You’re having problems at work or at home. You’re stressed, and it’s beginning to show in more ways than one. You’ve noticed a bulge around your mid-section that wasn’t there before. Where are these extra kilos coming from? Stress could be one of the culprits. It plays a role in weight gain. While it can make you have less of an appetite at first, long-term chronic stress actually boosts your hunger.
Below are three major reasons as to why stress can lead to weight gain.
Anxiety and Hormone Release
When your brain detects the presence of a threat, no matter if it is a snake in the grass, a massive pile of paperwork, or a big credit card bill, it triggers the release of a cascade of chemicals, including adrenaline, CRH, and cortisol. Your brain and body prepare to handle the threat by making you feel alert, ready for action and able to withstand an injury. In the short-term, adrenaline helps you feel less hungry as your blood flows away from the internal organs and to your large muscles to prepare for “fight or flight.” However, once the effects of adrenaline wear off, cortisol, known as the stress hormone, hangs around and starts signaling the body to replenish your food supply.
When we have a surge of adrenaline as part of our fight/flight response, we get fidgety and agitated. Adrenaline is the reason for the “wired up” feeling we get when we’re stressed. While we may burn off some extra calories fidgeting or running around cleaning because we can’t sit still, anxiety can also trigger “emotional eating.” Overeating or eating unhealthy foods in response to stress or as a way to calm down is a very common response.
Cravings and Fast Food
When we are chronically stressed, we crave comfort foods, such as a bag of potato chips or a tub of ice cream. These foods tend to be easy to eat, highly processed, and high in fat, sugar, or salt. We crave these foods for both biological and psychological reasons. Stress may mess up our brain’s reward system or cortisol may cause us to crave more fat and sugar. When we are stressed, we also may be more likely to drive through the Fast Food place, rather than taking the time and mental energy to plan and cook a meal.
Less Sleep
Do you ever lie awake at night worrying about paying the bills or about who will watch your kids when you have to go to work? Our minds are overactive and won’t switch off. We may also lose sleep because of pulling overnights to cram for exams or writing until the early hours. Stress causes decreased blood sugar, which leads to fatigue. If you drink coffee or caffeinated soft drinks to stay awake, or alcohol to feel better, your sleep cycle will be even more disrupted. Sleep is also a powerful factor influencing weight gain or loss. Lack of sleep may disrupt the functioning of ghrelin and leptin—chemicals that control appetite. We also crave carbs when we are tired or grumpy from lack of sleep. Finally, not getting our precious sleep erodes our willpower and ability to resist temptation. In one study, overweight/obese dieters were asked to follow a fixed calorie diet and assigned to get either 5 and a half or eight and a half hours of sleep a night (in a sleep lab). Those with sleep deprivation lost substantially less weight.
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