Jim Katsoulis explains that chronic stress and an over-activated sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight/freeze) make weight loss harder by decreasing awareness, increasing impulsivity, and shifting blood flow away from the brain. He recommends activating the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) system through relaxation so people can think more clearly, resist tempting foods, and pursue their goal weight and health.
Chapters
Is your nervous system making you overweight? If you're stress tense or anxious a lot of the time, it's a lot harder to lose weight because you have an over activated sympathetic nervous system. That's your fight, flight or freeze response. And when your fight, flight or freeze response is activated, the blood goes from your brain down to your body, so your muscles can fight, flight or freeze. And what happens is you're much more impulsive and reactionary and you have less awareness of what your goals are. So it's way harder to choose the right foods that move you towards the body that you want to be in. So the best way that you can start to really lose weight for good is to start relaxing. And so not only will you lose weight and be healthier, but it's going to feel a lot nicer. You want to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. This is your rest and digest system, your pause and plan system, so that when you're more calm and relaxed, the blood flows back up to your brain so you can think more clearly. And now when you're around foods that are tempting, it's much easier to feel a sense of disconnection from it and control because you're more relaxed, calm, seeing it for what it is, and you're more aware of the goal that you want to achieve, which is to live at your goal weight with the best level of health and the best version of you.