weight loss and stress

Yesterday a patient was telling me how difficult it is to lose weight when stress consumes her entire life. From personal issues with her family to the eroding retirement accounts to the chronic bad news in the papers about flu epidemics, the patient felt that everywhere she turns, there is no peace. Like so many people, she has been turning to high-caloric saboteurs (remember...we do not allow the terms "sweets" "treats" and "goodies") as some form of stress treatment.

It is easy to tell someone to put their IPOD headphones on and exercise instead of reaching for food, but in reality it is difficult sometimes to handle stress by exercising. But remember at all times that eating a food source does NOTHING to make the stock market go up, make the price of your house rise or make an elderly relative get over their health issue. You must try to summon your internal forces to understand that under stressful times, you, as the matriarch or patriarch of your family, needs to be healthy to be there to help your loved ones. Succumbing to stress-induced eating does NOTHING to eliminate the stressors, and in fact, will worsen them if YOU put yourself at health risk.

Other subjects: Launch event at Dr. Shara's office went very well last nite. She has a wonderful office in Old Towne and if any of you need a great chiropractor to help your back or neck pains, my niece is the best! (okay, some nepotism here, but this is my blog so I can do this!!!)

Last reminder..Channel 9 news at 11PM will have a story about our program....tune in to find out whether we are touted as the best weight loss program in town or will the GWU doctor slam us! News at 11!!!

The Recession and Weight Loss

I read the Washington Post every morning and over the past number of months, there had not been one issue that doesnt hold doom and gloom. From the stock market swoon to reading stories about how companies that have received bailout aid from US (remember...it is our taxes) continue to hold retreats, lavish their CEOs and waste money. I believe I talk for most of you reading this blog that no one comes to our "aid", meaning that we all work hard, earn our money, and we all find the necessity to not spend more than we earn. And if we did, there would be no one handing us money to "bail us out".

So, what does this have to do with weight loss? The answer is two fold: first, when under stressful situations such as the current economic times, the tendency is to start doing stress eating. This of course solves nothing, other than making us less healthy. It sure doesn't change the state of affairs. Secondly, it is clear that you and I will have to work longer than expected (laughing...perhaps I meant "you", not me, cause I will only stop working when they have to cart me outta here horizontal..I love this place) and we better make sure that we do not have a heart attack stroke or some other serious illness that will prerclude us from working those extra years. Putting weight on because of stress eating will lower our life expectancy and certainly put at risk our years of work futuristically.

Check out Linda's blog at: www.stresseaterdiet.com It has some excellent insights that may help you ward off the compunction to stress eat.

Sorry for the pessimistic entry this morning but I was just reading about another AIG issue. If I had a donut here I would eat it, but I don't so off to the treadmill I go.

Don't Let Anger Destroy Your Diet

Anger is a very strong emotion that causes stress to the body and to the mind. That stress also causes us to hold onto calories resulting in less weight loss if we are on a reduced calorie diet. Research shows that no matter how much you exercise or eat correctly, you are putting yourself at risk if you do not manage your anger. Anger causes a widespread negative effect on the body. Generally, if we react to this stress by eating, we have a double whammy, so to speak, causing poor nutrition and excess calories causing weight gain.

When we become angry, we may experience muscle tension, teeth clenching, higher blood pressure, chest pains, excessive sweating, chills, severe headaches or migraines. This is due to stress hormones being released. If people do experience chronic anger and it is not managed, more severe health issues may appear such as obesity, peptic ulcers, constipation, diarrhea, intestinal cramping, indigestion, heart attacks, strokes, kidney problems, and more frequent infections. Researchers have found the heart is affected by anger and can actually reduce the heart's ability to pump blood. Uncontrolled chronic anger can also have psychological effects resulting in depression and feelings of hopelessness, eating disorders, substance abuse and other self-destructive behaviors, and can cause significant changes in relating to other people.

When we eat in response to the stress of anger we are taking the anger out on ourselves and are actually punishing ourselves. We sometimes decide we don’t care about anything anymore, our weight or our health, etc. It is important to maintain nutrition when we become angry so we can manage our anger well. Always remember that with regard to eating we can limit our damage to ourselves. If we decide to give in to a high calorie snack, we can stop at one. But many times we say to ourselves, well I ruined it anyway so more chips or ice cream won’t matter. But it does. All of those calories add up and more weight is added to the scale. Just get right back on track with your diet, start to exercise to burn off those calories and forget about what you just ate.

