Did you know that most weight loss programs and advice actually cause a woman’s body to gain fat, rather than lose it? As long as you’re controlling your body, resisting your cravings, and forcing yourself through punishing exercise, you’ll create stress.

It’s really important to let this sink in, in order to reach the place of clarity within yourself from which you will never attempt to punish your way to weight loss again.

An easy way to look at this is to realize that for a woman’s body, you want to always move towards pleasure and away from stress.

Stress acts as a signal for your body to shift into survival mode in two different ways:

• First, stress releases cortisol, a hormone that triggers adrenaline and noradrenaline. Adrenaline and noradrenaline shut down digestive activity and redirect blood to your brain and muscles for faster thinking and muscle movement to support your survival when faced with danger.
• Second, the cortisol levels increase the production of insulin, the fat-storing hormone that instructs your body to preserve calories for later use in the form of belly fat.

In situations of physical danger, stress is your friend. It triggers your body to slow down your metabolism and store calories for later survival. However, in today’s modern age, few of us face the same physical dangers our ancestors did. Yet, the evolutionary science of stress still works the same way.
 

Why Your Diet Might Trigger Cortisol

Stressful diets will kick your metabolism into survival and weight-gain mode. This is why women who lose weight through restrictive diets and unnecessarily harsh exercises predictably gain it all back again within a year.

Stress releases the hormone cortisol, which triggers the release of the brain chemicals adrenaline and noradrenaline. Adrenaline and noradrenaline shut down digestive activity and redirect blood to your brain and muscles for faster thinking and muscle movement to support your survival when faced with danger.

An increased level of cortisol also increases production of the fat-storing hormone insulin that instructs your body to preserve calories for later use in the form of belly fat.

Thankfully, pleasure has the opposite effect.

Pleasure is the trigger that moves the body away from stress, it relaxes us. As we let in the sensation of pleasure, we let go of guilt and fear. Furthermore, we let go of the shame surrounding our bodies. Plus, there’s another important upside: Your body also burns calories more effectively when she is relaxed.

So here you’ve got the formula: Pleasure = Relaxation = Permanent Weight Loss

I’d love to hear how you plan to pleasurably relax today to begin shifting your body toward weight loss. Share your thoughts in the comments below!