Why You Need to Reduce Stress to Achieve Weight Loss

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Our stress levels are one of the 17 lifestyle factors which have been proven to be essential for permanent weight loss.

Unfortunately when people think “weight loss” they also think “diet” and this is a real problem, exacerbated by greedy diet companies who’ll say anything to get your dollars. If you want permanent weight loss, you’ll chuck out those diets (be honest, you always put the weight back with them anyway, didn’t you) and look at lifestyle factors, including stress levels, instead.

Why am I picking on stress? Well stress produces cortisol, an important hormone which has all kinds of benefits. But too much stress leads to too much cortisol, and then we start seeing damage to the whole body, including to our metabolism. If we want permanet weight reduction, we must ensure that our cortisol levels aren’t out of whack due to too much stress.

If you have persistent stress in your life, if you have an anxiety disorder or panic, or if you suffer from frequent fear or worry, then you are at risk of physical damage, and you most likely have a reduced matabolic rate. The best thing you can possibly do is to seek help to eliminate excess stress.

The first step should always be to visit your doctor, because the symptoms of anxiety can mask a medical condition. For example thyroid disorders can bring on a stressed state of mind and even panic attacks! So first see your doctor!

Unfortunately the most common treatments for anxiety are pretty unsatisfactory, taking weeks or months to achieve benefit, if ever. These include a range of medications, and psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. These approaches should be considered out of date.

Another way that people try to manage their stress or cover up the symptoms is with drugs such as alcohol, or by smoking. Studies show that these things actually increase stress overall, as well as being damaging to the body, so your program should investigate your use (if any) of these substances so that you can recover and live a full and happy life without them.

When you’re seeking an effective therapist or an effective program, realise that you won’t see client testimonials very often, if at all. An ethical therapist will not generally ask clients for testimonials, and will not generally use them. Instead, they will be able to point you to actual scientific research.

Testimonials do not constitute proof. For example almost everyone can point to someone whom they’ve heard stopped smoking through using hypnosis. However all studies show that hypnosis works for less than 1% of people. This miserable success rate, no better than trying to stop cold turkey, doesn’t stop the snake oil merchants from putting up dozens of testimonials asserting that hypnosis cures smoking.

The “placebo effect” is at work in any intervention or therapy and so there’ll always be people who improve with that therapy. But there are so few of them that the therapy may still be useless for 99% of the population! At least if you’re swayed only by valid studies, you can rest assured that the placebo effect has been accounted for!

The most modern and effective treatment for anxiety today is called Brief, Multi-Sensory Activation (BMSA). The reason it’s so effective is that it “de-links” the stress response from whatever thought or situation used to cause it.

For example, you might have the thought of making a telephone call, and feel highly anxious about that. Utilising BMSA techniques, you could quite deliberately try to get anxious about making that call, but simply be unable to do so. Instead, you would find to your surprise that you felt quite calm.

There are huge advantages to resolving the stress in your life once and for all. Reduced stress levels improve your metabolism, but they also improve mood and sleep function, both of which in turn also improve metabolic rate. It’s an exponential impact on weight loss!

So what are you waiting for! Get that stress sorted today!