Have you found yourself stress eating a lot more than you’re comfortable with? If you’re anything like the majority of Americans, you’re carrying quite a few stresses in your life, even when it comes to your weight. All those extra struggles you have on your shoulders can place you at risk of overeating during meals and snacks.
Weight Loss Strategies and Stress Eating
Interestingly – and not in a good way – weight loss and stress eating are connected. Trying to drop the pounds can be stressful, adding complexity to an already complicated process. For many people, the strain of trying to change their diets and keep up with a new fitness routine can lead them to stress eat – the opposite of what they need to do to be able to reach their goals.
How does this happen and what does this have to do with your sleep? Keep reading to find out.
How Can Dieting Stress You into Eating More?
Busy schedules, family obligations, and trying to do something fun and social now and again can make even the most organized among us feel overwhelmed and frenzied. Overpacked schedules make it difficult to feel as though we’re keeping up, let alone getting ahead. By piling a lifestyle change such as a new way of eating or being physically active onto our lives, it can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It can be what makes us stress eat when we might not otherwise do it.
The feelings of anxiety caused by being overwhelmed by your life can promote the release of a hormone called cortisol. This can have an impact on your hunger levels, your sleep, and yes, your stress eating.
The Cortisol Impact on Stress Eating
The longer your body maintains high cortisol levels, the higher your risk of stress eating. This “stress hormone” can push you to want to consume more calories, particularly in the form of sugary or fatty foods. It’s a way of seeking comfort at times of strain. After all, as the human body evolved, stress was usually from issues that threatened life and food wasn’t always guaranteed. Therefore, if the individual was feeling stressed, it was to their best advantage to pack in the calories to have the energy needed to be able to fight, escape, or do what needs to be done to survive.
What Does This Have to Do with Sleep?
Though everyone’s sleep needs are different, the average healthy adult needs around 7-9 hours. Some may need more, some less. If you aren’t getting enough sleep and are not waking feeling rested, it’s easier to feel strained and anxious by things that you’d otherwise cope with if you were well rested. This added strain causes cortisol to be produced by the body. As a result, stress eating can happen.
Unfortunately, cortisol can also make it hard to sleep. This makes it more difficult to get the rest you need, only worsening the problem and making you more inclined for stress eating and bad sleep. It’s for this reason that it’s very important to focus on getting the sleep you need if you want to stop comfort snacking and overeating for emotional reasons. Sleep supplements can play a vital role in helping you to break free of the vicious cycle.
Have you found yourself stress eating a lot more than you’re comfortable with? If you’re anything like the majority of Americans, you’re carrying quite a few stresses in your life, even when it comes to your weight. All those extra struggles you have on your shoulders can place you at risk of overeating during meals and snacks.
Weight Loss Strategies and Stress Eating
Interestingly – and not in a good way – weight loss and stress eating are connected. Trying to drop the pounds can be stressful, adding complexity to an already complicated process. For many people, the strain of trying to change their diets and keep up with a new fitness routine can lead them to stress eat – the opposite of what they need to do to be able to reach their goals.
How does this happen and what does this have to do with your sleep? Keep reading to find out.
How Can Dieting Stress You into Eating More?
Busy schedules, family obligations, and trying to do something fun and social now and again can make even the most organized among us feel overwhelmed and frenzied. Overpacked schedules make it difficult to feel as though we’re keeping up, let alone getting ahead. By piling a lifestyle change such as a new way of eating or being physically active onto our lives, it can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It can be what makes us stress eat when we might not otherwise do it.
The feelings of anxiety caused by being overwhelmed by your life can promote the release of a hormone called cortisol. This can have an impact on your hunger levels, your sleep, and yes, your stress eating.
The Cortisol Impact on Stress Eating
The longer your body maintains high cortisol levels, the higher your risk of stress eating. This “stress hormone” can push you to want to consume more calories, particularly in the form of sugary or fatty foods. It’s a way of seeking comfort at times of strain. After all, as the human body evolved, stress was usually from issues that threatened life and food wasn’t always guaranteed. Therefore, if the individual was feeling stressed, it was to their best advantage to pack in the calories to have the energy needed to be able to fight, escape, or do what needs to be done to survive.
What Does This Have to Do with Sleep?
Though everyone’s sleep needs are different, the average healthy adult needs around 7-9 hours. Some may need more, some less. If you aren’t getting enough sleep and are not waking feeling rested, it’s easier to feel strained and anxious by things that you’d otherwise cope with if you were well rested. This added strain causes cortisol to be produced by the body. As a result, stress eating can happen.
Unfortunately, cortisol can also make it hard to sleep. This makes it more difficult to get the rest you need, only worsening the problem and making you more inclined for stress eating and bad sleep. It’s for this reason that it’s very important to focus on getting the sleep you need if you want to stop comfort snacking and overeating for emotional reasons. Sleep supplements can play a vital role in helping you to break free of the vicious cycle.
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