We all know stress can cause further problems down the road if we don't address the issue head on first. But what actually happens when our body is put under stress?

When we work out we put our body under a type of stress, this is needed for our muscles to grow and our bodies to change. The problem occurs when we let external stresses affect us day in day out. This causes our bodies to produce more cortisol (The stress hormone) this can then affect our sleep patterns. This in turn means our bodies don't get enough chance to recover over night, we then start the next day with elevated stress levels, we may not then be as productive due to tiredness. This can also then lead to more stress!
Our bodies typically retain more water when we become more stressed, this can lead to problems with digestion, therefore when we step on the scales the "scale weight" shows it may have increased or not changed at all.

As you can imagine, this then leads to an increase in stress... and becomes a repetitive cycle. 
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Its quite often we've had clients and members come to us with issues of not losing weight for a period of time. Once we have thoroughly assessed their lifestyle, we work to reduce stress. Sometimes this means taking a "de load" week in the gym whereby rather than doing 5/6 sessions only doing 2/3 to give the body a chance to recovery fully. This has no doubt then seen weight drop. So be sure to get enough sleep, rest and recovery and minimise stress the best you can.