Can Stress Make You Fat?

 

Stress. It makes you depressed. It makes you tired. It makes you snap at the people you love. Stress can make you drink the whole bottle of wine when you only meant to have a glass. Stress can also make you fat.

Scientists at the Universityof Liverpoolfound that women exposed to a range of mentally and physically stressful tasks ate 20 per cent more of the free chocolate they were offered, compared to when they didn’t have to do the tasks.  However, the stress-fat connection isn’t just down to those uncontrollable urges to eat a packet of Tim Tams. It appears that the effects of stress can alter the way our bodies deal with food

Research at the Universityof Californiain San Franciscofound that out of 160 women between 30 and 46 years old, those with the biggest waist measurements reported the highest levels of stress. Meanwhile, Dr Pamela Peeke, one of a team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health in America, has discovered that hormones secreted during times of stress are instrumental in causing more fat to be stored, particularly around the abdomen.

It works like this.

  • A hormone called CRH (corticotrophin-releasing hormone) rises in response to stress, triggering amongst other things, a release of cortisol and adrenalin (the ‘stress’ hormones), to help prepare the body for action.
  • Cortisol stimulates the release of glucose to provide fuel for fight or flight while adrenalin primes the nervous system for action.
  • Once the crisis is over, adrenalin disperses, but cortisol — and the glucose it has drawn into the blood — lingers, causing a surge of insulin.
  • This stimulates the appetite to encourage the body to restore its fuel stores, to be ready to cope with the next confrontation.
  • Of course, these days, our confrontations tend not to be with hairy mammals and other things we need to run away from, so we rarely expend any energy in our stressful encounters. We do still end up refuelling however, because we’re hard-wired to do so. This excess body fat is stored ‘viscerally’,  or deep within the abdomen, where it raises our risk of heart disease and diabetes.

So what to do about it? One of the most obvious ways to solve the problem is to reduce or eliminate stress by changing your lifestyle and learning coping strategies. A sensible approach — but frankly, easier said than done. So how about ‘reinstating’ the fight or flight response, by following stressful events and experiences with some physical activity, like we were born to do?

Not only will this dissipate those stress hormones, it will also release beta-endorphins, making you feel calm and contented. And  you will be a super athlete in no time with all that exercise each time you stress out about something! More importantly, regular workouts will enable you to become more stress-resilient in the future. The fitter you are, the lower the rise in cortisol under stressful conditions.

Reference http://www.realbuzz.com/articles/can-stress-make-you-fat/

Waist Measurements

Why measure your waist?

Measuring your waist is a simple check to see how much body fat you have, and where it is placed around the body. The location of body fat can be an important indicator of your risk of developing certain chronic diseases. Whatever your height or build, an increased waistline is a sign you may be at greater risk of ongoing health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and some cancers.

 

How to measure your waistline

  • Measure directly against your skin
  • Breathe out normally
  • The tape should be snug, without compressing the skin
  • Measure your waist half way between the lowest point of your lowest rib and the highest point of your hip bone. If you palpate at the side of your tummy you will feel these bony landmarks.

What does it mean?

No matter what your height, the following waist measurements suggest you could be at an increased risk of developing a chronic disease.

 

Increased Risk
Women: more than 80cm
Men: more than 94 cm

Greatly Increased Risk
Women: more than 88cm
Men: more than 102 cm

 

These waist measurements are recommended for Caucasian men and Caucasian and Asian women. Not enough research has been done on other groups for a definitive measurement to be established.

References: Australian Better Health Initiative. Fact Sheet: How do you measure up?

Sugar Free Food Labelling

sugar

If you’re looking at reducing the amount of sugar in your diet, you need to be aware of what the labelling means. Here’s a quick summary.

In Australia, the Code of Practice on Nutrient Claims in Food (CoPoNC) sets out the provisions for “low”, “free”, and  “no sugar” claims as:

Sugar Free, No Sugar, Zero Sugar

Foods must contain less than 0.2grams of sugars per 100 grams of edible portion of the food Liquids must contain less than 0.1grams for 100 grams of edible portion

The policy of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission however has a zero tolerance policy in relation to the term “free”. So technically, foods which are labelled “sugar free” and include the small tolerance level of sugar allowed for under the CoPoNC, are in breach of fair trading laws.

No Added Sugar

Foods must not have sugar or sugar containing ingredients added to them. This means that sugars  including dextrose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, starch hydrolysate, glucose syrups, maltodextrin and similar products, icing sugar, invert sugar, fruit sugar syrup, honey, malt, malt extract or maltose products, or products derived at a sugar refinery including brown sugar and molasses is NOT added to the food during processing.

“No added sugar” foods can still contain high amounts of natural sugars. Normally, “no added sugar” foods have a low Glycemic Index, which means they don’t cause a rapid spike in blood sugar.

