How Increasing Your Resilience To Stress Can Help You Lose Weight
Whilst factually correct, there’s a lot more to losing weight than simply ‘eating less and exercising more’. As any healthcare professional will tell you, there are a number of psychological, behavioral and environmental factors that can influence your results. Identifying and addressing these issues prior to embarking on an exercise or nutrition plan is therefore of utmost importance, as it minimizes the risk of them undermining your results.
Take Graham, for example, a 53-year-old Lawyer in charge of Litigation and International Disputes for the London office of a major international law firm. After struggling to stick to an exercise and diet program, Graham reached out to me to find out why, despite his best efforts, he wasn’t able to lose weight and achieve results.
Initially, the reasons why he was failing to lose weight were unclear. He was boxing three times a week, running twice and eating a reduced calorie, organic diet. On paper, he was doing everything right and it wasn’t until we dived a little deeper into his consultation notes that it became apparent why he was struggling to lose weight.
As part of the consultation process, clients are required to fill out a questionnaire, called the perceived stress scale (PPS). The PPS is is the most widely used psychological instrument for measuring the perception of stress. It consists of 10 questions and rates your perceived stress levels on a scale of 1-40 (1 being low, and 40 being high).
Having been a partner for over 15 years, Graham was used to dealing with the type of stress that for the most part, is considered part and parcel of a career in Law. However, this year had been particularly stressful as a consequence of being forced to take on additional responsibilities within the firm. As a result, he scored highly on the PPS and it quickly became obvious that work-related stress was at the root of his weight loss problems.
So, how was work related stress preventing him from losing weight?
Well, first of all, it’s important to acknowledge that there isn’t a direct link between stress and obesity. There is no evidence that supports that notion that feeling stressed is a direct cause of unwanted weight gain. What the evidence is quite clear on, however, is that stress influences other behaviors that do have a direct effect on obesity, such as food intake and physical activity levels.
In Graham’s case, work-related stress was making it difficult for him to follow a structured meal plan that required him to eat certain foods at specific times. The volatility of his schedule just meant that a prescriptive meal plan, that required a lot of cooking, just wasn’t practical. Following this type of plan was only making him more stressed out and eventually, he would become frustrated, fall off the wagon and revert back to his old habits of over-eating.
Stress was also making it difficult for Graham to get enough quality sleep which in turn, was robbing him of his motivation to work out. He recalls ‘After finishing a twelve hour day in the office, on less than six hours sleep, I felt tired, irritable and completely washed out. The last thing on my mind was exercise.’
The effects of sleep deprivation on exercise adherence are well documented and it should come as no surprise that people that aren’t getting enough sleep, tend to be less consistent with their workout routines. Insufficient sleep also constitutes a form of stress in of itself, compounding the situation further.
As you can see, stress was making Graham overeat and exercise less, this created a positive energy balance and prevented him from losing weight. To lose weight therefore, it should be clear that Graham needed to increase his resilience to stress so that he could build the consistency with his weight loss program necessary to see results.
So, how do we effectively manage stress to ensure that we’re better able to adhere to our weight loss programs and achieve results?
Well, first of all in order to manage stress effectively, you must be able to differentiate what’s inside your sphere of control and what is not. This ensures you do not make the situation worse by worrying about things you have no control over. Second, it’s important to recognize that whilst undoubtedly beneficial, weight loss programs themselves constitute a form of stress. Like all forms of stress therefore, they need to be carefully managed to ensure they do not exceed our coping abilities and become unsustainable as a result. In Graham’s case, to increase his resilience to stress and make his weight loss program easier to follow, he was recommended the following;
- To use breathing techniques, such as Box Breathing, intermittently throughout the day to reduce feelings of anxiety and distress.
- To follow a consistent bedtime routine which helped him switch off from work and improve the quality and quantity of his recovery.
- To switch to a ‘flexible’ dieting plan which gave him easy to follow guidelines on what to eat and required minimal preparation and cooking.
- To schedule his workouts for first thing in the morning when they were less likely to be canceled as a result of over-run meetings and last-minute client requests.
It should seem intuitive that if someone is stressed and not getting enough sleep, they’re going to find it difficult to stick to their weight loss program long enough to achieve results. Unfortunately, many people don’t make the connection and instead persist with their weight loss program whilst the effects of stress continue to undermine their efforts. Inevitably, the leads to frustration, disappointment, and a relapse into the habits and behaviors that caused the weight gain in the first place. Using the strategies outlined in this article will increase your resilience to stress, which will make it far easier for you to adhere to your weight loss program long enough to achieve results.
