Weight loss becomes easier as you reduce stress. This is a fact which some of us are more aware of than others. We all know that you have to eat fewer calories and change the types and combinations of food which we eat to be able to lose weight. Similarly we know the benefits of increased exercise upon weight loss. But we don't tend to focus as clearly upon the connection between stress and being overweight.

All of us are aware that feeling under stress and pressure makes us feel pretty uptight. Our bodies become tense and more rigid. We can really feel these physical effects of stress. We also find that our spirits drop and we feel "low" when suffering from stress. Stress and depression often come hand in hand. What has this got to do with weight gain? Or, rather, how does this stop us from losing weight more easily?

When we feel stressed our bodies automatically produce a cocktail of hormones which are intended to assist us in dealing with threat. Centuries ago these hormones helped us to run fast or fight more powerfully against the dangers which were prevalent then. This adaptive characteristic has become part of our automatic physiology, but the types of threat we encounter have changed. In the modern day world the threats which we perceive are very different. Our bodies become poised to flee but there is no point in running away.

This cocktail of hormones is thus activated and then not put to good use. What happens to it instead? The American Journal of Epidemiology has published information which links higher levels of unresolved stress with weight gain, as this hormonal reaction can lead to inflammation, metabolic changes and alterations to our body's immune response. Weight loss becomes far more difficult when this is happening to our bodies.

And so we can see that ongoing unresolved stress causes physical changes within our bodies which affect the way in which we metabolize food and this can lead to weight gain. There are also psychological effects of stress which alter our ability to maintain our weight or to lose weight.

When stress makes you feel uptight, tense, low or depressed you are not always in the right mood to do what's good for yourself, and eating habits are frequently the first things which change. In fact when you feel low you tend to instinctively do that which is bad for you, and this includes eating what is bad for you. You reach for the wrong types of food (fatty foods, high carbohydrate, and sugary foods), you get into bad eating habits such as constantly snacking or surfing the fridge, you can't be bothered to cook proper meals and reach for fast foods instead.

Added to this, who can be bothered to exercise when you're feeling low in yourself? Ironically, exercise would at least use up some of that hormone cocktail and make you feel a whole lot better, and thus place you in a better frame of mind to lose weight.

If you are reading this, you have probably been there, done that. You know what I mean, and you can feel the extra weight around your belly. There are many, many reasons why every weight loss program should include stress reduction techniques. Most approaches to weight loss do not do this. People who want to lose weight just tend to look at their diet and do not step back to look at the matter of weight gain and weight loss from a holistic viewpoint.

Everything you do and all the habits you have (eating habits and exercise habits included) are based upon you as a person living the life which you live. Eating isn't a stand-alone element. Eating is intricately interwoven into your thoughts and feelings and your day to day perceptions and reactions to what is happening in the world around you.

This is why hypnosis weight loss programs are so very incredibly powerful. Hypnosis is a state of relaxation and a natural way in which to reduce stress. Hypnosis also allows access to your subconscious mind and this enables you to examine and change automatic thought patterns, beliefs, habits and expectations. And so hypnosis weight loss programs allow you to reduce stress and get your mind around weight loss, making it far easier for you to change your habits and lose weight successfully.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis weight loss mp3s to reduce stress and lose weight easily.

P.S. Discover how to get your mind working for you. Grab a free hypnosis download from my website now.