How Stress Makes You Fat and What To Do About It!
Stress less to lose weight
If you've been battling to lose weight, even though you're trying to avoid refined carbohydrates and you’ve added nutrient-dense foods and exercise to your life, you may find the solution is learning to manage your stress levels more effectively.
In other words, the key to losing weight may lie between your ears.
The stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol
Adrenalin is produced virtually instantly when we are exposed to a stressful event or experience. The body shifts to producing cortisol when the stress has been going on for a while.
Regardless of whether you feel stressed from a traffic accident or imagining a fight with your boss or partner, your body experiences stress in the same way.
So, even imagining a stressful incident drives the same physiological response as experiencing it.
Modern life is full of stress (and coffee adds to it!)
Stress is such an insidious aspect of modern life because very few situations are actually life threatening but our bodies don't know the difference between a real tiger and an imagined one. Our brain therefore directs the synthesis of adrenalin and cortisol, regardless.
Adding coffee to the mix doesn't help at all because coffee stimulates the release of adrenalin too, and later cortisol, especially when blood glucose levels are low.
This is of course exactly when we want an energy ’hit,’ and this is what coffee (or a doughnut) provides very quickly.
Stress is not all bad
However, stress is not all bad. We also experience a mild form of stress when it’s time to get out of bed in the morning and when we have other deadlines to meet.
The problem is that it’s produced in excess in the world that we've created for ourselves, because now our thoughts drive it.
Stress has unbalanced us and has long reaching and damaging effects – which include unwanted weight gain.
‘Muffin top’ fat and stress
Cortisol is a fat promoting hormone because it triggers specific enzymes to store fat in case of an emergency, when extra energy will be required.
The reason we accumulate tummy fat, or ‘muffin top,’ as this type of fat is humorously called, because it pops up out of our jeans like a muffin top, is because deep abdominal fat contains four times the amount of cortisol receptors than other fat sites do.
Cortisol is therefore drawn to our tummy/belly like a magnet, leading to weight gain in this area.
Stress and your thyroid gland
Another piece of the weight gain and stress puzzle is the hormone that the thyroid produces, namely thyroxin. Thyroxin tells cells to increase their energy production, which speeds up our metabolism.
During prolonged stress, marked by high levels of cortisol, thyroxin levels fall, because cortisol is a thyroxin antagonist.
This is because the body is trying to conserve energy by slowing our metabolism down, in an attempt to manage what it feels is an emergency.
So, thyroxin levels fall, body temperature follows, and viola – your metabolism slows down too, making weight gain more likely.
Stress fuels carbohydrate cravings
Unfortunately, the very thing that you want to do when you are stressed is the opposite of what you should be doing in an attempt to lose weight. That is, eat refined carbohydrates.
How does this happen? Cortisol production sets off the release of a brain chemical called neuropeptide Y. This peptide causes a desire for, or some would say, a craving, for carbohydrates.
The longer cortisol production goes on for, the greater the chances of weight gain.
Learning to manage stress and this insidious cortisol release is important, and surprisingly, many people don't know that sleeping more is one of the first and most effective ways of managing stress.
Stress and sleep
When you get less sleep than you need, your body automatically starts producing extra cortisol.
This release of cortisol interferes with your metabolism, slowing it down and actually causing you to crave sweet and salty foods.
It's as if your body knows its energy levels are going to dip, so it prompts you to eat calorie-dense foods in an attempt to increase energy levels.
The more cortisol you produce, the less you sleep, and the more cortisol you produce in turn. A vicious cycle is established, leading to fatigue, weight gain and general unhappiness.
And of course that belly fat that seems impossible to budge stays right there – or worse, grows.
In our youth, our body is capable of regulating the release of cortisol very efficiently, as the natural rise in the morning and decline in the evening happens naturally.
However, as we age, and accumulate things to stress about, this natural system becomes unbalanced, and our general cortisol level seems to rise, making it harder to stay calm and relaxed, therefore interfering with sleep onset and maintenance.
Read more about how to enhance sleep here.
So, what to do?
We have to find effective ways to limit the release of cortisol, and in so doing, limit our body's exposure to this hormone. These are the best ways to do so:
• Introduce some form of mindfulness into your daily life so that your brain doesn't feel overwhelmed with lists, task and responsibilities.
• Regular exercise also helps our body to release stress in positive ways, limiting cortisol production.
• Titration tapering, reducing, or stopping the consumption of coffee and tea, as well as soft drinks and energy drinks that contain caffeine, and replacing such with water and herb teas.
• The consumption of the right Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), lead to less craving for sweetness, AND our body and brain start working more effectively, so our ability to handle stress improves.
• Keep blood glucose stable so as to limit the stress response via blood glucose fluctuations.
Conclusion
We have the power to shift the mechanisms supporting weight gain towards weight loss.
It won’t happen overnight with rapid weight loss strategies that ultimately leave you with more weight than you wanted to lose.
You also won’t lose weight and keep it off long term by following any fad diet.
A holistic approach, using the strategies above is the only way to sustain weight loss that is driven by stress. And the bonus is that your brain gets to benefit too!
References
Cherniske S. Caffeine Blues – wake up to the hidden dangers of America's #1 drug. New York: Warner Books; 1998.
Epel E, et al. Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2001 Jan; 26(1): 37-49.
McCabe, D. Feed Your Brain - 7 Steps to a Lighter, Brighter You!. Australia: Exisle Publishing; 2016
Talbott S. The cortisol connection – why stress makes you fat and ruins your health and what you can do about it. CA: Hunter House Publishers; 2002.