Stress is just a part of life, and if you are breathing, you are likely to experience it on some level. Preventing weight gain from stress for women over 50 is not easy, but it can be done. You can lose and maintain weight over 50 with mindful eating, specific strategies, and a whole lot of planning.
Since being stressed out makes it harder to prevent weight gain for women over 50, learning and experimenting with different strategies to respond to stress should be your number one priority.
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There are a few things women over 50 cannot control as it relates to how easy it is to gain weight. Decreased muscle mass and slower metabolism happen to all of us as we age, and those things contribute to weight gain. Being less active, reaching for food with no nutritional value which is common when you are stressed out, doesn’t help either.
Add with menopause into the mix, and you have the perfect storm for weight gain.
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Other Factors That Contribute To Weight Gain For Women Over 50
- A decrease in muscle mass
- Slower metabolism
- Inactive lifestyle
- Fluctuations in hormones estrogen and progesterone due to menopause
- Insomnia – common for women going through menopause
- Unstable thyroid hormone levels
The first thing to do is to see your health care provider for some baseline lab work. Once you understand where you are starting from, you may want to work with a nutritionist to come up with some general ideas for a workable eating plan.
If you are given the green light that your lab tests are okay, and you can engage in some form of physical activity, try to keep everything simple. It may take a little time to find stress-reducing activities you’ll enjoy, but you will only need to incorporate a few to see your weight start to stabilize.
So, you can’t control all the hormonal changes associated with getting older or the decrease in muscle and a slower metabolism. However, what you can control is the hormone that contributes to weight gain, and that girlfriend is cortisol.
Women Over 50 Can Prevent Weight Gain From Stress By Controlling Cortisol
Cortisol is known as the fight or flight or “stress” hormone. It came in handy during the prehistoric era by keeping our ancestors alert and quick to react in dangerous situations. There were many more dangerous scenarios to navigate in those days.
In our modern times, the stress we feel from a difficult day at work or being in an unhealthy relationship causes us to produce cortisol in much the same way our ancestors did. The difference is we don’t live in a constant state of fight or flight the way they did in prehistoric times.
We all experience fear, (some more than others) but I’ll go out on a limb and assume your fear doesn’t compare to the threat of being eaten by a dinosaur. Therefore, we don’t need to produce high levels of cortisol to keep us safe.
If you are in a chronically stressed state with high cortisol levels, you’ll not only be at risk for weight gain, but also other serious health problems like adrenal insufficiency, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Yikes!😲
Your body is not meant to maintain elevated cortisol levels or high levels of stress.
Cortisol has a purpose, but our contemporary lives don’t warrant the use of cortisol the way it was needed millions of years ago. You can tell when you’re stressed by how the events in your life make you feel, but the urge to unhealthy foods comes from elevated cortisol.
In high-stress situations, cortisol levels go up, and insulin levels climb. The kicker is your blood sugar decreases while all this is happening. You wind up feeling hungry, but not for the healthiest foods. What you reach for are sugary, fatty, comfort foods.
As someone with a long history of stress eating, I can tell when I’m stressed just by how often I reach for a snack. I can also tell if I’m stressed by my snacking choices. Through trial and error, I have come up with several strategies that help me keep my weight from getting too out of control.
Weight gain from stress doesn’t have to coincide with menopause. Along with practicing mindful eating, as a woman over 50 you can prevent weight gain from stress by stabilizing appetite-stimulating cortisol levels.
Trying some of the following strategies could help:
10 Ways To Prevent Weight Gain From Stress For Women Over 50
1. Learn to let go. There are some battles that just aren’t worth fighting. If you can learn to extract yourself from petty disagreements, I encourage you to do it. Don’t get sucked in!
Learn to figure out what gets you stirred up unnecessarily and decide to walk away. Monitor what you watch on television too. If watching the news is upsetting, don’t tune in as often.
I find that I can’t watch certain types of movies late in the day because I’ll still be thinking about them at bedtime.
2. Cut way back on sugar and refined carbohydrates. I never told myself I couldn’t eat anything when I was losing weight a few years ago. Being told I can’t have something only makes me want whatever it is all the more. It’s almost like I’m still a rebellious teenager inside.
Bread, pasta, rice turn to sugar as soon as you consume one bite so beware. Make sure you purchase good quality bread without enriched wheat flour. Have sweet potatoes, brown rice, or gluten-free pasta if you’re the meat and potatoes type.
If you must have starches, earlier in the day before 3 pm is better because you’ll use those carbs up by the evening. Above all, practice portion control. With non-starchy vegetables, you can be more relaxed with portions.
