Stress has a major impact on your weight loss journey!

Contrary to common advice, this article is not going to tell you to exercise more, eat less food, or do more cardio.

What I will teach you, however, is 4 simple ways to restore your hormone balance, circadian rhythm, and healthy food habits to improve your overall health, and subsequently lose weight.

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Let’s dive right in.

Step 1 – Restore Sleep

Research suggests that we aim for 7-9 hours minimum of sleep per week. When we frequently missing those guidelines, it leads to alterations in our natural circadian rhythm. Furthermore, irregular sleep patterns also lead to a rise in cortisol levels which correlate with increased bodily inflammation over time, reduced immune response to bacteria, weight gain as well as persistent tiredness despite napping.

To restore sleep patterns:

• Set a bedtime reminder/ritual and make it non-negotiable
• Avoid heavy meals and alcohol close to bedtime
• Reduce phone and screen time closer to bedtime
• Aromatherapy

Step 2 – Restore healthy food habits

It’s common for us busy professionals to look up and realize it’s 6 pm at night and we haven’t taken a moment to eat lunch. A second commonality is to frequently eat under our basal metabolic rate (BMR). In simple terms, your BMR is the number of calories you need to consume to sustain basic bodily functions.

Check your BMR HERE. On average if you are consuming far less calories than recommended for your BMR, your body’s response is to slow your metabolism and store the food you consume as energy for future energy. This can lead to an increase in weight gain and fat storage.

To restore healthy eating habits:

• When in a bind, aim for nutrient-dense foods
• Keep a food diary to track your meals
• Aim for 3-5 meals a day
• On busy days pack a lunch that doesn’t need to be refrigerated

Step 3 – Restore Tranquility

Stress has a major impact on fat gain through the release of a hormone called cortisol (stress hormone).

Cortisol stimulates your fat and carbohydrate metabolism creating a surge of energy in your body. While this process is essential for survival situations, with unmanaged stress chronically high levels of cortisol can have negative side effects. Some include a reduced metabolism, increased cravings for fatty and salty foods, as well as a reduction to healthy testosterone levels in women that aid with muscle build and calorie burning.

To restore tranquility:

• Journal
• Spend 5-10 mins in meditation
• Schedule something you find enjoyable
• Take a long bath
• Take a hike

Step 4 – Restore Strength

I often find that majority of my clients opt for 30 mins of cardio vs 30 mins of resistance training (Lifting weights). I love cardio just as much as the next person, however, when in a time crunch a 2:1 ratio of strength training to cardio is best.