I'm eating less, and I'm still gaining weight? Here's why...

Recovery is important, which includes eating correctly, sleeping and lowering stress. We are going to dive into how the last factor (lowering stress) may be the most important!

What is the relationship between weight gain and stress?

Stress produces a chemical called "Cortisol":

Under stressful conditions, cortisol provides the body with glucose by tapping into protein stores via gluconeogenesis in the liver. This energy can help an individual fight or flee a stressor. However, elevated cortisol over the long term consistently produces glucose, leading to increased blood sugar levels.

Excess cortisol stimulates glucose production. This excess glucose is then typically converted into fat, which gets stored in your body. For example, people with serious metabolic conditions that involve excessive cortisol production, such as Cushing syndrome, have an unhealthy increase in abdominal fat.

When cortisol levels remain elevated, the following side effects may occur:

weight gain

high blood pressure

fatigue

changes in mood

irritability

flushed face

thinning skin

difficulty concentrating

insulin resistance

Cortisol and muscle growth:

Cortisol inhibits the uptake of amino acids into the muscle cells, making it damn near impossible to fuel muscle cells when cortisol levels are too high for too long. It also inhibits bone formation and decreases calcium absorption in the intestine. So, when cortisol is high, there’s no bone growth and no muscle growth.

What happens when our other important hormones are impacted by cortisol?

Adrenal Insufficiency: Initially, the body begins to metabolize proteins from the muscles, which causes fatigue, weakness and muscle pain. This also causes many women to start having cravings and to experience unhealthy weight gain around the middle.

Adrenal insufficiency – the Second Phase: We see worsening menopause symptoms because the adrenals are now impacting the balance of other minor hormones (such as estrogen, progesterone and pregnenolone) in favor of creating more cortisol. We may see thyroid hormone fluctuations – in particular, a slowing of thyroid hormone production.

We also may see gut permeability issues, sleep issues, moodiness and isolating behaviors, hair loss, inflammation (a lot of joint pain), decreased immunity, and a lack of libido (coupled with sexual dysfunction). Yuck to all that. In addition, we’ll likely experience blood sugar issues, since our bodies are keeping themselves in this state of preparation for a nonexistent, yet ever-threatening emergency.

Adrenal hypofunction: Over time, the adrenals will no longer pump out the needed level of cortisol. Why? Because our brain has decided to shut down cortisol production altogether, to protect itself from these high cortisol outputs. Through this feedback system, the adrenals decrease cortisol output as a defensive measure. Gradually, our bodies will then become quite acidic and suffer from increased inflammation, which further compromises our immune system. We can gauge this by measuring the levels of secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA), an antibody, in our

or blood.

It is so important in your fat loss journey to to find the secret to managing stress and cortisol levels. I hope this info helps and here are some tips below. If you have more please feel free to share to the chat. Love y'all, now let's get it!

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/16-ways-relieve-stress-anxiety#11.-Practice-mindfulness