Have you noticed you are gaining weight lately? As your body nears menopause, it burns calories less efficiently. The end result is that although you may be following the same diet that kept you slim at 30, it no longer works when you’re 40 or 50. Cutting a mere 100 calories from your daily consumption can put you back on track. What’s 100 calories? It’s equal to a small snack. Another way to look at it: At the end of the day, it’s the same as leaving two bites of every meal untouched on your plate.
John’s Hopkins University reported that a study of more than 2000 women in their forties and fifties found that stress resulted in weight gain in the majority. Contrary to the popular notion that stressful life events result in a loss of appetite and weight loss, study authors speculate that stress causes the body to conserve fat and expend fewer calories. Studies done over the past couple years have found that stress causes weight gain in two main ways. The first is by overeating. Many people respond to stress by eating. If this is you, try to determine if your hunger is real or imagined. If you just want to eat because you’re stressed, it’s time to retrain your body to relieve stress in a healthful way. Instead of eating, exercise, take a walk or a bubble bath. It takes you away from the situation and away from the kitchen. The second way stress causes weight gain is that when people are stressed, more fat is deposited in the abdomen from the stress hormones produced. The best way to reverse this is to exercise and stress management. It is essential to reduce the overall perceived stress feeling.
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