MENOMORPHOSIS

Thursday Thoughts - How Stress Impacts Fat Loss

• Polly Warren

Share episode

On this week’s Monday Motivation, Lucy and I are talking about how stress impacts fat loss.

We discuss how chronic stress keeps your body in survival mode—leading to increased belly fat storage, a slower metabolism, and heightened cravings.

We also explore why a regulated nervous system is key to shifting back into fat-burning mode and share practical ways to support this process.

We hope you find something helpful in this episode.

Love,
Polly & Lucy xx

To find out more about my membership The Inner Space go to: https://www.pollywarren.com/theinnerspace

Email me at: info@pollywarren.com
https://www.pollywarren.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to Thursday Thoughts. Thursday Thoughts what on earth are they? I hear you ask. Well, my friend Lucy and I meet every week over on Instagram to talk all things personal growth, because she is as obsessed with it as I am, and we decided that we might as well put those conversations out as a weekly podcast. So now you can listen to us chat here on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts, and we'll be talking about topics such as spirituality, limiting beliefs, the ego imposter syndrome, gratitude, meditation, confidence and so much more. So if you're ready, here we go.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so this morning. Well, you suggested, because you saw something which I was talking about. Actually, I did a podcast episode on this last week yes, last week which was all about. Well, the podcast episode was about how stress affects fat loss, and when I talked about this on my episode, actually I did start this by saying I actually feel always a little bit uneasy talking about fat loss as somebody who's never really had an issue with weight. I am not joking, I am the heaviest I have ever been because as we age, we are the way our body looks after fat holds, fat really shifts and changes and yeah, I am definitely the heaviest I've ever been and you know I try not to look at scales, but you know sometimes we all can't help a little sneaky peek and just see where we're at. But it's more about how you feel, I think, in your clothes. It's how it's. How I tell is how I feel with my clothes.

Speaker 1:

If my, if my clothes are feeling really tight. It doesn't make me feel good and I know, you know it. It's just personal to every single person. I think, yeah, weight and look, fats and all that sort of thing. And there is a certain part as well to remember that as we get older we are going to carry more weight. It's just what happens. As you go through menopause, your body holds on to more weight. So there is a big part here where we've just got to accept that, that our body shape changes. We can't expect to be wearing those skinny jeans that we once wore in our 20s. It's just not going to happen and what it might do, but it's not realistic. So just to premise, I think, to the whole of our conversation with that, you know there is a certain amount of acceptance and this isn't about oh god, you gotta lose weight, you've got. You know it's. Everyone is very individual and has to go with what feels good. But I don't know about you, lucy.

Speaker 1:

I know personally when I'm feeling, I know what my natural body shape is and how what, how, and so when I'm carrying extra fat because I have I know I've been eating a lot of crap. You know too much of the crap food or haven't been moving enough, then, yes, I want to do something about it yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Um, I mean, you know I think this can sometimes trigger people, but I don't think it should, because it's not like we're sat here going, oh, everybody should be really skinny and you know, everybody needs to lose weight. No, no, no, that's, that's not what we're doing.

Speaker 2:

So please do not get triggered by this conversation we are allowed to talk about weight loss and fat loss without feeling guilty about it and I, like you, I my natural, what my body is naturally like, and I personally do not want to go into the rest of my life feeling uncomfortable with my body, and that is my choice. And again, if that triggers anyone, sorry, but it's but it's. You know we are allowed to feel like that and I personally want to make sure that I pretty much stay the same. I don't want to, and I have spoken about this before. I put I put on so much weight when I went into menopause a few years ago and I didn't fucking like it. It's as simple as that. So I now I'm looking for ways to get back to the body that feels natural for me and I, like you, I've always been really lucky that I've never really had to worry about my weight. But I tell you something since I hit menopause which was probably what four or five years ago now and I'm only 49.

