Stress and weight gain

While it is not possible to avoid stress, it is possible to learn how to manage stress better and thereby minimize the damaging side effects of distress. Our bodies were never meant to handle long-term stress. They were designed to handle immediate, short-term stress.

Stress hormones are important for our safety and our ability to respond to physical demands, like running for the bus. Adrenaline and cortisol also make fat available for fuel. They take the fat that surrounds the internal organs, the so-called stress fat because this fat is most easily accessible and most readily converted into energy. Which is all good. Here’s the rub: when there is too much stress fat, it becomes toxic, overwhelming the liver and impairing its daily functions. This can lead to a variety of metabolic disruptions including: high blood sugar, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and high blood coagulability, which can lead to blood clots. These imbalances lead to serious illnesses, including heart disease and diabetes.

Once the stress response is over, balance is restored: The hormones and the fuel need to be replenished. This is why cortisol sparks your appetite. Your body typically craves fats and carbohydrates after stress because these were used up as the primary sources of fuel. This explains how activating the stress response on a constant basis can make you fat.

While it is true that hormones, lifestyle choices, and aging all play a part in weight gain, toxic stress can trigger additional toxic weight gain in mid-life and beyond. This stress weight is held on the waist where it is most dangerous to health.

So how do we combat this destructive cycle? In addition to exercise, it is helpful to first understand your own response to food in the face of stress. Some will reach for food, while others will avoid food. Some will do something effective to lower their stress. Put another way, there are people who are stress-resilient, stress over-eaters and stress under-eaters. Everyone has a different stress profile that determines his or her eating response to stress.

To become more stress resilient is possible. First examine what happens when a life stress interferes with normal exercise and eating routine. Keep a journal logging what your patterns of behaviour are when faced with stress. They will help you identify patterns of self-destructive behaviour. By being aware of the triggers that cause you to self-destruct, you can be better prepared to deal with them.

Develop a contingency plan to resolve the stress. If Plan A is your healthy eating and exercise program on the ideal days, your Plan B would be your contingency plan to be put into effect when too many things go wrong. Recognizing that you may have to regroup from time to time will help you transition between the more controlled routines and the stresses that challenge your ability to maintain these regimens. Regrouping permits you to keep your stress hormones in check so that your eating doesn’t go off the rails.

Health = Successful Adaptation