How to Lose Weight While Stressed

When you’re stressed, weight gain is possible. With these feelings, you’re more likely to reach for food and it’s not going to be the good stuff.

But you can change that. You can stop yourself from seeing a big weight gain because you’ve had a bad day at work or you’re struggling with life dramas. In fact, you can even lose weight while stressed.

Here are four tips to get you started.

Do Some Exercise

The best thing that you can do is do some exercise. Not only does this stop you from reaching for food, but you actually burn calories. It can even help you deal with the feelings of being stressed, and help you work through your problems.

Exercise releases chemicals like endorphins and serotonin in your brain. These help with feelings of happiness and are natural painkillers. Just getting them flowing around the brain is good enough, but exercise does even more.

You get out in the fresh air, get the chance to work problems through and give your muscles the workout they’ve needed.

So, put your trainers on or pick up that tennis racket and start getting some exercise.

Take Your Mind of It

It’s time to find something else to do when you know you’re stressed. This is the best way to lose weight while stressed because you’re less likely to think about the food that you want to eat.

Try picking up a new hobby, or look for places to visit to help take your mind off the problem at hand. Now, taking your mind off the problem won’t help solve it, but it will help prevent the comfort eating.

You will eventually need to face the reasons for being stressed. Sometimes it could just be general life, and doing something fun is perfect. However, if it is something like financial stress or your having an issue with work or your partner, you will need to eventually face the issue head-on and do something about it.

If you want somewhere to relax while thinking things through, why not try a long hot soak in the bath. This will stop you from picking, and you could even catch up on that good book you’ve been wanting to get stuck into.

Keep Healthy Options in the House

Sometimes there’s nothing more than you want to do than eat. That’s normal. You may have developed comfort eating as a habit, or may just find that it genuinely helps those feelings.

However, you want to keep the weight gain to a minimum. The best way of doing this is to only have healthy options in the house. You could even find that this leads to losing weight while stressed because you’re only comfort eating on bananas or real fruit, homemade ice lollies.

Look for low calorie options that are either really easy to make at the time or you can make beforehand. You then have them when it comes to those moments where you just want to heat.

Try a Hot Drink

Instead of reaching for food, what about reaching for something to drink? This is not about reaching for alcohol! You may find that a hot drink is just right.

Try green tea. While it has caffeine, there isn’t as much as in black tea or coffee. Caffeine increases the adrenaline and can make your stress seem worse. The lower levels in green tea can help bring out the soothing qualities of the drink. Plus, green tea is good for weight loss and is full of antioxidants to help with your general health.

Some people find a mug of hot chocolate perfect for stress, and it can even help them lose weight. You get the chocolate comfort that you would usually get from a chocolate bar, but with fewer calories. Even if you add marshmallows, you can still have fewer calories than a chocolate bar.

Good luck at dealing with your stressful situations. They happen to all of us, so don’t worry too much. However, that doesn’t mean you have to reach for the comfort food. It’s time to lose weight while stressed, rather than use it as an excuse.