Cortisol vs. YOU

It’s that hour of the day again, lunch. You’ve spent the entire morning watching the clock and checking face book for a new poke or two behind the bosses back. Panicking when footsteps thump down the corridor. Now it’s time to go for that run. Time to reverse the damage the weekend “war on indulgence” had caused.

You congratulate yourself as you jog on the treadmill, sweating profusely this is the first time you’ve actually stuck with an exercise routine for longer than 2 days. You come in everyday, bash the belt for a good 45 minutes, then return after work to partake in the deafening roar which is group exercise.

You return home after a long day at work, with the boss harassing you for his monthly finance report, and the gym. You step on the scale and it hasn’t budged a millimetre. You’re understandably disheartened.

“Why haven’t I lost weight?” you ask yourself.

The answer is no secret. It’s stress.

It’s been said time and time again. Don’t stress. However, it is scarcely discussed scientifically. Here I will provide YOU with the knowledge to know understand WHY this happens.

It all begins with your body. Evolved over millions of years, the human body has dealt with gruelling circumstances from the beginning of time. Lack of food, disease, war, security, financial stability and relationships are all stressors, which have survived the test of time. The most important of which, in this situation is lack of food.

Ever heard of the theory “energy in < energy out”?

What this basically means is, you should exercise more than you eat. This is often misleading in its effectiveness because surprisingly enough the less you eat the more stressed your body becomes. This is due to your bodies’ inability to know that you’re now living in the 21st century, where food is readily available. This wasn’t always the case. We once had to hunt for our food, which would mean not eating for days on end. When this occurs in the body an automatic response system beings to operate, very efficiently I might add, and your body begins to increase the amount of fat cells. This leads to increased fat storage for survival and later use. After all, who knows when you’ll catch your next boar?

The unfortunate fact about this “security” mechanism for women is that the female body has a far greater efficiency in storing fat, than the males. This is due to the natural cycle of life. Women are the givers of life, and therefore the future of the human race. Men matter less when it comes to survival of the species.

Andray