How Stress Is Keeping You Stuck

We all experience stress. It’s a normal part of life. We hear all the time why it’s not good for us and how it can cause weight gain, but I’m here today to dispel some misinformation:

Stress causes weight gain that has nothing to do with fat gain.

However, stress can cause fat gain as well, but not for the reason you think. Stress increases the hormone cortisol which causes us to retain water (among other things). More water = higher number on the scale. So we might gain weight, even though we were in a calorie deficit. This can be really frustrating, but it’s not a problem. We need to produce cortisol when stressed to survive. Imagine if you saw a bear and your body didn’t produce cortisol to tell you that you need to act. Bear food.

Cortisol isn’t hindering your fat loss, but stress still can because we respond to it with unhealthy behavior.

❌ Stress-eating

❌ Lack of exercise

❌ Lack of movement

❌ Drinking

It’s not the stress itself causing us to gain weight; it’s how we handle it. Stress is a vicious cycle. We’re stressed, so we binge Netflix while drinking wine & demolishing Pirate’s Booty. So we stress that we're not being healthy & gaining weight. So we think we’re failing & decide “I’m too stressed to lose weight right now.” And we stay stuck.

But here’s the good news:

Some of the best ways to deal with stress are taking care of your physical health:

🏋🏻‍♂️ Exercise

🏃🏻 Outdoor walk

🥙 Eating a high quality meal

All of these help relieve stress & continue to move you toward your goals. They aren’t easy in the moment, but they work. Stressful days happen. Kids misbehave. Loved ones get sick. Work is hard. Your weight will spike up/plateau on occasion, but it will eventually come back down as long as you continue to take care of yourself.

Stress itself doesn’t hinder fat loss; how we respond does.

Stress is unavoidable and not, by itself, a problem. For example, exercise is, by nature, a stressor. It puts strain on our body. Our goal should not be to eliminate stress in our lives. That is a losing battle because most stress is external. Your toddler refuses to eat anything, your parent gets a tough diagnosis, your spouse loses a job, the car needs repair – life happens and we can’t always control the things that happen to us.

Stress is a normal part of life; it’s how we respond to it that determines how it affects us.

So, while your weight may fluctuate day-to-day due to higher stress, that weight is almost entirely water and, once things settle down, you’ll pee it out. Try to remove emotion from the equation. Don’t fall prey to the trap that because you’re stressed and the scale goes up, you get more stressed that you’re not losing weight and spiral. If the scale goes up, the first question should be why? If yesterday was a high stress day, there’s your answer.

Managing stress is important. Not because stress itself stops weight loss, but because if we let stress overtake us, it’s a lot harder to do the things we need to do for our health. Stress itself isn’t the problem. We’re the problem and stress is the switch that sets us off.

I dropped a whole podcast episode on stress management that is full of practical strategies. It’s the most research I’ve ever done for a podcast episode and I think that comes through in the end result.