The Science of Chronic Stress and Weight Gain (Part 1)
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Are you feeling overwhelmed by stress and struggling to see results despite your best efforts in diet and exercise?
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, we dive into the intricate relationship between stress and weight gain. Chronic stress can disrupt not only our mental well-being but also our physical health, impacting our ability to achieve our desired body composition. Join us as we explore the science behind stress hormones and their effects on metabolism, blood sugar levels, and fat storage. Whether you're seeking to understand the science behind stress or looking for practical solutions to overcome barriers to progress, this episode offers guidance and support tailored to your health journey.
What I discuss:
Raised cortisol levels that trigger weight gain around the midsection
High blood sugar levels that triggers cravings and overeating
A slowed metabolism
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace a real let's get it. Let's go. [00:00:29]
[00:00:29] Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast. Really excited about today's bonus episode. It's going to be a part one of a two part series, and it's all about the science of chronic stress and weight gain. I get it, life throws curveballs all the time. Feeling stress is a normal reaction from our endless To-Do list our careers, personal goals, family responsibility all of it can pile up. But here's an important thing that you need to know about stress. When that stress becomes concerned, it's called chronic stress. Unfortunately, this type of stress can only have a serious impact on our mental health, but also our physical health, including our weight. And since many of you guys are on a journey towards building the body that you want, who tune in to this podcast, I kind of want to dive into the science behind stress and weight gain, so that you can have just a greater understanding of kind of what's going on inside of your body. This is so important because you can be working out consistently. You can be properly fueling your body through, you know, optimal macros. But if you don't get your stress under control, you will struggle to see the results that you want. And so, like I said, stay tuned. [00:01:38][68.7]
[00:01:38] This is going to be a part one of a two part series, and you're going to learn more science on chronic stress and kind of the link to weight gain. But before we dive in, I want to share this review that comes from Speak and Act in Faith, which I love that name. She gave a five star review and said, uplifting. I recently came across your podcast and I've seen a complete mindset shift. I love your upbeat personality. That makes me also want to be positive and talk positively about my body. I have also shared this podcast with a dear friend and she's also told me that she's loving it. Thank you so much for my mindset shift change. Thank you also for giving me the motivation to honor the body that God gave me. I love this so much. Thank you not only for tuning in, but also leaving your view and then sharing it with a friend. These are all things that just help the podcasts in our always. Our hope and our prayer is that we can reach as many women as possible in just education, empowerment, feeling encouraged on a week to week basis. So thank you. It really does mean a world to me and our team. If you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating and review, that would mean the absolute world to us. All you have to do is go to the podcast app and then you can type in embrace your real first. Make sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And then next, once you're on that Embrace Row page, you can scroll all the way down, leave a rating and review. And like I said, that just helps us out. [00:02:55][76.7]
[00:02:55] Kind of know how this podcast is helping you. And then also people who stumble upon the podcast, they typically read the reviews before they decide to tune in. So that will help people as well. Okay, so let's dive in to kind of explaining why stress and weight gain are so interconnected. Well, number one, you experience chronically high cortisol levels. So our bodies are kind of preprogramed. It has a preprogramed stress response, which is designed to help us deal with challenging situations that life is constantly throwing at us. Right. Here's kind of what exactly happens in our bodies when you experience stress. Your body releases a surge of hormones. Mostly the hormone that is released is called cortisol, which is often also referred to as kind of your fight or flight hormone. And this hormone prepares us to take action to either confront the threat, you know, the fight or flee from the danger, which is the flight. So again, it prepares us to take action to either confront the threat which is the fight, or to flee from danger, which is the flight. Cortisol plays a crucial role in this response, and that can be very beneficial, right? But when stress becomes chronic, our cortisol levels become too high and they stay too high for too long, which can actually wreak havoc on our hormonal balance. Plus, these elevated cortisol levels when maintained over long periods of time, they can actually promote fat storages, particularly around the midsection. So you could be doing all of the crunches, all of the planks, all of the mountain climbers, all of the core workouts, ab workouts that you want. But if you are in a chronic, a chronic state of stress, your body will likely hold on to a few pounds of fat around your belly. [00:04:38][102.7]
