Shall Pass
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