Stress makes us fat. But why? It does not have any calories!
We have all read the stories about people doing extraordinary physical feats such as those who can lift cars off people and others who have walked down mountains with a shattered leg. This is due to the adrenal glands releasing the hormone cortisol into their systems. Cortisol (also known as the “the stress hormone”) is secreted at greater levels during the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response. A few of the ‘fight or flight’ benefits include dramatically increased energy for survival, heightened memory and much lower sensitivity to pain.
The entire body’s "fight or flight" was designed to be offset with physical exertion ("DO something") that releases the counterbalancing hormones. Those positive (offsetting) hormones are human growth hormone and testosterone. If you are fighting for your life, you are exerting intense physical exertion.
Without getting into biochemistry, let us look at the reason why stress makes us fat. Stress from our work, families, or generally, “life” causes us to release this same ‘fight or flight’ hormone of cortisol. Cortisol regulates insulin. Both cortisol and insulin are huge players in body fat, high blood pressure, decreased bone density and muscle tissue, metabolic syndromes – just to name a few. These factors regardless of our calorie intake – WILL make us fat.
Since we do not live in a world of the ancestors of true "fight or flight”, we are missing the offset of our “stress hormones.” We need to add these into our daily lives to control cortisol and all the negative effects. In order to offset, we must stimulate growth hormone and testosterone. As you have read many times in my blog, these two powerful hormones (growth hormone and testosterone) are released during intense muscle stimulating exercise.
The more stressed you are, the more important it is to have an intense workout. Offset the negatives with some powerful positives.
Stay tuned…………
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