Is Stress Making You Gain Weight?

The Risk Factors Are Real

Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash

I feel like the last 18 months has absolutely kicked my butt and the stress weight gain is real.

I have a lot that I am truly grateful for and have done a lot of work to manage my mindset and my health during this time. Yet the reality is around 7–10lb of extra weight I am carrying right now.

There have been times when I have felt like I have been drowning in stress, in the unknown, the fear. It’s taken a lot of effort to keep my head above water financially, mentally, physically and it’s felt exhausting.

During all of this, I have continued to exercise, to eat fairly healthily, I’m a health coach after all. Yet, that does not make me immune from the fear and the stress that we have all been experiencing. Even with all of the health knowledge I have I still succumb to the effects of stress. I’m an emotional eater, and so the stress easily causes me to turn to food for comfort and then there is also the increased alcohol as we attempt to take the edge off. To just blurr the lines and numb some of the feelings as we attempt to put some fun back into life.

Of course, I am not the only one. A survey by the American Psychological Association shows that a whopping 61% of Americans have reported undesired weight gain. Usually where America leads the way you can expect the UK and the rest of the world to be not too far behind. And yet the irony is that that being overweight dramatically increases your risk of being hospitalized from Covid by up to as much as three times.

So the very coping mechanisms we use to combat stress, are increasing the risks of the thing that we are feeling stressed around!

Quite frankly I just feel so over it all.

I’m done with feeling like we have been putting our lives on hold, I’m done with feeling constantly worried about the numbers or the next more dangerous strain, I’m done with the doomscrolling, I’m done with feeling wiped out, I’m done with trying to disconnect from my emotions and my body. It’s time for things to change.

I'm ready to put my physical health, emotional health and business growth back at the forefront of my priorities. I’m ready to get back to allowing myself to actually feel good and continually…