Low in Sugar

Foods must contain no more than 5g total sugars per 100grams of edible portion. Liquids must contain no more than 2.5grams per 100 grams of edible portion.

Barefoot Running: The Bare Facts

 

Vibram 5-fingers
The Vibram Five Fingers is perhaps the most minimalist of the minimalist shoes.

Catalyst (ABC TV 6th September) ran a story on barefoot running with some interesting analysis of barefoot and shod strides. When a runner shifts from running in shoes to barefoot running, the gait pattern changes from landing on the heel to landing on the whole foot or mid-fore foot. There is greater ground reaction force when wearing a running shoe, and the calf muscles work very hard with barefoot running. The metabolic cost of running increases with barefoot running.

 

There is some great analysis in the Catalyst piece, of the way different muscles work when running barefoot compared to running in shoes, which serves to highlight the fact that you can’t just throw away your shoes one day and start running barefoot, and expect not to get injured. Like anything new, you should ease into it slowly. And by slowly, we mean gradually increase your barefoot mileage over a period of six months or so, and don’t do all of your running in bare feet or in minimilist shoes.

 

The increased demand on your calf muscles means it would make sense to include calf raises in your strenth training for at least 6 weeks prior to starting to run barefoot, along with some good calf stretching and strengthening when you start to leave the shoes behind.

 

Is barefoot running for you? Not necessarily. It really depends on the structure of your foot and your biomechanics, and your willingness to make gains little by little. It certainly does feel great running in barefeet or with minimal footwear every now and again!

 

 

Go to the Catalyst article, and also take a look at some of the links provided at the end of the transcript. It makes for interesting reading regardless of whether you are an devotee of the barefoot or minimalist approach.

 

Tell us your experiences with barefoot running and minimalist running shoes. Do you love it? Do you hate it? If you think you’d like to try it, ask us for advice.

Fun Runs: Be Prepared and Avoid Disasters

 

Being prepared is the key to doing your best in any fun run. A lack of preparation can easily wipe out all those months of hard training. Here are a few common mistakes runners live to regret, and how to avoid them.

 

Mistake Number One: Setting your sites too high.

Yes, it’s great to be confident, but if you set yourself a target time for your fun run which his not in keeping with what you’ve been doing in training, then you’re bound to be disappointed, at the least. Worse still, you could be wiped out by the time you get to the halfway point if you set off too fast.

If you’ve done any recent races or time trials, you can use this race time predictor to get a reasonable idea of the sort of time you could aim for. Alternatively, you could put in any recent 2km (+) interval times if you haven’t raced or done a time trial recently. Remember, use this as a guide only. Your pace is not cast in stone.

 

Mistake Number Two: Getting Carried Away

It is very easy to get carried away with the hype of a big fun run event, especially if it’s one you’ve been looking forward to for a while. Lots of people around you will be going out more quickly than you, so you just need to develop a strategy which will allow you to chill out and enjoy the ride. Listen to your own breathing, count your own strides, sing yourself a nursery rhyme. Anything that will stop you from tuning into the footsteps of those around you will help you to maintain your own pace. Look at your watch, and make sure you are not running faster than your planned pace. Those first few kilometres often feel very easy, even if you’ve gone out too fast. Any those very same kilometres are vital in setting you up for a great fun run.

 

Mistake Number Three: Disregarding the Conditions

Be aware that you may need to revise down your race time goal if the weather conditions are a lot different to what you’ve been training in. Hot weather is a killer on race day, but cold weather can also have an adverse effect if you are not used to it. Strong headwinds can also slow you down considerably.

Don’t doggedly keep on running to your set time splits if the weather doesn’t allow for it.  Run on perceived exertion, and know what you are capable of beforehand. It takes a lot of practice to be able to judge the pace you can keep up over a set distance, so you may want to be more conservative until you think you’ve nailed that one.

 

Mistake Number Four: Being Ill Prepared for Hot Weather

If the mercury’s rising (as has been the case in the last two Sydney Marathons which they insist on starting at 7:30am), it’s important to take some precautions. Make sure you are well hydrated before the race. Drink plenty of water on the two or three days leading into the race. How much is hard to say, as it depends on your size, how much water you are taking in with your food, and how much fibre you are taking in with your food. Just try to drink before you are thirsty, but not so much that you feel bloated and uncomfortable. On the morning of the race, down some sports drink prior to the start – again, not so much that you feel uncomfortable-to make sure you have a good store of electrolytes. During the race, drink 200-300mls of sports drink every 20-30 minutes.

Wear cool clothing and a white visor. The white will reflect heat, and a visor rather than a hat will allow heat to escape from your head.

Don’t be a hero. If you feel dizziness, shortness of breath, or nausea, seek shade and assistance. These are all signs of heat stress. If you stop sweating, you have most likely gone into heat stroke and should seek help immediately.