[00:04:39] And here's why cortisol and belly fat are linked. So when you have high cortisol levels, it's because our bodies think that we're in danger. And it basically, for lack of a better term, it needs to do the best that it can to preserve the body. So cortisol signals the body to break down muscle tissue and stores the extra energy as fat. And like I said, this fat unfortunately tends to accumulate around our lower belly. Number two boosted blood sugar levels. So aside from storing fat, cortisol can actually affect how our bodies handle blood sugar. It can lead to elevated blood sugar levels and impair insulin sensitivity, which I'm not going to dive into super deep right now into kind of blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in this episode. But I did want to mention it because it. This gaining a lot of popularity on social media right now and kind of in this health and wellness world and space. But essentially, when your blood sugar levels spike, you trigger a hunger response, even if your body isn't actually hungry. So it can lead you to overeating and setting yourself up for kind of this craving roller coaster for your entire day. People with balanced blood sugar levels, on the other hand, tend to experience less cravings, and it's easier for them to properly field their body through protein, carbs, and fats, to which then they have sustained energy throughout the day without experiencing these energy crashes. And number three, a slowed metabolism. So chronic stress can actually slow your metabolism down in a couple of ways, thanks in large part to the hormone cortisol, which we dove into in point number one today. But when your stress becomes chronic, your body will likely slow down the rate at which you burn calories. [00:06:21][101.9]
[00:06:21] And this means that even if you're consuming the same number of calories as before, your body will burn them less efficiently, which over time leads to gain weight, right? So this is part due to cortisol breaking down muscle tissue and muscle tissue burns more calories than fat storage. And this means that you'll burn fewer calories overall if you have less muscle. Actually just did a podcast episode talking about the importance of muscle, and especially building muscle as you age, and why it's a myth that, you know, oftentimes people say, well, oh, I'm getting older. So that's why my metabolism is slowing down. But oftentimes it's because they're not building enough muscle. And that is actually what's leading them and their metabolism to become less efficient. So just kind of scroll back through some of the episodes that I recently did, but you'll find a lot of kind of nitty gritty science in those episodes. But to kind of recap today's episode, chronic stress can lead to three things. Number one, raise cortisol levels that trigger weight gain, especially around the midsection. Number two, high blood sugar levels that trigger cravings and overeating and kind of that roller coaster that you'll find yourself on on a day to day basis. And number three, a slower, less efficient metabolism. So again you could be working out consistently. You can be nourishing your body with what it needs and still not see the results that you want because you're in this chronic state of stress. Stay tuned for part two. I'm going to go into and share a few more things of kind of what happens inside of your body when it is chronically stressed, that's holding you back from building the body that you want, so be sure to tune into that next week. [00:07:57][96.0]
[00:07:57] Again, that will drop part two, and it will be the signs of chronic stress and weight gain. Part two. So stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, check out some of the previous episodes that I've done just regarding building more muscle and the importance of that, so I will be sure to link some in the show notes that you can easily go tune into after this episode, but that is all that I have for today's episode. I hope that this was helpful. I hope that this started kind of just piquing your interest, or maybe just educating you a little bit more on things that maybe you knew or you didn't know, but now you're like, oh, that makes sense. You know, I've been consistent with my workouts, I've been consistent with properly fueling my body, but I have definitely been stressed. Maybe there's been family things going on, personal things, career things going on in your life. And so just remember that having a holistic mindset really does make sure that every single part of your body, your physical, your emotional and your mental are all kind of in this harmonious balance. So that way you can ensure that your body is working for you, not against you. But that is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so much. I'll talk to you in the next one. [00:09:08][70.4]
[00:09:08] All right, sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace it real because you're worth it. [00:10:02][0.0]