Are You Over 40? Do You Have A Hard Time To Lose Weight Permanently?

"There is too much to do. My days are very hectic- I'm constantly on the go." Is that a fair verbal description of your life? Does it impact your ability to lose weight permanently over 40?

Stress can be a good thing. We feel energetic and powerful when stress hormones overflow our bodies. However, long time stress is a dangerous health risk: Diabetes, hard attacks, high blood pressure etc. are correlated with stress.

Additionally, you can't lose weight permanently if you are stressed- stress makes you fat. Continuous stress encourages fat storage on your stomach and your hips- stress fat. When your body needs energy, the stress level increases. When our ancestors had to take care of physical challenges, this energy releasing mechanism was very useful.

Unfortunately, nowadays our reactions to stressful situations do not need to be physical any more- we do not have to run away from or fight wild animals. Today, our responses need to be mental. So the stress fat sits on our bodies and doesn't get burned. Particularly for women stress fat increases the risk for heart diseases, higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol, strokes, diabetes and cancer.

The adrenal glands release adrenalin in stressful situations. Your metabolism slows down to make more energy available and the blood sugar level rises. Under lasting stress you burn less calories, preventing you from losing weight permanently. In addition, shifting blood sugar levels will cause hunger- pushing you to eat more although you burn less.

Still worse: stress releases cortisol, a hormone affecting your immune system, muscles and bones. Your chance to catch a contagious disease is raised, muscle mass reduces and bone density is getting less.

Cortisol affects your ability to lose weight permanently in another, dangerous way. When your stress level reduces, the body's energy storage system wants to be filled up. Cortisol will give you a voracious appetite then. Have you ever noticed that in stress-reducing, unwinding phases you don't desire vegetables or fish, but high-calorie food, like sweets, ice cream, chocolate or cookies?

The longer fat cells are exposed to high cortisol levels, the sensitive they get. The number of fat cells increases because of this process, making it tougher for you to lose weight permanently.

The equation is: constant stress = constant hunger + low metabolism. When we get older we commonly accumulate more responsibilities- and accordingly more stress. To lose weight permanently over 40 you'll need to reduce stress.

If the stress level is high losing weight permanently is peculiarly difficult for women over 40. Stressed out women over 40 tend to have periods when they are eating too little, and periods when they are eating too much. This results in fluctuating weight making it challenging to lose weight permanently for women over 40.