As humans we are able to think from different parts of our brain. Our prefrontal cortex allows us to assess a situation and come up with a plan. When we think from this part of our brain, we are better able to control our food intake and choices. However, when our anxiety levels rise our primitive, emotional brain takes over more responsibility for our thinking. This part of our brain can’t think with logic. It has to refer back to previous patterns of behaviour. 

If yesterday you came home from work stressed and had some chocolate to make yourself feel better, then when in the same situation in the future, you will be encouraged to repeat this behaviour. When we feel stressed we will be more susceptible to eating high-calorie food. We know it tastes good but ultimately our brain wants the reward chemicals that are released by eating it.  

This primitive part of our brain has evolved over millions of years. For a vast majority of that time our problem has not been unfettered access to high-energy calorific food, but quite the opposite. It’s been designed to help us survive and as far as it’s concerned the more calorific the food is and the more we eat the better. It still believes we’re living in times of famine.

Anxiety can also stop us from sleeping well. Scientific research has shown that sleeping less than five to six hours a night causes most people to consume an additional 300 to 400 calories the next day. Levels of your hunger hormone will increase and levels of your satiety hormone will decrease. This means you’ll be hungrier and will overeat (high calorie food will be your choice) as the signal that you’re full will take longer to reach your brain. 

To make things worse, 60 per cent of the calories you expend the next day will come from burning lean muscle. Your body will hold onto its fat stores. If we want to lose fat, this is obviously a very unfavourable situation. Lean muscle is our calorie-burning furnace. The more muscle we have, the more calories we burn. We certainly don’t want to use it as an energy source! 

Stress and a lack of sleep are also proven to reduce willpower, so our ability to stick to a new way of eating is reduced. 

Research shows us that one of the keys to successful weight loss is to reduce your stress levels. Activities such as pilates, yoga and meditation are known to reduce stress. You might therefore find it beneficial to pop into Fairfield Community Hall and try one of the available classes – or of course you could try hypnotherapy instead. 

Ian Murton is an award-winning clinical hypnotherapist based in Fairfield. He specialises in helping children and adults to overcome their anxiety and insomnia. You can find out more about his services at ianmurtonhypnotherapy.com