It's that time of year when we all sit down and decide we're going to make some real changes to our lives! New Job, new exciting plans, new body!!
We obviously want to help you to get that amazing new body! Everywhere you look there are pictures of "celebrities" who've lost a ton of weight on the latest "amazing diet" and although they may look great you need to make sure the diet is safe for you, that you have set yourself realistic goals and that you are not setting yourself up to regain the lost weight within a few months!!
I don't believe that any kind of diet works long term for weight loss - but that argument is for another blog post...
It's our job at All About You to educate you, give you the tools to make long term gains, enable you to create a healthy body full of energy vitality and most importantly feel great about yourself!
We’re here to set you straight, tell you the truth and still get amazing results... And so this post is all about hormones and in particular the hormone cortisol which may have a huge influence on your body's ability to control your body fat levels.
Cortisol is your body's primary stress hormone and is responsible for, among other things, the 'fight or flight' response that you've heard so much about.
It works this way; when a stressor affects you in day to day life, such as being cut up in traffic, arguing with a spouse, being under a tough deadline or being chased by a wild tiger, your adrenal glands on your kidneys secrete cortisol directly into the bloodstream where it causes us to release amino acids from our muscles, glucose from the liver and fatty acids from our fat cells into the bloodstream for use as 'emergency fuel' to help us fight or flee.
This would normally be fine, especially if those stressors are few and far between but that's not the case for most of us. Most people live in a continual state of stress where cortisol is being released time and time and time again leading to permanently elevated cortisol both in the bloodstream AND in the cells themselves.
Trouble is, whilst short exposures of cortisol are useful and can be beneficial, long term they're downright destructive leading to:
- Increased appetite and food cravings
- Decreases in lean muscle mass
- Increased Anxiety and Depression
- Decreased libido
- Increase of PMS symptoms
- Increase in menopausal side-effects
- INCREASE IN BODY FAT
And guess where cortisol-created body fat wants to live?
Right up there on the belly!
This means that if you're carrying excess fat in your abdominal region that's stubborn to shift, you're more than likely to have chronically elevated cortisol causing the problem. And again, it may not have anything to do with the total number of calories you're eating.
How do you reduce it?
Well, there are numerous ways in which we can re-establish normal cortisol levels in the body and start burning fat but the best are simply 'natural cures' that can be applied almost immediately and with very little expense.
In fact, the first one is absolutely free!
It's called SLEEP.
That's right; sleep is one of the most important factors in cortisol control as a lack of both quality and quantity of sleep leads to elevated cortisol and a depression of other important metabolic hormones. Fail to get enough sleep and at the right time and you'll be doomed to struggling with your body fat forever. Conversely, make even a few moderate sleep habit changes over the next few days and you'll start to see the fat shift.
Because cortisol is related to sleep and wake cycles and is triggered by light, you should aim to spend the last few hours before bed in a dimmed or dark room and aim to be in bed by 10pm and sleeping by 10.30pm.
It sounds too early, I know. Especially with late night TV and those emails you have to do before bed but hey, your hormones don't know about TV and email, they know stress. You want to lose fat? Then get to bed! In fact, bright TV's and bright computer screens are the last thing you want just before you hit the hay. They keep your cortisol pumping through both the light they emit and the potential for stress they evoke
Try identifying high-stress situations in advance and working out coping strategies to deal with them as they arise. Add exercise (though minimise aerobic exercise which releases more cortisol) and relaxation techniques and eat a clean and healthy diet and your cortisol levels will soon come under control.
Once they do you'll see the fat disappear faster than easier and with far less effort than ever before.
Start by getting some good sleep for just 7 nights and see what happens.
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