Health and Fitness Tip #88 - 3 Ways Stress Can Make You Fat

3 Ways Stress Can Make You Fat 

Stress: it’s something we all have to deal with. Stress is a natural part of life, and in the short term, it is a healthy reaction that helps us deal accordingly with conflict. However, when stress continues over a long period of time, our health can go awry.

One of the negative side effects of chronic stress is, unfortunately, weight gain. The two may seem unrelated at first; however, a body of research suggests that stress can indeed contribute to piling on the pounds.

Here’s how:

1. Stress encourages the body to accumulate fat

When we are stressed out, our bodies respond to food differently than when we are relaxed. Specifically, under stress, our nerve cells release neuropeptide Y, a molecule that encourages the body to store fat.

So, the more stressed we are, and the longer we are stressed, the more weight we can potentially gain. If you are suffering from chronic stress, you may be eating the same type and the same amount of food as always, but notice yourself gaining more weight.

2. Stress may lead to dangerous belly fat

Living in a state of stress can lead not only to general weight gain, but also to weight accumulation around your middle. This is because elevated stress leads to an overproduction of cortisol in the body. Cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” encourages the body to store weight around the abdomen.

This type of fat, called “belly fat” or visceral fat, is an extremely dangerous type of fat to carry. This is because it coats the organs and encourages system-wide inflammation. Inflammation can then lead to a host of health problems, such as heart disease, autoimmune disease, and insulin resistance.

Stress and the accumulation of belly fat can also become a dangerous cycle: belly fat itself triggers more cortisol to be produced in the body.

3. Stress may trigger unhealthy food cravings

Many people get serious food cravings when they are stressed out, usually for less-than-healthy foods. Baked, carbohydrate-rich snacks such as cookies are especially popular “comfort foods.” We likely crave these foods because carbs temporarily raise serotonin levels, which mitigates the stress for a short time.

If this becomes habit, we start eating these carb-filled foods as a form of self-medication. This does nothing to address stress long term, and it can obviously lead to quite a bit of weight gain.