 

Mistake Number Four: Being Ill Prepared for Cold Weather

If the weather’s cold, gloves are invaluable. Bring lots of layers of old clothes which you are happy to throw away prior to or during the race. Make sure you have warm dry clothes to change into at the end of the race, including undies. There’s nothing like cold sweaty underwear to keep you from warming up quickly!

 

Other things that can go wrong

Eyes stinging from sunscreen. Don’t put sunscreen on your forehead above your eyes. Wear a visor to protect your forehead from the sun

Late arrival. Leave plenty of time for things to go wrong. There’s likely to be lots of traffic and little parking at most of the fun runs you go to.

Wardrobe malfunction. Make sure your shoes are tied tightly enough, and loosely enough, and tied with a double knot. Be sure to have a spare hair elastic. Make sure your bra clips are in good working order. One of my clients did have a bra mishap, not once, but twice in a race (BD, you know who you are). If this happens to you, use one of the safety pins from your race number to do some running repairs.

It’s just not your day. It happens, sometimes you know from the first step you take in your warm up, or even before you get to your warm up, that today will probably not produce a fun run PB. Accept it, chill out, and enjoy the scenery!
Do you have any special rituals you perform as part of your race day preparation? Tell us about them below.

Fun Run Nutrition: Raisins vs Chews and Gels

 

 

Raisins are a cheap natural source of carbohydrates which have been found to be as effective as carbohydrate chews in producing a workout boost.

 

 

Researchers from California-Davis University have found raisins to be as effective as sports chews when athletes’ performances were tested in a 5km time trial which was conducted 2 days after a 2 hour run during which they consumed either raisins or sports chews. When just water was consumed during the 2 hour run, the athletes did not perform as well in the time trial 2 days later. The trial included only 11 athletes so it was a fairly small sample, but it’s certainly food for thought (pardon the pun).

 

This table shows you the nutritional breakdown of a couple of gels and chews, and raisins. Note the raisins do have some dietary fibre so could cause some GIT upset, but then gels and chews can have the same effect with some people.

GU ROCTANE GEL (one serve=1 sachet) GU ENERGY GEL(one serve= on sachet) GU CHOMPS (one serve = 4 pieces -1/2 a sachet) RAISINS (one serve = 35 gms-about what you can hold in the palm of your hand)
Weight 32gms 32 gms 30 gms 35 gms
Calories 100 100 90 100
Total Carbohydrate 25gms 20 gms 23gms 25 gms
Fat 0 2gms 0 0.3 gms
Sugars 5gms 6gms 11gms 24 gms
Sodium 125gms 40 gms 50 gms 20 gms
Potasium 55gms 40 gms 40 gms 364 gms
Vit E amt not stated amt not stated amt not stated
Calcium amt not stated amt not stated amt not stated 14 gms
Amino Acid Blend 1220 mg no protein no protein 800 mgs
Caffeine 35 mg nil nil nil
Dietary Fibre 1.7 gms

 

What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another.  The only way you’ll know if raisins work for you is to trial them in training, NOT in a race. And best to trial it first in the off season. Don’t muck around with your race and training nutrition when a mistake might really make a difference to your race results. Personally, I like a gel with a touch of caffeine, but each to their own. I’m struggling with the concept of trying to get all those loose raisins under control whilst I’m running too. You can read the full article in the Journal of The International Society of Sports Nutrition.

 

Share your experiences with race and training nutrition below.

Sitting Can Be Deadly

The average adult spends more than 90% of their waking hours sitting down,  yet recent research shows that sitting for prolonged periods of time can quite literally, be deadly.

The Sax Institute’s 45 and Up study, a study of the health and lifestyle of 200, 000 people, showed that adults who sat 11 or more hours per day had a 40% increased risk of dying in the next three years compared with those who sat for fewer than four hours a day. This was after taking into account their physical activity, weight and health status.

The research also found that bouts of more strenuous physical activity are still important. Inactive people who sat for prolonged periods were at greater risk than active people who sat for prolonged periods. Getting up and moving about every 20 minutes or so is the key, regardless of whether you are generally active or inactive.

Baker IDI has also conducted similar research, and has these suggestions for reducing sitting time:

 

Top Tips for Breaking up Sitting time:

  • there are no rules against standing during meetings – try it
  • take a brisk walk during your lunch break
  • conduct meetings while walking outdoors – these can be very effective for one-on-ones with colleagues
  • stand at a high bench top to eat your lunch
  • stand up and move around while answering the telephone
  • at the very least get up and move once every hour
  • consider a height adjustable desk that permits working in both a sitting or standing posture
  • limit your TV viewing to two hours a day
  • use commercial breaks for household chores

 

Use the comments box below to share your tips for sitting less.

 

 

The ABC’s Catalyst program ran a story on the effect of sitting for a prolonged period on August 16th 2012. See the transcript and video.

 

Have a look at this three minute clip from Baker IDI for more explanation.

Watch the Video