Dieting - How Stress Can Blow Your Diet
How Stress Can Work Negatively Amid Dieting & Weight Loss
One would assume with all the modern conveniences that stress would not exist, yet it is alive and unwell. Stress is one of the chief underlying causes of many diseases, and can accomplish everything from premature aging to foiling your diet plan.
In the case of dieting - with many individuals, stress triggers eating. Food becomes associated with a feeling of comfort and safety - a haven to escape stressful situations and circumstances.
The Stress Cycle in Comparison to Weight Gain, Weight Loss & Dieting
Here is how it works: When an individual embarks on a new diet and stress is already a triggering factor in the Eating Cycle, stress levels are automatically raised and weight loss efforts are generally short-lived.
How to break the eating cycle: Stress management. If you find that your eating pattern is influenced by stress, develop a back-up plan for Diet Time.
Look for ways other than eating to manage times of high-stress. Determine low-calorie, low-fat options that you can enjoy as 'comfort food'. And try to focus on what you want to accomplish in regards to weight loss rather than fearing Diet Failure.
When dieting for weight loss, stress levels increase. Even when the dieter is experiencing low levels of stress during dieting, stress levels are initially higher as dieting-itself is stressful.
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In addition, even happy moments can be related to stress. A bride might be 'filled with thrill' over her wedding day, yet she experiences highly stressful moments - wondering if her wedding day will end up like a fairytale or a horror story. As she's walking down the aisle she's filled with happiness, yet stress abounds. The root of her stress is from a positive source, yet it still exists.
Where dieters or non-dieters are concerned, we tend to eat more when we're stressed - whether the stress stems from positive or negative stress.
Stress runs high at social gatherings and when food is the star of the show, we tend to graze freely - unconcerned about any overages in calories as we feel we can make up for our indulgence tomorrow.
STRESS LEVEL COMPARISON CHART, DIETING vs NON-DIETING
As a note, in many instances, the food itself may be the root of stress as the individual may be allergic or the body's sensitive mechanisms may be set off by the make-up of the food. Therefore, if you're feeling particularly stressful after eating a specific food, you may wish to investigate this further with your doctor.
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