Health & Fitness
Life Time Fitness, Stress. Less.
We all know what stress is. It can be mental, physical or emotional, but we all know what it feels like. Read to find out healthy ways to decrease your stress levels!
Hello Healthy Readers!
We all know what stress is. It can be mental, physical or emotional, but we all know what it feels like. The sad part is that society has begun to think that it is normal and OK to live in a stressed out state. The truth is that is unhealthy to live this way!
Some things that can be affected when your body is under constant high levels of stress are:
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- elevated cortisol
- insulin resistance
- excessive cravings for high carbohydrate or sugary foods
- belly fat gain
- breakdown of muscle tissue
- increased cholesterol
- loss of sex drive
- loss of quality sleep
- water retention
- digestive problems
So what can we do about stress?! One very effective way to know where your body is most stressed and how it handles it is to check your cortisol levels throughout the day.
We can test these with a lab test called Stress and Resilience. Cotisol should ideally be the highest in the morning, about 30 minutes after you wake, to give you energy for the morning. Cortisol should then have a significant drop from the morning to lunchtime, then have a smaller decrease again into the evening. We want cortisol to be the lowest at night to allow you to fall asleep.
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If cortisol is too high throughout the day, you may be under constant stress, or in what can be described at “fight or flight” mode all day. This can become problematic since your body can only handle that amount of stress for so long before burning out.
When you get to that “burn out” point your body stops producing cortisol and the adrenal glands end up basically shutting down. You may find that you have very little energy and not want to do much of anything. Stress coupled with too high or too low of cortisol levels can lead to many other problems including increased risk for diabetes, decreased lean body mass, increased blood pressure, and many other problems. As far as body composition, unbalanced cortisol is the biggest contributor to belly fat!
Find ways to relive stress here healthline.com and talk to your Health and Fitness Professional about getting your cortisol levels checked to optimize your stress levels and lead a healthy way of life!
That’s it for now. Remember, I’m here for YOU so please share questions and comments below!
—Gina Batcheller, Health and Fitness Professional, Life Time Fitness
