Lots of folks have made New Year resolutions that include aiming for a healthier weight, and a few have made it past the first weeks sticking to it… I was listening to an older episode from Chris Masterjohn’s podcast series where he recounts his weight loss journey in 2017-2018. One of the most interesting parts of the talk is the disclaimer in the first 5 minutes of his talk, when he talks about WHEN NOT to tackle weight loss. This is not to say that you should defer healthy weight management indefinitely, but that there are a couple of crucial non-dietary factors that will be a roadblock to not only effective, but SAFE weight reduction. The two main ones are:

uncontrolled stress
inadequate sleep quantity and quality

Chronic or acute unmitigated stress will lead to dysregulation of cortisol and lower your body’s ability to adapt to any new environmental demands. Weight reduction often requires increased energy expenditure in the form of increased physical activity, or decreased food intake, both of which are a mild form of stress which could overwhelm your body’s ability to cope if already in a high state of stress. If under high stress, at minimum you need to incorporate some stress reduction practices ALONG with weight reduction protocols to avoid a crash and burn situation.

Inadequate sleep is often the proverbial elephant in the room as well. The metabolic domino effect includes many biochemical and physiological disruptions that will also make weight reductions difficult if not harmful to the body: lowered insulin resistance, increased free radical state, decreased leptin sensitivity, decreased anabolic hormones, just to name a few. As a crude benchmark, you need to aim for at least 7 hours of actual sleep (which means closer to 7 1/2 to 8 hours of time in bed). Sleep quality is harder to quantify but for those of you with fitness apps, your sleep efficiency should remain above 90 most nights.

Bottom line: If you want to be safe and successful with a healthy BMI in 2021, pay close attention to the non-dietary factors that may otherwise sabotage the journey.

https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/podcast/2016/08/09/how-i-lost-30-pounds-in-four-months-and-how-i-knew-it-was-time