When Your Stress Is High Weight Loss Isn’t A Goal You Should Pursue

Weight loss is the most common gym and exercise related goal, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. What might also not be a surprise is that most people trying to lose weight are under considerable personal stress, be it work, financial, etc.

Something not so common is for these people to focus on developing and forming healthy habits instead, namely consistently exercising and eating better, instead of trying to focus on weight loss. But aren’t you exercising more and eating better when focusing on weight loss? Sure, but I assure you the psychology of trying to eat for health versus weight loss are different.

How so? Caloric restriction is stressful. If you’re doing it effectively you are depriving yourself of enough energy to sustain yourself. Your body see’s this as a survival risk and will start to compensate by doing things like increasing cortisol, a stress hormone, to liberate energy stores. Or it will increase hunger signals from your brain to get you to eat more food. Things like the latter will make the process mentally stressful as you often have to acknowledge and ignore some hunger signals along the way – at least for those with larger weight loss goals. Further mental stress is added with the discipline you often have to practice to restrict intake of many of the foods and/or drinks that aren’t conducive to weight loss but enjoy (alcohol, pizza, etc.).

• Side note: for short-term weight loss goals it is often possible to avoid being hungry during caloric restriction. This can be achieved by choosing foods that are high in volume, lower in calories, and high on satiety (feeling of fullness); vegetables and lean proteins are your best options here.

So What Should You Do Instead?

What I like to do with my clients is to shift their focus away from weight loss being their goal, and instead focus on healthy exercise and dietary habits. For example, for 4 weeks we focus on being stubbornly consistent about exercising 3 times a week. Within each workout the focus is on enjoying the workouts, getting stronger, and mastering the techniques of certain exercises. We don’t worry about their bodyweight, as that might be an added stressor, and we let their weight fall where it may. If they end up losing weight, which they often do, then great but that’s not the initial goal.

When looking to create healthy exercise and dietary habits it’s usually best to focus on creating an actionable goal from one of the following three categories (but of course other categories exist):

1.  Sleep. This, in my opinion, is THE most important thing for your health – not just your waistline. It is also THE hardest thing to consistently get right. The reason I say this is due to it’s trickle down effect on all other factors of your life. I won’t get into the specifics but I’m sure most of you know what I mean by this. Ideally you need 7+ hours of sleep each night. Some, like Matthew Walker, would suggest you give yourself 7.5+ hours of sleep opportunity, which means you also factor in the amount of time it takes you to fall asleep; eg. If you crawl into bed at 10 p.m. and get up at 6 a.m. this is not 8 hours of sleep.

I personally block off 8.5 hours of sleep opportunity in my calendar, the goal of getting 8 hours, to keep it top of mind and to try and reinforce this healthy habit. It’s not easy, and i’m not always consistent with it but I make it a priority. When I do get 8 hours of restful sleep, wow what a difference.

2. Eat More Fruits & Vegetables. I don’t think I have to elaborate on this point much, I’m pretty sure you know that eating more fruits and vegetables is great for you – they are full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber which are great for many facets of your health. Try something like this, or add 1-2 servings to 2 meals a day and that’ll be a good start to eating better.

3. Consistently Exercise. Everyone knows that they need to exercise, yet many fail to get the minimum suggested amount each week – Health Canada Suggest 150 minutes of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity per week. The problem often lies within people’s priorities. Make a non-negotiable appointment with yourself each week and commit to it. Schedule it in your day planner and be stubborn about changing it.

With most clients I choose to approach S.M.A.R.T actionable goals from the standpoint of using a habit tracker (see below image). You create individualized habit, pick a weekly goal for that habit (which should be realistic), and then check off the box throughout the week. My clients will either use an electronic format with me, or print it out and put the tracker somewhere highly visible (on their bathroom door entrance). Using this approach keeps your habits top of mind and I help keep them accountable to the habits weekly. Also, for many, myself included, checking off the box for the day is oddly satisfying.

If you’d like a copy of this Habit Tracker that you can fill out and use for yourself contact me.

Takeaway message

If you’re wanting to focus on weight loss, first do a self-assessment of how much personal stress you’re managing. If it’s high, then maybe weight loss isn’t a great goal for you at the present time and you should instead just focus on being healthy. Focus on creating some positive momentum this way by creating and maintaining some healthy habits. This will allow you to transition into a weight loss goal when you’re ready.

If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to get in touch.

Till next time,

-Mike