3. Decide how you want to structure your eating ahead of time. For example, my tendency is to reach for snacks when I’m bored, or if I feel like I’m under a lot of pressure. So, I compromise by having something that I love, like nuts instead of chips.
Having hummus with baby carrots, or sliced bell peppers also can do the trick as well. Sometimes I’ll make a pot of nutrient-dense vegetable soup to have on hand for the week which keeps me full and satisfied.
4. Exercise, but don’t force yourself to do an exercise you don’t like. You don’t want to dread exercising and stress yourself out thinking about it. I love walking for this reason. It’s the way your legs work naturally and gets you from point A to point B so you’re fulfilling more than just one need, all from just walking.
On your weekends, plan activities that serve more than one purpose, are time-consuming, and require your total concentration. Any activity you can think of that would make it difficult or even impossible to mindlessly eat is a good idea.
For example, yard work and gardening are activities serve more than one purpose. You get tons of movement in and the reward is a beautiful landscape.😀
Redecorating a room and rearranging the furniture is also an example of an activity that serves a dual purpose. Activities that make it almost impossible to eat simultaneously can be your secret weapon against mindless eating.
Picking an exercise or activity that can accomplish something that you get to check off of your to-do list, it’s a real win-win situation. Seeing less on your to-do list is a great stress buster.
5. Substitute mindless snacking. Sometimes you are just going to give in to temptation. It happens. The best thing to do is to accept it because it’s not the end of the world. You’ll learn from it, pivot and know what to do when you are in that situation again.
If you have mindlessly eaten something against your better judgment, you could prepare yourself for when that happens again – because it will! By giving yourself a list of alternative activities to choose from, you can prevent yourself from going down a slippery slope in the future.
For instance, instead of snacking after dinner, reach for a cup of decaf tea or a glass of lemon water. Rather than go in the kitchen at all, skip watching TV if you feel triggered and go read a book.
Distract yourself by doing something in the house that you can cross off your list the next day. If it’s early in the evening and you don’t want to start a big product you won’t be able to finish, declutter a dresser drawer, or the top shelf in your closet.
You only need about 20-30 minutes of distraction to delay yourself from mindlessly eating. If you think about it long enough, you could come up with a gazillion other activities you can do other than eat.
6. Try some self-care before bed. If it’s the evening and you have trouble falling asleep, take a bath with Epsom salts. The magnesium will relax your muscles which will get you prepared to fall asleep.
7. Write in your journal. Unloading nagging thoughts before bed is always relaxing. Light a candle, put on some soft music and grab your journal. This works like magic in my opinion because it puts me in a better headspace.
8. Meditate or pray to calm your mind. Much like journaling, meditation is something that works similarly to journaling. Being still with your eyes closed, inhaling and exhaling slow and controlled will shift your focus from self-destructive behavior.
You’ll begin to explore where the impulsive urge to eat is coming from and choose a better way to respond to what you need.
Mediating on what you are grateful for shifts your mindset to a state of abundance if you’re trying to fill a void by eating. If you are spiritual, prayer is just as effective. Just having faith in a higher power can give you a sense of relief about life’s problems.
9. Try diffusing some essential oils. I’m very much a beginner when it comes to essential oils, but I absolutely love them. Lately, there isn’t a day that goes by without me diffusing my favorite essential oil blends. Lavender is a well known essential oil used for reducing anxiety and helping to prepare for sleep. It really does work.
10. Make a plan each evening for how you will spend your free time during the week. Use a planner to structure your life and the activities you need to do. Then add to your planner how you want to spend your free time and how to prepare for it.
Some people think organizing your time is too rigid but it reduces stress because being prepared takes more off your plate. The bottom line, preparation minimizes decision fatigue and will also reduce stress.
Learn To Have Compassion For Yourself
For some women over 50 that have lost weight (like myself)t, trying to keep it off is especially challenging during stressful times. Instead of getting upset if you’ve gained a few pounds take a step back and forgive yourself.
Then look at how far you have come in your weight loss journey and feel good that you are not at the beginning. You already know what it takes to prevent weight gain and now you have more tools. But be creative!
Your life and your needs may call for a different list of strategies to prevent stress-related weight gain. Just remember, having compassion for yourself will shift your mindset to one of acceptance, rather than frustration.
The chances of reducing stress are higher if you can change your perception of the issues at hand.
If you are a woman over 50, do you have any tips and tricks to help prevent weight gain from stress?
I would love to hear from you!
Sources:
https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/stress-weight-gain#1
https://www.healthline.com/health/stress/stress-and-weight-gain#treatment
