Is Stress Causing Your Belly Fat?

Everyone is stressed out most of the time. Between work, family and social pressures,

Managing stress can be hard to do. Your anxious thoughts bring about negative emotions that cause your brain to release certain hormones which can all negatively impact our weight. All this anxiety brought about by our thoughts, feelings and emotions is bad for us. As you may know, stress can raise blood pressure, diminish your sex drive and make your blood boil if caught in rush hour traffic.

It is very important that you realize that stress is one of the biggest factors in determining your weight as well.

Here's why:

Stress changes your body due to two hormones, adrenaline and cortisol. Imagine adrenaline being like lighter fluid and cortisol being like charcoal. Adrenaline takes the blood sugar immediately available and quickly burns it allowing you to fight or flee from the stressful situation. Cortisol fuels the fire so that you have more energy to burn. The problem is, whatever excess sugar remains in your blood gets stored in your belly as FAT.

Each time your anxiety levels increase, more belly fat accumulates. In one study done at Yale, women who were most susceptible to stress had both higher levels of cortisol and more abdominal fat than non-stressed women. The stressed out women stored fat primarily in their bellies.

Lack of sleep keeps your stress levels and your weight up as well. A University of Chicago study showed that men who slept only 4 hours/night had cortisol levels about 37% higher than men who slept a full 8 hours. Remember, increased cortisol equals more belly fat.

Another U of Chicago study showed that men who received a deep quality of sleep secreted about 65% more Human Growth Hormone (HGH) that men who didn't get the quality sleep. HGH is important because it helps prevent muscle loss and more muscle mass helps you burn calories and maintain a constantly burning metabolism.

So, we need to learn to embrace the stress in our lives and start making it work in our favor. Some stress (eustress) is good, too much is bad. Controlling it is the key. Here are some very easy tools to use to bring down your stress levels daily:

1. Use your Yoga breath for one minute--- Sit up straight, Inhale deeply through your nose, hold the breath for the same amount of time that you took the breath in, then exhale through the nose and the back of the throat for the same amount of time.

2. For one minute-- close your eyes and think of a time when you laughed so hard you almost wet your pants. keep that thought for one minute, then relax and smile.

3. Lie down on your back and place your hands on your tummy, take a deep breath, blow up the tummy, then on the exhalation draw the belly deep into your body. Then stay there with your eyes closed for one minute.

4. journal for one minute-- journal all the things in your life that you are thankful for.

All of these very easy tools will help you, they can be done almost anywhere, some even in your car. So Be happy and De-stress!!

Best of all no more unwanted belly fat!