are you wondering whether stress is
causing you to gain weight or preventing
you from losing weight let's find out hi
my name is dr. dan Maggs I'm so glad
you've landed on my channel I help
people achieve sustainable long-term
weight loss through low carb real food
nutrition I make new videos every
Tuesday so be sure to subscribe and hit
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notified when I release a new video so
in this video I'm going to be talking
about the relationship between stress
and weight gain and so hopefully by the
end of it you're going to have a good
understanding of why it's so important
to address stress as part of a weight
loss strategy now I'm pretty sure that
stress was a significant contributing
factor in my weight gain through my 20s
and 30s I certainly had my fair share of
stress as a medical student and as a
junior doctor and if you are someone who
suffers from stress make sure to watch
this video right until the end because
I've got something a little bit special
for you so I want to start by looking at
what happens to the body in a time of
stress so first of all you have the
stressful event let's take the classic
cavemen ancestors being chased by a
saber-toothed tiger and the observant
among you will notice that that is not a
saber-toothed tiger but I for some
reason couldn't find any videos of those
online so number two your brain has
spotted that threat and it sends a
signal to your adrenal glands to produce
cortisol which is our stress hormone and
adrenaline cortisol then goes on to
prepare the body for that stressful
event and it does so by producing a load
of glucose and that sudden flood of
glucose into the bloodstream it's really
really helpful because you're either
going to be running away from something
or fighting so those large muscles are
going to need energy and that's what the
glucose is for and also we don't want
insulin to suddenly spike up and store
all that glucose is fat so cortisol
actually inhibit
it's insulin production so that glucose
isn't getting stored course I'll also
narrows up the arteries and adrenaline
also increases the heart rate so you get
a raise in your blood pressure and
you're gonna get that glucose delivered
out to your tissues a lot quicker
and then all being well that stress is
going to go away and everything is going
to go back to normal and this hormonal
response to stress has been evolving
pretty much since the dawn of time
you'll see it in pretty much all mammals
but in modern times the way we
experience stress is very very different
it's less of the life-threatening events
more work stress financial stress exam
stress negative online comments or my
own personal favorite stressor being
stuck in traffic and rather annoyingly
our bodies still respond in the same way
to these non-life-threatening stressors
as they do to being chased by a tiger
but before we get into the why this
causes weight gain I want to know from
you are you someone who experiences a
lot of stress in your life just write in
the comments down below distressed or
chills let me know as is the case with
many of the hormones we find in the
human body they're supposed to surge up
exert their effect on the body and then
come back down to a nice normal
background level and this is how our
stress hormones are supposed to work but
if you're getting stressed all the time
then it's gonna be a little bit
different because you're going to be
having persistently raised levels of
cortisol and that has a very different
impact on the body to those hormones
just surging up temporarily and going
back to normal there is a medical
condition which causes persistently
raised cortisol levels and that's really
useful to take a look at because it kind
of gives us an extreme version of what
persistently raised cortisol levels such
as what we'd experienced when we're
persistently stressed does actually do
to the body now Cushing's disease is
caused by a tumor which tau
the adrenal glands to produce high
levels of cortisol on an ongoing basis
and this graphic shows us the different
signs that we see in somebody who's got
Cushing's disease now I'm not going to
go through it all today the one we want
to focus on is the fact game
particularly abdominal fat
now persistently raised cortisol levels
cause fat to be redistributed from all
over your body to around your abdomen
and that's what's called visceral fat
visceral fat isn't the fat that's
overlying your abs so your six-pack
doesn't show it's actually the fat
that's inside your abdomen that's
pushing your abs out from the inside and
it's visceral fat that's associated with
heart disease and a load of other
medical problems now chronic stress also
increases hunger and in particular
people have a tendency to go for those
comfort foods the ones that have the
classic trifecta of badness which is
high fat high refined carbs and high
calories all in one thing so stress is
an important part of the picture when it
comes to talking about why we gain
weight particularly around the abdomen
and it's also a significant block that a
lot of people experience when they're
trying to lose weight so I've seen many
people that are doing all the right
stuff with regards to their diet but if
they are not addressing the stress then
their weight loss can be really really
slow or non-existent at all and I really
wanted to give you some actionable tips
on how to reduce stress in your life and
I know that a lot of people's stress
originates in the workplace so I called
up my good friend dr. Anna Pinkerton who
is a psychologist who helps people
prevent and recover from burnout now
this was supposed to be just a quick
chat over Skype to talk about how we
could actually put something together
that's going to help you but pretty much
as soon as I asked her the question she
came out with just some golden advice
about how to reduce stress and prevent
burnout and thankfully I recorded the
call now this isn't your usual get
massages go to the gym eat well do yoga
of stuff you know that is important but
what actually Ana suggests is far
simpler than that and actually I think
you're going to be surprised about how
simple it is
so I've edited that called down for you
into a nice concise video and the link
to that is gonna be down below this
video so thank you for watching if you
like this video please let me know by
liking the video down below and sharing
it with your friends and family don't
forget to subscribe to my channel and
leave me a comment down below if this
video has helped you have a great week
and I'll see you next Tuesday
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