Speaker 2:

Um, I have noticed the difference and I do not like how it feels. And I noticed that not only do I put on weight so much easier, but I also it also is so much harder to get rid of that, that particularly that belly fat and Polly. Can you just talk a little bit about why stress means that we hold onto fat? And part of the time you know, half the time that is really likely to be a reason why people are holding or finding it harder to shift weight. Um, you know, I don't think many of us realize that it can really be to do with how stressed you are. That is part of the reason why you're putting on so much weight yeah, I mean it, really it.

Speaker 1:

I don't think it's talked about enough, because we know, you know, obviously what you put into your body is is really, really, really important, and unfortunately it's really hard these days just to go to a supermarket and buy nice, fresh food. So obviously, what we put in is of vital importance. Obviously moving your body is vitally important. But stress is also such a massive factor in and I like to kind of I kind of rather than we talk about weight, I like to kind of call it like fat loss, because it's really that's what we're looking to do is get rid of the fat. So there's three main reasons why when we're stressed, it's much, much harder to lose that fat and let go of that fat. Firstly, we, when we're stressed, it's much, much harder to lose that fat and let go of that fat. Firstly, we, when we're stressed if you think about it, when all those millions of years, all those thousands of years ago, when your body goes into a stress response, it's obviously it's probably trying to survive. It's from either running away from a bear or a lion, or if there's famine, there's not enough to eat, so your body thinks it's being super clever by clinging on to any bit of fat that it already has, because it's just keeping you safe. It's trying to cling on to it in case that you can't, you know, doesn't know when its next meal is going to be. So your body hasn't really evolved from that. So if you are starving it by not eating at all, it's going to probably want to cling on even tighter to that fat. But if you are stressed, and you're, you are in your stress response and you're not returning back to your parasympathetic, to your rest and digest, um part of your nervous system, your body's going to think you're in this constant state of survival, so it's going to cling on. And we have more cortisol receptors around our belly than anywhere else in our body body, and so that is why often, as you know, someone who's very, very stressed will cling on to the stress around their belly because your body again thinks it's being super clever, holding on to, um, the fat in that area and what happens is that when it's, it's kind of there for quick release. So quick release if it needs to go to the liver or you know, and so it's.

Speaker 1:

Firstly, it's very hard to let go of the fat in really stressful situations because it's trying to cling on. Secondly, our metabolism tends to slow as well when we're very, very stressed. And so if you've got a low that's your metabolism is like when you're doing nothing it's how much energy your body is burning at rest and if you've got a slower metabolism, then obviously you're not going to be burning as much off. So you're going to keep that weight on. And the reason for that is that, again, because your body feels like it's in a stress response and is needing quick energy just in case it needs to run away. It's breaking down things like your muscle tissue to get that energy and that. And your muscle is basically what is a, what we want lots of as we get older, because it keeps your metabolism high. Okay, so we don't want to break down our muscle tissue, so we want as much muscle tissue as possible.

Speaker 1:

Um, so obviously that's why lifting weights is great, but the problem is, if you're really, really stressed there, it can also stop a protein I can't remember the name of the protein. There's a protein which helps build muscle, but if you're stressed, the cortisol blocks that from happening. So again, it almost prevents you from building muscle as well. So it's really super, super important. And the third reason is stress will intensify cravings for sugar and processed foods. And again, that's because of that quick, that need.

Speaker 1:

When you're in a very stressed state, you know, imagine survival running away. You need fast glucose, you need lots of energy very quickly. So again your body thinks it's being super cool and really brilliant. They're going right, go and eat the sugary snacks because we need some fast action, um, energy, and so that's why you crave that.

Speaker 1:

And on top of that, there is another reason. Actually it, if you think, your body is constantly pumping out cortisol, your stress hormone. When you're stressed it's interfering with your other hormones. So obviously your sex hormones, so your progesterone, estrogen, which isn't great if you're going through menopause and perimenopause, but also your hunger hormone, ghrelin, and your, your, your fullness hormone, the hormone which tells you when you're full, leptin, and so it's just so unfair. It basically tells you, you know, disrupts those those kind of messaging signals. So it kind of almost messes up telling you when you're full and when you're hungry, making you more hungry and not telling you that you're full.

