When it comes to losing weight, stress can often have a negative impact. When we’re stressed we tend to seek out things that comfort us; chocolate, booze, cigarettes or television. Unfortunately many of these comfort devices don’t help with weight loss.

{If this is how you handle stress, keep reading for a healthier solution!}

Exercise however, is a great way to relieve stress and burn fat at the same time. In fact some exercises are so hardcore that they are go-to exercises to alleviate stress in a positive way. So rather than buying a pack of smokes or indulging in chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream, keep reading for ways to exercise your stress away!

Stress & Fat

Our bodies react to stress in a multitude of ways, including weight gain. Sometimes the weight gain is due to the ways in which we respond to stress including to overeating and excessive drinking. At other times, the hormone cortisol can be to blame.

Cortisol does more than contribute to weight gain, however. It is also involved in regulating your blood pressure and glucose metabolism, as well as immune functions and inflammatory responses. But we do call cortisol the stress hormone because when we’re in “flight or fight” mode this hormone is secreted at higher levels than when we are not stressed.

When stress is chronic, which basically means you are always in stress mode, this hormone is secreted more often which can lead to weight gain. So, one important key to weight loss and weight maintenance is to keep stress at a minimum. If that isn’t possible, find ways to alleviate the daily stressors in your life.

If you’re thinking of an extreme low-calorie diet to lose weight, beware: a May 2010 study found that restricting calories can increase your cortisol output. So rather than extreme diets, adopt a well-balanced diet and try a few stress-busting exercises below.

Running

When the stress of daily life gets in the way, make room for a run in your schedule to clear your mind or help you deal with it. In addition to the known benefits of exercise—reduce risk of heart disease and high blood pressure and weight loss—running helps release endorphins that can help give your mood a lift.

Running can help you forget if that’s your goal, but the focus required to run properly may actually help you find a way to deal with the problems causing you stress.

In addition to reducing the symptoms of depression an anxiety, running can help you forget the day’s stress while you burn some serious calories. Losing weight can give you a confidence boost, which may help make you feel less stressed about the thing in life you can’t control.

Kickboxing

In addition to burning more than 900 calories per hour, kickboxing is an incredible way to get rid of stress. Before you roll your eyes, consider what stress relief you’ll get from kicking and punching someone while imagining the source of your stress! Whether you need basic self defense or a good way to stay in shape, kickboxing is a calorie burning wonder than can help you accomplish both!

If you’re not ready to kick box with a human partner, many gyms offer bags so you can practice kicking and punching…and stress relieving!

Kickboxing may not be the most mature way to deal with stress, but it works and it burns plenty of calories…what other reasons do you need?

Yoga

It is a well established fact that yoga is a great way to alleviate stress. In fact the goal of yoga is to promote tranquility, so you can’t really find a more soothing way to burn calories while forgetting about life’s stressors.

Because of the intense focus on breathing and postures, the nature of yoga really trends toward relieving stress. And if you’ve ever tried yoga before, the soothing voice of the instructor, the comfy yoga pants and the silence in the room all lend themselves to helping you forget about what’s stressing you.

{What could more soothing than yoga…on the beach?}

If you have yet to hop on the ‘yoga train’ then you should start with a simple, less intense type of yoga like Hatha, suggests the Mayo Clinic. When you’re looking for a way to unwind after a long stressful day, yoga can help you make sure you don’t spend the rest of your day stressed.

Tennis

What better way to alleviate stress than smashing a ball with all of your might across the net? Tennis (or racquetball) gives you a clear method of finding an outlet for your stress (hitting the ball), while burning as much as 745 calories per hour!

In addition to its ability to help you exercise the stress away, tennis is a full body workout that works legs, arms, shoulders and core muscles. The aggression required in the game of tennis also allows you to feel in control of something, which will help you stress less about the things you are unable to control.

Grab a friend and smash a few dozen tennis balls so you can deal with the stress and keep your cortisol levels even.

Boxing

Although you would think boxing might be a stressful way to exercise—it could be if you’re terrified of getting hit—it is actually an effective way to help you deal with stress. Obviously the punching gives you an outlet to deal with any unresolved aggression you may have about stress, but the movements also burn fat and build muscle.

The amount of calories you burn boxing should also help alleviate any stress you feel about reaching your weight loss goal. An hour of boxing with a partner can help you burn more than 1,100 calories, while sparring will still burn more than 830 calories.

{This handy little piece of equipment is great for boxing & kickboxing!}

With numbers like that you might just start hoping for stress just so you can hit the ring! Don’t do that though, haven’t you heard; stress can lead to weight gain!

Hiking

What could get rid of stress more than being out in the vast beauty of nature? Beautiful green trees, tons of oxygen, a bright blue sky, tons of oxygen and a kick-ass pair of running shoes could be the way to keep the stress in your life to a minimum.

Whether you sit in traffic all day, have a micromanaging boss or coworker who drives you crazy, an hour in nature will release feel-good endorphins to keep fat at bay. Sometimes you just need to clear your head and slow things down a little just to see the big picture. When you do this, you can separate stressful from annoying and deal with them accordingly.

Remember that it’s not just fat that you’re helping get rid of by exercising the stress away. Too much stress can lead to many other health problems that include high blood pressure, compromised immunity and decreased bone density & muscle tissue. So keeping stress, especially chronic stress, at a minimum isn’t just about weight loss; it could be a matter of life and death.

Emotional eating is a common way in which many of us deal with stress, but it is hardly a productive way to manage stress. Intermittent fasting may be just what you need to stop stressful snacking. Read our Eat Stop Eat review to learn more about intermittent fasting.