How Stress can affect you health.
- Chronic stress affects your ability to regulate the stress hormone cortisol which can influence your metabolism and so affect your efforts to mange your weight
- Stress can make you crave sugary and fatty foods which can affect your weight management
- High stress levels can lower your immue system
- Stress can affect sleep which in turn can have an effect on your training, weight and general well being
- High stress levels are sometimes linked to retaining weight around the stomach area and making it harder to reduce body fat
- Stress can make you feel fatigue quicker, both mentally and physically, making training harder
But stress in itself isn’t a completely negative thing.
Mild occasional stress can motivate you. A slight increase in cortisol from moderate stress has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on sport performance (think of how you perform under pressure, pull things off at the last minute.
The key here is balance, few people will lead stress free lives and occasional short periods of very high stress are inevitable and not going to have a lasting effect on most people. If you are finding yourself highly stressed most weeks however looking at ways of mitigating this could help you see dramatic benefits in your training and how you feel in yourself.
Heather Sherwood Fitness 