Speaker 1:

So all of this throw that all into a big melting pot. There's a lot of things there which can really mess up any efforts that you're making to lose fat. So you might well be going to the gym, you might well be eating healthy food, but if you're stuck in a chronic stress response, it's virtually impossible to lose that fat. And when I say a chronic stress response, that is basically when you're stuck in your sympathetic side of your nervous system. It means you don't have that flexibility to return back to your parasympathetic. I'm not saying that you can't be stressed, because we're all going to get stressed yeah, it's. Are you? Are you able to return back to a relaxed state? It's that flexibility between the nervous systems.

Speaker 2:

There you go in a nutshell, I think it's. It's so interesting thanks, polly, because you're so knowledgeable about this, and I actually want to ask you a question. Um, this is about because, because, inevitably, this conversation is going to lead us on to talk about things like breathwork and meditation, because those are things that we can use to get back into our parasympathetic nervous system, and my question to you is rather so. So what we, what we don't necessarily want to be doing is, every time we feel stressed, having to, you know, sit and meditate for 15 minutes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and you, you and I both, I mean I, I would say I do my breathwork, slash meditation. I would say I do it five out of seven days. I try and do it more, but I would say on average, it's probably five out of seven days. So my question to you is when you are consistently doing meditation and or breathwork, is that, is that helping in general to keep you in your parasympathetic nervous system, or does it have to be that you need to do those practices when you are feeling stressed? Or does the practice I mean, I think I, I fit my understanding is that the consistency of doing those practices is going to just help your body, help you in general to spend more time in your parasympathetic than in your sympathetic nervous system. Yes, does that make sense?

Speaker 1:

yes, so stress is just part of your human experience. We're all going to have that. The difference is whether you are have a regulated nervous system or an a dysregulated nervous system. So if you have a dysregulated nervous system, that kind of means that you that your flexibility between switching between your stress state and your relaxed state is not particularly good. You're probably stuck in the stress state. That's what we kind of would call a dysregulated nervous system.

Speaker 1:

If you are stressed and you have a regulated nervous system, that's OK because you're in your stress response and then you'll. You've got that flexibility to return back. So the difference is, if you're stressed, yes, you can use a practice like a breath practice in the moment. But let's be honest, it's blimmin difficult when you're feeling really freaking, stressed out, to go oh, I'm just going to breathe really gently. Now you can, absolutely you can. But actually that's really hard to do and it's going to be so much more effective if you already have a regulated nervous system. So how we get the regulated nervous system is through the regular practice, is through the yeah, doing it all the time. So you know, you remind your body how to do it so it has that flexibility and oh my god, what was I going to ask you?

Speaker 2:

um, oh shit, I forgot what my question was. Oh no, I've completely forgot. I had a question off the back of this and it's gone out of my head. Always happens speaking of, uh, menopause, menopause, menopause. Um, oh shit. Oh, I can't remember. I'm sure it'll come to me okay, okay essentially, we want to be trying to do practices consistently that are going to affect our like, are going to regulate our nervous system. That's driving me mad. I will remember it. Yeah, yeah exactly so.

Speaker 1:

Practice, which I'm just going to keep you in a really nice regulated state so that you are able to shift very easily between your stress response and being more relaxed. That is what we want, and that takes practice and it take and it's so, so, and then, of course, you can still do, in the moment, a breath practice to help you. That's just going to help you bring you down, but, um, but what we want is just to feel more, you know, in like regulated generally, and yeah, so the practices we can do, for that we can do. You know, obviously, meditation is really brilliant. It's just, it's just these practice, if you just think, any practice where you feel really really calm, really relaxed, so even if it's going for a beautiful walk outside, if it's listening to music, if it's journaling, if it's doing a meditation, if it's breathwork.

