How I lost 140 lbs in a year!

Discover how gentle walks, cheat meals and other simple stress-relief hacks are helping women like Lisa Dove (and you!) burn fat faster than ever

- ALLISON NEMETZ

Traffic, telemarketers, family spats, politics, tax audits, health woes... If life's big and little stresses send you running for chips, fast food and sweets, you have that in common with Lisa Dove. "Between three kids and a demanding job, some days, I want a million Oreos," laughs the Illinois purchasing supervisor, 50. "For a long time, when my stress went up, my weight did too." It's a phenomenon millions experience-and poor willpower isn't to blame. There's evidence that stress hormones increase blood sugar, trigger cravings for junk and even slow metabolism, per Ohio State University stress researcher Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, Ph.D. The good news: While we can't eliminate stress, easy strategies can dramatically reduce its impact on our waistline. They worked so well for Lisa, she dropped 140 pounds in a year! Keep reading to learn soothing tricks to get slim.

Stress isn't all bad. It actually primes us to escape danger. For example, it raises blood sugar so we have easy-to-access fuel. "In caveman days, you saw a saber-toothed tiger and burned sugar as you ran away," explains Daryl Gioffre, D.C., author of Get Off Your Sugar: From Stress Eating to Strength Eating. Running also rids us of stress hormones, allowing us to relax once we're safe. But what if a tiger stalks us for days? Ongoing stress stimulates hunger to make more blood sugar, and metabolism slows to conserve energy. Once the crisis passes, calm returns. At least that's how it used to work...

Modern stress is extra fattening