STAY HEALTHY AND CONQUER STRESS EATING

Stress eating is the new but an unhealthy trend these days! Being fit is the latest need but at the same time one leans to stress eating when in any sort of uncomfortable situation. The emphasis on wanting to lose weight must be followed diligently or else a wrong step towards stress eating can ruin your weight loss goals.

The hormones released in our body with stress unleashes the urge to eat high fat sugary food. Hence, with stress comes increase in body weight gain.

There are some articles that suggest that stress coping mechanism varies with gender. For women, when in stress they cope with eating more whereas in case of men, they generally tilt towards drinking and smoking. One theory is that overweight people have elevated insulin levels, and stress-related weight gain is more likely to occur in the presence of high insulin.

WAYS IN WHICH YOU CAN CONTROL STRESS EATING

• When there is stress almost most of the time in the environment you live in or work in, if you keep your ‘comfort food’ handy means that you are inviting trouble. There are time when you can de-stress yourself only when you eat. Replace the high fat sugary snacks with some nuts or fruits. Not that it will be easy for you for the first time, but if you look forward to having a healthy lifestyle and away from the having any health issue in the future, everything will work out just fine.

• Meditation is the best possible solution to de-stress yourself which eventually will reduce your urge to stress eat. Countless studies show that meditation reduces stress, although much of the research has focused on high blood pressure and heart disease. Meditation may also help people become more mindful of food choices.

• Cortisol levels in your body differs with the duration of exercise you get done with. Overall exercise can blunt some of the negative effects of stress.

• Friends and family play a very crucial role in your life by helping maintain stress levels.  For example, research suggests that people working in stressful situations, like hospital emergency departments, have better mental health if they have adequate social support. But even people who live and work in situations where the stakes aren’t as high need help from time to time from friends and family.