Here is a listing of ways to begin managing your anger before it gets out of control.
• Exercise to release the anger- run or lift weights, punch a punching bag, do kickboxing
• Practice Deep Breathing – Begin with 2-3 minutes of deep breathing exercises
• Meditation -Relax and count to 30 blocking out everything that you see and hear.
• Call a friend to take your mind off your stress and to vent. If the friend is trusted ask for his/her opinion of the situation.
• Confront the one you are angry with and talk it out.
• Find something to smile about and laugh as laughter reduces stress hormone levels. Frequent belly laughter empties your lungs of more air than it takes in resulting in a cleansing effect - similar to deep breathing.

Stress Eating

Most people can relate to the concept of eating under stress. Whereas some people will reduce their food intake under stressful situations most reach for high-caloric food sources.

I am not certain how many of you have taken our stress eater's quiz. It can be found at: www.stresseaterquiz.com and www.stresseaterdiet.com.

Poor weather conditions such as today or snow days in the winter are hazardous for our weigth loss efforts because out of boredom we find ourselves wandering to the kitchen. try to be cognizant of this and spend time in the treadmill room as opposed to playi ng in the kitchen. Use "downtime" today to plan your week's meals.

Word of the day: hurricane

Is Stress Causing You To Overeat? Try Yoga Instead When You Feel the Need to Stress Eat

We all know stress plays a major role in our everyday lives. Many people turn to food, especially carbs and high calorie foods, as a source of comfort. However, intaking the comfort carbs and empty calories will produce an excess of calories that will negatively affect weight if this pattern is continued. In addition, stress can lead heart disease if it’s not controlled. When you’re stressed, your heart rate and blood pressure rise, which causes your body to releases stress hormones. These stress hormones put unnecessary pressure to the heart and blood vessels.


Research shows us that yoga and meditation both reduce blood pressure, lower the pulse rate, improve the elasticity of the arteries, regulate heart rhythm and increase the heart's stroke volume. Yoga is a very relaxing and spiritual exercise that can save your life, according to the American Heart Association; coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, causing about 1.5 million heart attacks each year.


Yoga is a wonderful exercise that is widely known for its ability to reduce stress and promote a calm, relaxed being. This state reduces the stress hormone levels, decreases the heart rate and lowers the blood pressure. If you have ever taken a Yoga class, you will notice they concentrate on breathing. Breathing influences the rhythm of the heart through inner connections in the central nervous system. When you take slow, deep breaths it allows your heart rate to slow and regulates the heart rhythm. The blood becomes oxygenated and feelings of calm and well-being are induced in your body.


If you can practice Yoga three times a week, studies show you can greatly reduce the risks of heart disease. Daily meditation is also good to practice because it can reduce heart damaging emotions, such as anxiety, fear and anger. The next time you are stressed and you feel like you want to reach for the cookies, chips or ice cream, try yoga instead.

Stress Eating

As you may notice, the time on this blog entry is kind of early...why is the good Doctor not sleeping you may ask? Answer: two issues: one reason I will not provide until the end of this entry. Here is the second reason: We are writing a book now about weight loss, and there will be a substantial amount of attention to the concept of "stress eating". When you hear the word "Stress" immediately a negative image appears of feeling ovewhelmed, anxious, heart pounding, gut-wrenching, panic-type of senastions. Stress is usually brought on by external forces...being given too much work with a deadline, having a family member go through a difficult time medically or physically, financial pressures, etc. The usual response of a person to stress is negative both from a physical and psycholgical standpoint. One of the most prominent responses to stress is reaching for "comfort foods", which almost always are high-caloric leading to weight gain. The subsequent weight gain produces its own stress and the vicious cycle is set in motion.

Why i am awake thinking about this is because over the weekend , I saw some incredible performances of star athletes: Venus Williams and Rafael Najar in the Wimbleton finals. Under the stress of being physically pushed to the limit and having millions of people worldwide watching them, these people THRIVED under the stress and rose their levels to an incredible height. They didn't reach for donuts (well, after the match they may have had a snickers bar, I just don't know that) but they did reach inside themselves to bring out their very best.

