Support weight loss and maintenance
Raffaella Quieti Cartledge, Nutritional Therapist, London
One of the main recommendations I give my clients is how to eat, not just what to eat. Because of our high stress levels, we often eat in a hurry, in a stressful environment or on the go. Stress is harmful and it contributes to excess body weight.
Millions of years ago, our bodies were designed to react quickly to danger. Like wild animals we were on constant alert so we could fight or run if threatened. When your brain thinks your life is in danger, it stimulates the release of adrenaline and cortisol that trigger the following reactions: your heart rate speeds up and your blood pressure rises; the clotting ability of your blood increases (in case you are injured); your digestion shuts down and your liver immediately releases emergency stores of glucose into the bloodstream to give you instant energy to fight or run.
This fight or flight response is clever and efficient as it provides instant energy for 5-10 minutes allowing you to react swiftly to dangerous situations.
The problem is our lives have completely changed but evolution is lagging behind: our bodies still react in the same way but to modern stresses such as deadlines, traffic jams, screaming children.
The problem with many modern lifestyles is that stress (our ‘perceived threat’) is almost continuous and comes without the natural release that either fighting or fleeing might provide. Unless you do something physical (as your body is expecting you to) all that extra energy, in the form of fat and glucose, gets re-deposited as fat.
After a stressful event, cortisol levels in the blood often remain high for a while, effectively increasing your appetite because your body thinks you should refuel after all this fighting or fleeing. This means people under stress quite often feel hungry. Worse, their body urges them to stock up on the foods it thinks will be most useful after all that ‘activity’: carbohydrates and fats.
If you eat something sugary or fatty as a consequence of the post-stress appetite surge, any weight you gain as a result will be around your middle too.
The reason fat targets the middle is because it is close to the liver where it can most quickly be converted back into energy if required. There it provides the body with protection ready for the next stress attack.
Your body is only trying to help. To continue providing the energy it thinks you need, the body tries to keep a convenient fat store ready for constant use and creates cravings and increases appetite to ensure ready supplies of necessary fuel (M. Glenville, 2013).
This is why I recommend my clients who want to lose weight to work on stress reduction in addition to healthy nutrition. I look at each individual’s lifestyle and recommend simple steps to reduce stress levels. This could be the simple act of focussing on easy breathing techniques to do though the day. In particular before, during and after meals to reduce cortisol production, and at the same time give the body the time to activate enzymes that allow us to metabolize and utilize better the nutrients we take in. Eat in a calm environment, chew slowly and several times, eat slowly in order to favour enzyme production that will support a healthy digestion.
In terms of food advice, based on the client’s food diary I am likely to recommend an increase of vegetables intake (up to 8 cups per day) and choose colourful foods. I also calculate the amount of fibre to eat, in order to help eliminate waste (including excess oestrogen if that is the case) from the body. Good sources of fibre are oats, rice, vegetables, linseed, pulses, beans and wholegrains.
I also stress the importance of regular exercise. The lymphatic system, part of the body’s complex immune system, is dependent on physical activity to help stimulate its circulation and remove fluid and toxins from the tissues. Movement and exercise help transport and utilise oxygen throughout the body. Moderate exercise reduces the impact of stress, but excessive exercise can add to stress levels and is immunosuppressive
Additionally, I recommend my clients to buy organic products wherever possible. Non-organic produce usually contains pesticides and chemical residues which the liver has to work hard to detoxify.
Other suggestions include: intake of the correct amount of water (2 lt) throughout the day, the avoidance of sugar, salt and refined/processed foods, careful selection of protein sources and the correct amount of proteins (to have at every main meal, including breakfast) based on body weight. For non-vegetarian clients, I recommend oily fish, organic eggs and live natural yogurt as preferred sources of animal protein, together with vegetable sources of protein such as lentils and beans.
