Okay, I walk, I cycle, I garden. But none of there activities burns as much calories as stress does!
I have pet-rabbits and ofcourse I LOVE them. Tuesdaynight my beautiful Rexbunny AlmaMater choked on her food. I was there when it happened (luckily). She suffocated, fell over, panicked completely and her breathing sounded like that from an 80 year old man who had smoked all his life. I picked her up (over 4 kilo's), put my finger in her mouth, flicked out a tiny morsel of food, sucked out her nose and started running for the vet.
Normally I can't run, and after a short distance my breathing was as bad as hers ;).
But she made it. The vet found her lungs full with fluids, gave her corticosteroids and 4 hours later, her breathing calmed down. As did mine, and my heartrate finally slowed down as well.

So Traineo, how may calories can I note for that?! Your list doesn't mention 'Saving a bunny, running with over 4 kilo's, in the rain and panicking' or 'Being very nervous for over 4 hours'.
And do you think I ruined the effect by celebrating with applepie the next day?

Yours sincerely
Liz

Well, stress does burn calories. But it is tied to something call your base metabolic rate (BMR). You can read all about it here....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate

Mark

I've read that stress releases a hormone (cortisol?) that actually increases fat retention. I'm thinking stress as in job stress etc. Can't say about panic stress and adrenalin.

Stress makes me fat.
Yes, I may be more fidgety, more restless , my mind may be racing. But I use food as a stress reliever and eat all the comfort foods that are loaded with calories.
You may burn calries with stress but if stress also makes you lose your appetite, then maybe you can lose weight!

Unless you do all of that once or twice a week it doesn't matter. It's the pattern of behavior that counts as far as losing weight goes.

Still, you could mark it down as "Aerobics - very hard".

I tend to think of stress in very simple terms, like thus...

There are two types of stress, kinda like "good cholesterol" and "bad cholesterol" (I made this up and didn't read it anywhere. I'm not a doctor, blah bleh blargh):

1. Environmental stress (bad stress) -- like work, parents, neighbors, bills coming due, etc. (Just kidding Mom!)

2. Self-imposed stress (good stress) -- exercise, housework, etc. (most of the stuff on the "My Workout" list).

Our bodies need good stress, or they will react poorly to bad stress.

It's like my Pastor says about going to school, "You can either sweat before the test, or you can during the test."

@Liz OMG! I have two pet rabbits as well and I can only imagine how you felt. Geez, I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I'm glad everything worked out and everyone is well.

Leo- I think I heard that in a commercial. It went something like "stress increases cortisol, which then increases belly fat. buy our product and..." you can imagine the rest. Anyways, not sure if it was just for marketing or not but I found it pretty interesting.