Speaker 1:

The reason, though, I particularly love breathwork is because your breath is like a direct line to your nervous system, because every time you breathe in, you're kind of activating your sympathetic. Every time you breathe out, you're at, you're kind of accessing more your parasympathetic. So it's much easier to do it that way rather than to start by thinking your way out of the stress because we've got the vagus nerve which runs through our body, from our brain down to into our body, and the messaging of that is at 80 percent come from the body up to the brain and only 20 percent come from the brain down to the body. So if you think, if you're trying to think your way out of it, only 20 percent of that is getting into your body. But if you're getting into your body first by using your breath, 80 percent those messages saying I'm safe, I'm okay, I'm going to go back up to your brain. So that is why I particularly think it's so powerful using your breath.

Speaker 2:

And yeah, totally, I mean I always now start my meditation off. I mean, basically the session that I do in the morning is a combination of meditation and breath work, but I I start with breath work and what I tend like. For example, this morning what I did was I basically after I'd done Cockatoo Lou, which is where I guide other people through intentional breathing and meditation and visualization, I then sit down and do my own. And this morning I did half an hour and I basically started with about 10 minutes of intentional breathing where I breathed in for four through the nose and out for eight through the mouth, so in for four through the nose, out for eight through the mouth and then, after I'd done that for about 10 minutes, I then go into about 10 minutes of quote meditation. And I mean I and the thing about it is is that the the more I do it, the more I bloody love it.

Speaker 2:

And I know these things can initially feel really uncomfortable and really hard, but actually that's why it has to be a consistent practice, because it, you know I said, slightly annoys me when people think that meditation is going to work within a week, because of course it's not. It's like expecting to go to the gym and have a set, have a six-pack within two weeks and it's, and then also expecting that six-pack to remain when you stop exercising. Well, of course you know it doesn't work. You have to keep going to the gym consistent.

Speaker 2:

It's like you have to think of these, these practices of the nervous system, as the same as we think about physical exercise, because we all know that if we want to get in shape or whatever it is, it's going to take us several months before we start to see results. And it's the same with meditation, it's the same with breath work. You have to be consistent to to benefit from, you know, to get all the benefits from it. Um and polly. The thing I remember, the thing that I was going to ask you, is how, how do, how, does somebody know if they have a dysregulated nervous system? How, like what, are the kind of obvious symptoms?

Speaker 2:

of a dysregulated nervous system.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay so things like do you lose your temper like that? You know if something irritates you, do you? How? You know how quick are you to react. That's a really big trigger, you know.

Speaker 1:

If you get triggered easily, that's a really good sign that you perhaps have got a dysregulated nervous system. If you, your muscles are really tense, if you've got tense shoulders, you know you, that might mean that you're breathing up from your chest. So that's another sign, you know. Do you feel quite breathless or do you struggle to take a full, deep breath or or to exhale fully? That might be another sign um not being able to concentrate very well. Uh, not being able to focus, maybe feeling quite foggy in your head, um, stomach aches or bloating or digestive issues. So when you're stressed it's very difficult to digest your food properly because in your stress response your body doesn't prioritize digestion, as it doesn't prioritize, um having sex or anything like that fertility, because obviously you're just trying to survive. So if you're feeling like your, you know your monthly cycle is off. If you're feeling really bloated after food, that could be a really good sign that you're just in your stress response. You know, so many people struggle with IBS symptoms, but quite often it could just be. You just need to focus on, on. You know, de-stressing.

Speaker 1:

Um, sleep is if issues again, if you can't, if you're struggling with sleep or poor quality sleep again if you think, if you're in your heightened stress response. It's very difficult to sleep because your cortisol levels are elevated and what we want when we go to sleep is for those cortisol levels to come down. And as they come down, our melatonin levels, our sleep hormone, start to rise, but they work. They work like a seesaw. So you can't. Your melatonin levels, our sleep hormone, start to rise, but they work. They work like a seesaw. So you can't, your melatonin levels can't rise if your cortisol levels are still so and I suppose that's it.

