Are you stressed at work or at home?  Is your to-do list is growing longer by the minute?  On top of all that, are you anxious about getting back into shape for summer, which is just around the corner?  Stress is something that even the best of us can’t avoid, but it’s how you manage it that can drastically affect your quality of life—and the size of your belly.

If you’ve ever sworn up and down that anxiety, worry, and frustration made your belly blow up like a balloon, it’s because it did.  The underlying causes of stress can span the entire emotional and mental distress spectrum.  From relationships to work to even random spontaneous incidents, the  physiological effects it has on your body are always the same.  Stress causes a cascade of hormonal effects that are essential for your survival in the short term, but when sustained for a prolonged period of time, stress causes some seriously negative effects on your body—including dreaded belly fat.

One hormone that has been commonly associated with stress is cortisol.  Cortisol is produced in your adrenal glands—part of corticosteroid that’s secreted in response to stress along with adrenalin.  It’s part of a survival mechanism, the “fight or flight” response that promptly gets your body ready to defend yourself from possible harm by either fighting or fleeting, depending on the situation.  

So, when you’re faced with a “stressful” situation, your body releases adrenalin and cortisol from your adrenal glands.  Your adrenalin mobilizes fatty acids and makes them available for fuel in case you need to “fight” or “flight”, but when your body doesn’t use it (as is the case for most situations), the excess fat in your bloodstream is taken up by your elevated cortisol, which then gets stored in your belly region.

This is because your belly fat has a very rich blood supply and is packed with cortisol receptors. In fact, your abdominal fat has four times as many cortisol receptors than fat—in any other areas of body.  So all of the extra cortisol gets taken up by the receptors in your abdominal fat, subsequently enhancing your love handles, muffin top, or spare tire.  

This type of “visceral” fat deposition in around your belly is not only bad for your looks but it’s also very bad for your health as well.  Belly fat has been strongly linked to many life threatening diseases such as heart  attack, stroke, and diabetes.   So you’ll be doing your body (both externally and internally) a huge favor by finding ways to manage and minimize daily stresses in your life.  

Here are 6 tips to getting your stress under control so you can get rid of your stomach fat and get healthy inside and out:

1.  Don’t Skip Your Workout  - Keep it short and sweet.  High intensity workouts will help you get a quality workout in just a fraction of the time.  The intensity will also help you boost many favorable fat burning hormones so you can melt away fat, clear your mind and reduce stress all at once.

2.  Get Plenty Of Sleep -  Getting ample sleep is key to managing stress and keeping your body burning fat efficiently.  A good nights sleep helps induce “feel good” hormones and allows you to deal with stressful situation better and be more productive through out the day.  Plus, restful sleep also helps boost fat burning hormones during the night so you can melt away fat while you sleep.

3.  Relax - Relaxation through meditation, yoga or just being alone in a quiet place even for a brief period really helps silence the mind chatter.   Even doing everyday mundane tasks (if done in a purposeful and mindful way) can help you quiet your mind and lower your stress levels.

4.  Avoid Caffeine - If you need caffeine to get you going in the morning, you’re setting yourself up for a hormonal and metabolic roller coaster ride throughout the day.  Try and minimize caffeine since it enhances your stress levels.  But if you must get your fix, try replacing your cup of java with green tea.  Green tea releases caffeine slower into your bloodstream, which will help you avoid the “stimulant” effect.  Plus, it provides many other health benefits that are far better than drinking coffee.

5.  Avoid Sugar - When you’re stressed you crave sweets!  Although that sweet indulgence may satisfy your craving in the short term, it’s not worth the long term effect is has on your body.  Refined sugars are nothing but bad news.  They causes insulin insensitivity, which increases fat deposition in your belly.  And when combined with the cortisol effect from stress, it’s double the belly fat!  Insulin insensitivity also has other serious health consequences, like enhancing your susceptibility to obesity and diabetes.  So the next time you find yourself eyeing the last Krispy Kreme doughnut in your office break room,  think about the long term effects and go for a green apple instead.

6.  Go Easy On The Alcohol -  Dealing with stress by boozing it up is never a good thing.  An occasional red wine with dinner here and there is fine,  but regular consumption of alcohol is neither good for your mind nor your body.  Alcohol not only impairs your judgment, but it has absolutely no good effect on your body as well. In fact the only thing alcohol does is it increases your fat deposition (especially belly fat) by up to 34%.  Why? Because when you drink, your liver has to metabolize the alcohol and it stops all other processes including metabolizing fat.  So when you’re eating while drinking alcohol, much of the nutrients from the food can’t be metabolized by your liver since it’s too busy metabolizing the alcohol, so majority of it gets stored as fat! Combine that with your cortisol effect from stress on your belly fat and you’ve got a real recipe for a “gut busting” disaster.  In addition, if you’re male, alcohol consumption increases your estrogen levels (female hormones) and severely decreases your testosterone (muscle building hormones) levels as well, which contributes to even more belly fat.  

Remember, less stress = less fat.  

So if you’re getting stressed about getting in shape for the summer and all the other things life throws at you, don’t dwell on them.  Focus on moving forward in a more positive, healthy way.  Apply these simple stress management tips I’ve given you and you’ll kick start your way to getting lean, fit and in beach body shape.