How can we as normal human beings, not being paid millions of dollars to perform, react to stress in a way that allows us to gather our positive forces and translate the stress to a positive outcome? This is what I am awake thinking about because if we can somehow learn /train ourselves to react to stress in a positive manner, or convert negative stress to positive stress, then our weight will not suffer. More about this tomorrow!

Oh, the second reason Dr. Bob is not sleeping...The New York Mets were winning 10-1 over the Phillies (sorry Philadelphia fans, you truly are much more barbaric than New York fans, and least you doubt that, remember booing Santa Claus at an Eagles football game one December?) and wound up almost blowing the lead and winning by the narrowest of margins, 10-9. Why can't I become a Nationals fan?

By the way, somehow I think the comments to this blog entry will be more about my diss of Philadelphia fans than the medical issue of stress eating!

Stress Eating Part Deux

Okay, before I begin my second day thoughts on stress eating, let's discuss sequels of movies that were pretty good. Sorry for the flight of ideas, but I am hoping that today's discussion of stress eating will be on par with yesterdays...kind of a sequel thing. Now of course, if you thought yesterday's blog was boring and not worthwhile then I guess I don't need to worry about Part 2.

Most often, when a blockbuster movie comes out the sequel usually is horrible...some examples of the horrible ones: The Exorcist Part 2, The Omen Part 2, Major League 2, Analyze That, Basic Instinct 2. Good ones: City Slickers Part 2, The Godfather Part 2, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. Feel free to post your thoughts.

Okay, back to stress eating: Almost instinctually, when we get under stress, we feel compelled to reach for high caloric food sources as a way of somehow mitigating the stress. Such foods tend to be repetitive sources, such as popcorn, chips, nuts etc. Chemically, it may be the case that under stressful periods, we deplete some neurochemicals, including serotonin, and our brain is making us seek the food sources that contain the building blocks of some of the neurotransmitters. In the case of serotonin, the amino acid tryptophan, which is present in high amounts in sweets and carbs, is the building block.

The recognition of stress eating is not enough to block the almost reflex-like response of reaching for high caloric food sources. A few hints: 1- ensure that around your office or home there are NOT these food sources that you would tend to reach for when you feel stressed. 2-Try to convert "negative" stress to "positive" stress. What I mean by this is that there are certain "stresses" that are positive, such as lifting weights, which "stress" the muscles but yet do not stress our psyches. During times of mental stress, it would be beneficial to try to convert this to perhaps a physical activity that allows you to dissipate the stress. In this scenario, not only are you not consuming the calories from the "comfort food" source, but you are also burning up calories with your activity of choice.

This is not easy because the compunction to eat under periods of stress is often very strong. Try to figure out how you can place some type of "delay" mechanism into this behavior pattern, because when you can put off the immediate eating activity, your brain will have more time to think it out and realize that eating in response to stress only INCREASES your overall stress levels because now you will have to deal with the weight gain sequelae.

Stress Eating

When we think of the word "stress", most often we envision the emotional/physical response to untoward life events. The emotional components may include anxiety, a sense of panic, depression and a global sense of worry and doom. Physically, our "fight or flight" hormone response may cause us to feel palpitations, headaches, chest pains and poor sleep patterns.

Frequently, when we are under stress, we find ourselves reaching for food as a "treatment". Unfortunately, the food sources we seek during periods of stress are termed "comfort foods" and they tend to be very high in calories. Chips, cookies and other sweets are the most commonly sought out foods. Alcohol consumption may also be a response to stress for a number of people. A few beers or glasses of wine may seem to temporarily make the stress seem more bearable. But once again, the calories we consume with the alcohol will make weight problems even worse.

Linda and I have developed a quiz to allow someone to see just how much stress plays a role in his/her eating behavior. Check out: www.stresseaterquiz.com Invite your friends and family to go that site as well to perform an assessment as to whether stress is contributing to any weight issues they may have and to what extent.

Tomorrow I will discuss more about the chemical responses to stress as that relates to eating behaviors and what solutions we may have for you.

On a non-medicine note: I was at Wolf Trap Saturday night to see the musical "Rent". One stethoscope up for me...my daughter loved the show. Must be a generational thing...if I took her to see the old classic Guys and Dolls, I think she would have demanded to leave at intermission.