Help! Stress is Keeping Me Fat!

By CocoaDiva on Sep 09, 2008 with Comments

The last few weeks have been very stressful for me at work. It seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day to finish my tasks. Deadlines loom and my personal issues need to be organized. I knew being an attorney meant long hours, buuut I am stressed out!!! I notice when I am stressed I eat more, sleep less, and generally feel unhealthy. It feels like I can’t eat enough chocolate (my weakness) to make me calm down. What are the reasons for my behavior? How does stress contribute to weight gain? What can I do to combat weight gain?

When you are stressed out the body’s fight or flight response kicks in and your body begins to release various hormones including cortisol, a stress hormone. Whether you are really in danger or just stressed out, your body reacts like its about to be in danger and needs to run away or fight back. If your body remains in this state for an extended periods of time, you can enter a chronic stress period which puts your health at risk and causes weight gain.

The effects of chronic stress

1. Metabolism – Too much cortisol can slow your metabolism, causing more weight gain than you would normally experience. This also makes dieting more difficult. You may even gain weight when you are still on your diet or eating the same amount as you were previously.

2. Cravings- You don’t want that healthy salad you want all the cookies and ice cream and you want them now!!! If you are experiencing chronic stress you tend to crave more fatty, salty and sugary foods. This includes sweets, processed food and other things that aren’t as good for you. These foods are typically less healthy and lead to increased weight gain.

3. Fluctuations in Blood Sugar – long periods of stress can change your blood sugar levels, causing mood swings, fatigue, and conditions like hyperglycemia.

4. Fat Storage -Excessive stress even affects where we tend to store fat. Higher levels of stress are linked to greater levels of abdominal fat. Unfortunately, abdominal fat is not only aesthetically undesirable, it goes hand in hand with more health issues than fat stored in other areas of the body.

5. Stress and weight gain – suddenly you are reaching for unhealty snacks mindlessly because you are emotionally eating. This leads to eating more than you normally would. You start saying you are too busy to work out because of all the demands on your schedule . All the sudden you have gone from an active person to living a sedentary life. You just wake up, go to work or class, sit at a desk all day, and then go to sleep.

How do you combat stress ?

1. Call a friend and go hang out - a lack of support when you are stressed is directly tied to the tendency to emotionally eat. This is also why programs like Weight Watchers work so well. Its like having your own support system. If you are feeling stressed out talk to a friend instead of letting the pizza talk to you. Good friends always give me a dose of reality and provide me with options I wasn’t aware of.

2. Get a burst of energy- do some jumping jacks, run up a flight of stairs, or take a brisk walk when you start to feel really stressed out. This may help suppress your appetite and release some tension you have been building. Trapped at your desk? Get up and move around a bit. Stretch a little bit to the music in your headphones or desk speakers! Don’t reach for those office doughnuts or snacks!!

3. Get enough sleep. If you don’t sleep well when you’re stressed, that may have an impact on your weight loss efforts, too. (Research has shown there may be a connection between lack of sleep and weight gain.)

4. Keep a food diary – I love food diaries. You can’t lie to yourself and say you only ate your Lean Cuisine when you really plowed through that cake and pie. It forces you to be honest with yourself and also make conscious decisions before you put food in your mouth!

5. Get some exercise- regular exercise helps combat stress. Lately it feels like when I get to the gym, working out makes me feel so much better. I take out all my frustration on that Nordic Trac elliptical treadmill (which by the way kicks my tail every time)!! Frequent exercise helps you lose weight, regulates cortisol, lowers depression, and will help you get a better nights sleep.

Try out this stress quiz to see how you respond to stress.

When I feel like life is out of hand I try to call my friends and hit the gym and be aware of what I put in my mouth! I have been working too hard to lose over 40 pounds….I can’t let stress keep me from my weight loss goal.

What do you do when you are stressed out? Do you feel like stress is preventing you from losing weight?

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