Could You Be Stressing Yourself Fat?

This is a guest post by Andray Voronov of Achilles Active Performance Coaching

It’s that hour of the day again, lunch. You’ve spent the entire morning watching the clock and checking Facebook for a new poke or two behind the bosses back. Panicking when footsteps thump down the corridor. Now it’s time to go for that lunchtime run you’ve had planned. Time to reverse the damage caused by the weekend indulgence.

While sweating profusely on the tready you congratulate yourself – this is the first time you’ve actually stuck with an exercise routine for longer than 2 days. Not only that, but you’ve been coming in everyday, bashing the belt for a good 45 minutes, and then returning after work to partake in the deafening roar which is group exercise. Pretty good, if you do say so yourself.

You return home after a long day at work and gym, with the still-lingering sound of the boss harassing you for his monthly finance report in your ears. You’re looking forward to relaxing but decide to quickly check in on your weight loss progress before doing so. You step on the scale and it hasn’t budged a millimetre. You’re understandably disheartened (to put it mildly).

“Why haven’t I lost weight?” you ask yourself.

The answer is no secret. It’s just that you may not have realised how powerful this everyday thing is. It’s called stress and can – regardless of how much you exercise or what you eat – cause you to remain unhealthy, unhappy, and overweight.

It’s been said time and time again. Don’t stress. But do you really know why you’ve been told this? Well here’s where you find out.

You see, it all begins with the basic functions of your body. Evolved over millions of years, the human body has dealt with gruelling circumstances from the beginning of time. Lack of food, disease, war, security, financial stability and relationships are all stressors faced by humans throughout every passing century. The most significant stressor is food, or lack thereof.

Ever heard of the theory “Energy in vs energy out”?

What this basically means is, you should exercise enough to burn off more energy than what you consume. Now this approach is not without it’s flaws because the truth is that the less you eat the more stressed your body becomes. This is due to your bodies’ inability to know that you’re now living in the 21st century, where food is readily available. In years gone by we had to hunt for our food, which would mean not eating for days on end. This natural fasting process caused an important reaction from your Autonomic Nervous System. Namely, your very smart body put steps in place to increase the quantity and density of your fat cells. The added body fat could be stored for survival and later use. After all, who knew when you would catch your next boar?

One unfortunate fact about this “security” mechanism is that the female body has a far greater efficiency in storing fat than the male. This is due to the natural cycle of life. Women are the givers of life, and therefore the future of the human race. Men matter less when it comes to survival of the species.

When you put all that together and think about the way your body reacts to daily treadmill-belting combined with a lowered food intake, can you see how your hard work and determination could actually be causing you to keep body fat on, or worse, even store more? Scary, huh? In order to reverse this unavoidable natural process be sure to include regular weight training in your exercise regime (this will increase your metabolic rate), and pay attention to addressing your body’s nutrient requirements as discussed throughout this program. By eating sufficient protein, fat and carbs for your needs your body will feel ‘reassured’ that survival is not threatened and will therefore release stored energy (that’s fat!)

Andray

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