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Managing Stress for Weight Management
By: Scottsdale Weight Loss Center
Published: December 9, 2020
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Living a healthy lifestyle means a lot more than a diet and physical activity. When you start a medical weight loss program you’ll make a series of healthy changes from the inside out. This includes learning how to manage stress.
If a healthy diet and exercise are two pillars for losing weight, then managing stress is the third. When overloaded with stress, you don’t make the healthiest choices. Even the strongest commitment to medical weight loss may not be enough to combat stress. Too much stress can lead to fatigue, hunger, and even disrupted digestion.
How Stress Changes Your Body
Stress causes the release of cortisol from your adrenal glands. Small amounts of cortisol keep our bodies in balance. Too much leads to fat building, especially in the abdomen. Stress also causes poor sleep. This causes an increase in the fat building hormone insulin, which converts sugar to fat. It also causes our stomach lining to release ghrelin, a hormone that makes us hungry.
Stress is Good and Bad
Whether it comes from work, family issues, or other personal concerns, stress is a reality we all face. It happens every day, even when you think you can avoid it. Unfortunately, avoiding stress altogether is impossible. It’s actually helpful in its own way. It triggers concern and encourages us to experience deep emotions. But without the right tools to balance stress, it can spin us out of control which can derail weight loss efforts.
Strategies to Manage Stress
Rather than avoid stress, learn to deal with it. Here are a few strategies for coping with stress to promote health and support weight loss:
- Prevent stress rather than react to it. Keep a journal to log feelings and track stress triggers.
- Practice deep breathing exercises. This helps keep your stress from overwhelming you.
- Take a power nap. 20-30 minutes is enough to recharge.
Making healthy choices can help you reduce stress and promote a healthier lifestyle. Knowing what causes your stress is the first step to learning how to prevent it. During your medical weight loss program, stressful events aren’t going to disappear. It’s your job to come up with a plan to cope with stress so you can stay on track with your weight loss goals.
Read our FREE e-book Chasing Diets and learn about the weight loss program that works.
Nick
Nick's Story
"I wish I would have come here first. We spend all our time reacting to the next great weight loss tip or program. It might work for a while, but does not last and we end up yo-yoing from one fad to the next – as we gain more weight." Read More
Gina
Lost 44.5 lbs
"I had no trouble adhering to the meals and they really helped catapult my progress! The classes were so beneficial to me because they helped change my thinking about how I viewed health, nutrition, and fitness.
I will always have my relationship with Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. They truly helped me change my life forever." Read More
Lauren
Lost 60 lbs
"Dr. Ziltzer and everyone who I have come in contact with at the Scottsdale Weight Loss office have been so encouraging and I look forward to seeing them each week. It is now a year and 2 months later since I started. I am down 60 lbs., which is the average amount a 9-year-old weighs, it is crazy to think I lost a whole person! I feel amazing, I hit my goal weight in November 2021 just before Thanksgiving. Nothing on my body hurts anymore..." Read More
Chuck
Lost 66 lbs
"The best thing I did was call the Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. I have a lot more energy, I'm not hungry, and it feels great.
You can take it from me that this is a program that produces results. The staff is always positive, supportive, and never judgmental.
Your visits always result in positive reinforcement, no matter if you had a good week or a bad week." Read More
Emily
Lost 101 lbs
"Here I am at the lowest I have been since high school weighing in at 155lbs. I have lost 101 lbs, BMI of 39 when I started, to 21.6, and of course at body fat % of 47.1 to 26.5%. I told myself by my 30th birthday I wanted to be confident in the way I look and I owe it all to SWLC. The entire staff is so welcoming and they are rooting for you just as much as you are rooting for yourself...." Read More
Reviews
Meet Our Team
Robert Ziltzer, MD, FACP, FAAP, FOMA
Obesity Medicine Certified Physician
Diana Bone, FNP-C
Specializing in Obesity Medicine
Craig Primack, MD, FACP, FAAP, MFOMA
Obesity Medicine Certified Physician
Kristen Ash, FNP-C, FNP-BC
Nurse Practitioner
Alicia Earley, FNP-C
Family Nurse Practitioner
