Lean On Life Cautions Against Stress and its Effects on Weight Gain

TORONTO, ON (PRWEB) May 01, 2013

Lean On Life, a leading healthy lifestyle website with the latest on weight loss, nutrition, and fitness is cautioning against stress and its long-term effects on weight gain.

As Lean On Life reports in its article (http://www.leanonlife.com/why-stress-is-sabotaging-your-weight-loss-efforts/), the effects of stress on the body can have damaging long-term health effects, including weight gain.

Lean On Life cites a study released by the American Psychological Association in 2012 in which 1800 participants were surveyed to see how they dealt with stressful situations, and its effects on their eating behaviors. The study found that 43 percent of respondents over-ate unhealthy foods in response to stressful situations. These results suggest that we need better coping mechanisms for stress.

As Lean On Life reports, stress leads to a release of cortisol and adrenaline in the human body. Adrenaline delivers the instant energy in a fight-or-flight situation, while cortisol impacts the body an hour after the initial stressor, and is what dramatically boosts a persons appetite after stressful situations.

Furthermore, cortisol can influence our brains to find more pleasure in certain unhealthy foods. It can also lead the brain to confuse hunger and satiety signals, which can cause us to feel hungry and crave more food even after weve eaten.

Michelle Schiffman, nutritionist at Lean On Life, believes that we must learn to effectively deal with stress because there are so many stressors in our daily lives. Were no longer living in a time when stress was outrunning a predator, or going out on a hunt to feed your tribe, she says. Today, were stressed by oversleeping, traffic, emails basically every minute detail of our daily lives.

Schiffman explains that these stressors lead us to overeat regularly, and to overeat the unhealthy foods that give us the most pleasure. To combat this issue, she suggests taking a proactive approach to stress and to make sure we take control of our habits. Its really important to identify potential stress triggers that lead to comfort eating. If we can identify whether were eating because were hungry or because were stressed, thats a great first step, she says.

Ultimately, Lean On Life encourages everyone to try and reduce the stressors in their lives, and to apply relaxation strategies instead. Doing so, and being more mindful of eating as a result of stress, can help us avoid unnecessary weight gain.

Lean On Life is a healthy lifestyle website that provides expert-driven knowledge from doctors, nutritionists, fitness trainers and life coaches. The site takes a hands-on approach to making weight-loss, healthy eating and fitness a simple achievable lifestyle change.