The Hidden Weight of Stress: How Stress Hormones impact weight
If you’ve ever blamed yourself for lacking willpower, you’re not alone—and you’re not broken. In honor of Women’s Health Month, let’s look at the science and of what’s really happening when weight won’t budge (despite your best efforts). Stress is a major player. When the body is under chronic stress, it produces more cortisol—a hormone designed to help you survive. But when it stays elevated for too long, it can: Signal the body to store fat, especially around the belly • Disrupt your sleep, digestion, and hormone balance • Trigger emotional eating or sugar cravings…
What If It’s Not Willpower… But Cortisol?
How stress hormones impact weight—and what you can do instead. “Your body is not the enemy. It’s the messenger.” — Dr. Libby Weaver As we come to an end of May’s focus on Women’s Health Month, I want to say that this doesn’t mean you stop focusing in on your health. Of course you know that, but sometimes we can start directing our attention elsewhere unless we keep reminding ourselves of our priorities, don’t you agree? So, whether you are new to my community or been here a long time, I’m sure you’re well…
The Stress-Weight Connection
Stress doesn’t just affect your mood—it impacts your body’s chemistry in ways that directly influence weight. Here’s how: Chronic stress increases cortisol levels—your “survival hormone.” Elevated cortisol can lead to belly fat storage, sugar cravings, and disrupted sleep. Disrupted sleep can affect various hormones that regulate appetite. Leptin-the hormone that supports us in feeling satiated-gets reduced Ghrelin-our hunger hormone-gets increased. Increased cortisol levels from chronic stress can lead to metabolism changes, increase in appetite and a propensity to use food as a coping tool. But here’s the good news: When you calm your mind, the…
May is Women’s Health Month
“Sometimes the weight you need to lose isn’t on your body.” — Unknown When I learned that May is Women’s Health Month, I knew it was a perfect time to dig into how stress impacts so many areas of our lives-sometimes it’s very obvious, other times not so much. One area that might not be so obvious, is how it’s related to weight issues. As the days get longer and we start thinking about summer, many women will start fretting about their weight and want to start dieting. While dieting can work for short periods…
Dear Stress: It’s Time To Break Up!
Dear Stress, It’s Time to Break Up “Because you’re just not good for me anymore.” Stress has a way of sneaking into our lives like a toxic relationship. It promises to “help” us stay alert, get things done, and stay in control—but in reality, it drains our energy, clouds our thinking, and keeps us stuck in a loop of tension. So, what if we finally said: Enough is enough? The good news is, you don’t have to stay trapped in the stress cycle. You can shift your focus, step out of the loop, and create…
My Stress Reliever: Traveling!
April is already almost over, and it still amazes me how time does have a way of going by quickly! My husband and I just returned from a 3 week European adventure. It was fabulous. Not only did we get to visit some friends in Germany, we got to experience an organization called Road Scholar that does educational and active educational tours. Ours was in Tuscany and Umbria part of Italy. This group was a new experience for us and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people and learning about the regions in ways we never…