YOU are eating the same food, doing the same exercise but for some reason the jeans are getting slightly snugger and the scales show a few extra pounds are to blame.

Where on earth did this muffin top come from when you have been training as much as ever and have been watching what you eat?

Life sucks. But before you reach for that comforting chocolate cookie in despair, have you thought that it could be that you are stressed?

Now I know stress is blamed for most of life’s troubles these days but experts have found that it does have an impact on our ability to control weight.

The main negative effects of the stress are caused by cortisol which is produced in moments of tension.

Back in the day when Neanderthal man had to roam the wild hunting for food, stress was needed to prepare our bodies to respond to danger and decide whether to fight or flight.

(Faced with an angry sabre tooth tiger you have just speared in the backside I personally would always recommend the latter!)

But now we are put under dozens of stressful situations daily which exhaust the body.

Around 20% of the population say they experience severe stress at work everyday and without daily exercise to combat the effects of cortisol, stress may begin to take its toll on our health - and our waistlines.

Studies have shown that stressed men and women deposit fat inside the abdomen - this is the most harmful area for the heart disease.

Cortisol directs more fat towards this area and the only way to combat this is to get out and exercise.

Stress also causes insomnia.

Stressed people cannot sleep and the lack of sleep induces more stress. (Talk about a vicious circle!)

Moreover, lack of sleep alters the circulating levels of the hormones that regulate hunger, causing an increase in appetite and a preference for calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods.

We produce a hormone called leptin while we sleep which regulates appetite and tells our body that there is no need for more food.

In studies research subjects who slept only four hours a night for two nights had an 18 percent decrease in leptin and a 28 percent increase in ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger.

So there is no escaping it I’m afraid.

It is time for all of us to get active so we can bust that stress, rid our bodies of cortisol and burn those calories.

And exhausted from all that exercise at least we will all get a good night’s sleep!

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