Speaker 2:

That's one of the main reasons, isn't it to get off screens like an hour before you go to bed? Yeah, I've started getting back into the habit of reading in bed because I was finding that I was just, you know, on my screen, on a screen whether it was my laptop or my phone until you know, five minutes before I get into bed. It's the worst thing and actually I I find that when I read in bed, I always go to sleep easier and I think I sleep better. And probably, going back, yeah, going back to the, the relation between stress and fat loss, is it fair to say that if you are looking to lose fat and or meditation could actually be what you need to regulate your nervous system and subsequently start to lose?

Speaker 2:

belly fat would that be fair to say?

Speaker 1:

absolutely. I've just had, absolutely I've just had a one-to-one client and she, uh, we worked together for 12 weeks we've just finished and when she came to me she was, she had all of those symptoms. She was in a really heightened stress response, chronic stress, and she wanted to. You know she really wanted to lose some fat. She really did. But we didn't focus on that at all. We just focused on building a breath practice, regulating her nervous system and, okay, yes, she was also thinking about her diet, but she also had a knee injury through that time, so she couldn't really move much. Yes, she was also thinking about her diet, but she also had a knee injury through that time, so she couldn't really move much, but she was thinking about what she was eating. So in the last five weeks she lost something like 15 pounds. It just started to fall off her and I am absolutely convinced it's because her nervous system was, has become so much more regulated and, yeah, and before that she was sort of cling on to it she was in such a stress state.

Speaker 1:

Yes, absolutely, it's such a fundamental part of it if you want to lose fat to to build in a practice which is going to really help down regulate you and also just to know as well here, um, you know when we're you know there was such a kind of story about okay, I want to lose weight, so I'm going to eat less, exercise more. We all know, hopefully, now, that eating less isn't necessarily the answer. It I mean, okay, you, you've got to think about the quantities, but actually it's more about what you are eating. But exercising more again might not be what you need. Think about what type of exercise are you doing, because if you're doing shitloads of HIIT workouts, for example, what's that doing to your body? It's stressing your body. Exercise puts your body under a certain amount of stress.

Speaker 1:

If something like a HIIT workout or doing those sprints or that sort of workout actually might not be advisable, if you are going to do that type of workout, it is absolutely essential that afterwards you have some sort of down regulation practice. So if you really want to do the HIIT workout, make sure afterwards you spend five minutes, 10 minutes, doing a breath practice with an extended exhale, to really remind your body that the stress is over. You can now relax and to return back to the parasympathetic and you read. So that message, polly, um, I'll read it out, so it says I'm so. Thank you, northern laughs. Living in wales, I'm stressed. As soon as I wake, I always feel as if my head is in the clouds. I would love to regulate my nervous system. I've been like this for years and I have really had enough.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I feel for you, you should work with Polly. Come and work with me, I can absolutely help you. I would very happily chat with you, but building a down regulation practice If you, I would very happily. Northern Lass, if you want to do a free assessment. We can just really track.

Speaker 1:

Have a look at your where your breath is. Your breath is such a telltale sign in this, because when you're really stressed, often our breath is we're breathing from our chest, and when we breathe through our chest, eye up, it's it. That's how your body breathes when it's stressed. But it's a vicious loop because then it's reminding your, your, your nervous system that you are stressed, so it keeps you there. So, oh, I'll send you a message afterwards, um, and we'll sort that out. So, yeah, it's it. You know we are stressed in this day and age. It's just part, unfortunately, of the way that we live, which is why both of us are so passionate about trying to encourage as many people as we can to find ways to down regulate. Stress is always going to be there, but it's about finding ways to just bring a little bit of down regulation into your day-to-day so that you can toggle easily between the two.

Speaker 2:

And also one thing to also point out, um one. One thing to also point out about this is when we are just chronically stressed and subsequently in our sympathetic nervous system way more than we should be there. I mean, you know, not to mention, there are so many bad things that you know, health-wise that can happen as a result of being in your sympathetic more than your parasympathetic we're supposed that you know health-wise that can happen as a result of being in your sympathetic more than your parasympathetic we're supposed to. You know, the way that we evolved is that we're supposed to that sympathetic nervous system is supposed to kick in temporarily and then we are supposed to automatically go back into our rest and digest our parasympathetic nervous system. And the problem is that that in this day and age it's like anything and everything puts us into that stress state, and so, you know, we can get an email that makes us feel really anxious, or we can be worried about doing a presentation at work and all of these things. You know we're not being chased by a fucking tiger. These things shouldn't warrant us going into our sympathetic, but we do, and that's just how we've evolved.

Speaker 2:

And one thing I was going to say is that when you are in your sympathetic, not only I mean, obviously we're talking about this in relation to fat loss today but not only does it cause you to potentially hold on to fat more than you otherwise would. Also it stops you from being creative and it stops you from thinking clearly. So you know, this is something polly and I talk about all the time when it comes to like wanting to make changes in your life and work out where you want to go. When you are stuck in your sympathetic nervous system, you cannot think clearly and you cannot be creative, you can't, you're not intuitive, you're not, you're not able to access those higher states of being because you're just in that fight, flight or freeze response. So you're kind of frozen in that and you can't access those, those other higher parts of yourself. So so it's much harder to kind of change your life or bring into your life the things that you want when you're stuck in your sympathetic. So it's yet another reason to, yeah, really prioritize. Um, you know, adding one of these things and you know one or both. I mean, as I say, I combine meditation and breath work every morning, or five out of seven, I would say, and and I know that it's made a big difference to me.

Speaker 2:

I used to be hugely reactive. I still can be, don't get me wrong, but I think we all can be sometimes, can't we? She says, making excuses. Um, and I definitely still can be, but far, far less than I used to be.

Speaker 2:

And when things kind of go wrong, whatever you know, relatively speaking, when something goes wrong or when something pisses me off or something annoys me, I deal with it so much better than I used to like.

Speaker 2:

I like things don't get to me in the way that they used to like. I just used to get annoyed about, you know, whatever it was and something would just really wind me up, and then I'd hold on to it for three hours and I'd be banging on about it at the end of this end of the day, whereas now, not only do these things not affect me in the same way, because I'm able to respond instead of react, I don't hold on to them. So many of us are kind of walking through the world just getting, you know, reacting to these little things that really don't matter. They really don't matter, they're not going to matter in a week's time, but we hold on to them, we keep ourselves stressed, and for sure I know that having this practice of breath, work and meditation over the last few years has massively, massively changed the way that I now I'm able to respond to things instead of react yeah, it's so true.

Speaker 1:

And what you were saying about creativity is such a big one, because when you're in your stress response, you, if you think about it, you are just focusing on survival. So you're just don't need to have this sort of wider outlook on life. You're just so hyper vigilant on that one thing of getting to safety so it's virtually impossible to kind of look at things with a light wider lens, so you become very narrow focused. And that's when people really get stuck in their ways and have there's no room for move, for moving, and you can't.

Speaker 2:

You know, you just can't have a see beyond your problems you can't see that there's opportunity. You can't see that there's possibility exactly.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah and so, and also, you know, in the whole creative thing as much, while we all get the good ideas in the shower, because it's actually a chance where you're just you know, you've got everything switched off, you're in the shower and actually I don't know about you, but that's when the good ideas drop in. Or at the end for me, at the end of like a breath work or meditation you get the good ideas drop in because you're in a stress, you're in a reduced stress state. So, yes, we can't champion this enough, can we?

Speaker 2:

no, no, absolutely not. But but honestly, anybody who wants to go further in this, I would, I, I, I cannot highly recommend working with polly enough. So she's bloody awesome and she knows her shit, as you can, as you can tell from this conversation. Thank you well it's not amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, thanks for listening, um, I will get in touch with you. Northern last thanks for um for being here and listening and, yeah, we'll see you next week same time, same. Bye, love, lots of love, take care bye.