We’re all very aware of how stress has often become an unwelcome companion in our lives. While the immediate effects of stress are often apparent – racing thoughts, tension, irritability – its impact on our physical health, particularly weight management, can be more insidious. That’s why understanding the complex relationship between stress and weight gain is so important when you’re looking to improve your overall health and wellbeing.
How Stress Can Cause Weight Gain
Stress and its impact on weight loss is well-known. But the connection between stress and weight gain is more significant than many of us realise. When we experience stress, our bodies undergo a series of physiological changes designed to help us cope with perceived threats. And that’s very useful in a true emergency but, unfortunately, these biological responses also tend to work against our health and weight management goals.
Stress affects your eating habits in multiple ways:
- Emotional eating: turning to food as a coping mechanism during stressful periods, often reaching for calorie-dense comfort foods high in sugar and fat
- Mindless eating: leading to distracted eating patterns and consuming more than you realise
- Disrupted meal schedules: leading to skipping some meals and then overeating later
- Reduced willpower: making it harder to maintain healthy eating choices thanks to the mental strain from chronic stress
What is Cortisol Weight Gain?
At the heart of stress-related weight issues is cortisol, often called the “stress hormone.” When we experience stress, our adrenal glands release cortisol as part of our body’s fight-or-flight response.
Cortisol weight gain is often seen in:
- Weight gain around the midsection (often called “stress belly”)
- Increased fat storage, particularly visceral fat surrounding vital organs
- Fluid retention adding to weight and bloating
- Muscle breakdown slowing metabolism over time
Raised cortisol levels trigger your metabolism to release quick energy, thereby increasing appetite. Chronic stress leads to ongoing higher cortisol levels, which in turn leads to ongoing hunger signals and increased fat storage, especially around the abdomen. Making highly-stressed individuals more likely to develop obesity over time compared to those with lower stress levels
Long Term Effects of Stress
Chronic stress doesn’t just affect your weight in the short term though, it creates lasting changes in both body and mind. The long-term effects of sustained high cortisol levels include:
- Metabolic changes: Chronic stress slows metabolism, making weight loss more difficult
- Insulin resistance: Over time, stress can reduce insulin sensitivity, contributing to both weight gain and increased risk of type 2 diabetes
- Digestive issues: Stress disrupts gut health, affecting nutrient absorption and causing bloating
- Increased blood pressure: Sustained stress elevates blood pressure, adding strain to your cardiovascular system
- Compromised immune function: Chronic stress weakens immunity, making you more susceptible to illness
- Hair loss or changes: Prolonged stress can affect hair growth cycles and quality
- Sleep disruption: Stress often interferes with sleep quality, which further impacts weight management
How Does Stress Affect Blood Sugar Levels and Appetite?
One of the most significant ways stress contributes to weight gain is through its effects on blood sugar regulation and appetite control.
Cortisol triggers the release of stored glucose into our bloodstream, increasing blood sugar to provide immediate energy. At the same time, cortisol signals our body to produce more glucose while making cells less responsive to insulin.
The resulting low blood sugar makes us crave sugary, fatty foods, leading to weight gain. This creates a vicious cycle: stress raises our cortisol levels, which increases insulin production, leading to blood sugar fluctuations, which drive hunger and cravings.
But stress doesn’t just affect what we eat, it also disrupts the balance of our hunger hormones:
- Increases ghrelin: Known as the “hunger hormone,” elevated ghrelin stimulates appetite
- Decreases leptin sensitivity: Leptin signals fullness, but stress makes the body less responsive to this signal
- Alters dopamine response: Stress changes how our brain responds to food, potentially increasing the pleasure derived from eating.
FAQs About Stress and Weight Management
Q: Can stress cause weight gain even without changing my diet?
A: Yes. Even without eating more, increased cortisol from chronic stress can slow metabolism, increase fat storage (especially around the abdomen), and reduce muscle mass – all of which can lead to weight gain, irrespective of how many calories you eat.
Q: Does all stress lead to weight gain?
A: Not necessarily. Short-term, acute stress may temporarily suppress appetite. It’s chronic, ongoing stress that typically leads to weight gain through sustained elevated cortisol levels and altered eating behaviours.
Fun fact: “stress” has evolved from the word “distress” but there’s also another form of positive stress known as “eustress”. And Eustress can motivate us to create solutions and energy in response to a challenge if we can tap into it.
Q: Can reducing stress help me lose weight even without dieting?
A: Managing stress can support weight loss efforts by stabilising cortisol levels, improving sleep quality, reducing emotional eating, and restoring normal hunger cues. While it’s unlikely to cause significant weight loss on its own, it does remove a major barrier to successful weight management.
Q: How quickly can stress reduction impact weight?
A: That really depends on each individual, but improved energy, reduced bloating, and better appetite control often follows on from a few weeks of effective stress management techniques.
Q: Can stress cause weight loss in some people?
A: Yes. While many people gain weight under stress, others may lose weight due to decreased appetite, increased physical restlessness, or digestive disturbances. But both stress-related weight gain and weight loss indicate hormonal imbalances that should be addressed.
How to Break the Cycle of Stress and Weight Gain
Managing stress effectively is essential not only for mental health but also for maintaining a healthy weight. Fortunately, there are several tried and tested ways to reduce stress, help lower cortisol levels, and break the cycle of stress-induced weight gain. Some of these include:
Mind-Body Practices
- Deep breathing exercises activate the parasympathetic nervous system to counteract stress. Sit quietly, breathing deeply in and out through your nose for a few minutes. Use this ‘breathing space’ to focus on your goals, meditate, or simply daydream, then snap your mind back into current focus in one deep breath
- Yoga combines physical movement, breathing, and mindfulness
- Tensing then relaxing all your large muscles in turn can help; breathe in as you tense, exhale as you relax
- Escape because sometimes by removing yourself from the stressful situation you can deflate it. Have a laugh, take a five-minute power nap, or get active (even if just walking round the room).
Mindful Eating Practices
- Eat slowly and without distractions
- Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues
- Distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger
- Stay hydrated, as dehydration can mimic hunger.
Stress-Aware Planning
- Plan ahead with Foodpacks and prepare healthy meals in advance to avoid stress-induced poor choices
- Identify personal stress triggers and develop specific strategies for each
- Create a supportive environment by removing tempting comfort foods
- Establish consistent routines that will become healthy habits.
Lifestyle Adjustments
- Adequate sleep is important so aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep to regulate stress hormones
- Time in nature can help, many studies show spending time outdoors lowers cortisol levels
- Social connections and positive relationships buffer against stress effects
- Setting boundaries and learning to say “no” can prevent overwhelm. Express your ideas in an open, direct, and honest manner. Stand up for your rights, while respecting the rights of others, and take responsibility for your actions and yourself, without judging or blaming others. Find a compromise where conflict exists
- Getting support from family, friends, colleagues, and LighterLife is key. Bottling it up (or swallowing it down with too much food) is not the answer: talking about it is, and you can do this with your Mentor. They understand your goals, your experiences, your triggers, and with their support you’re more likely to succeed in dealing with your stresses and achieving your weight management goals.
Try This De-Stress Exercise
Have a go at using a rating scale. Think back to a pressurised situation and rate on a scale of one to ten how stressed you believe you were. One if super chilled, up to ten if close to breaking point.
Now, imagine the situation and how someone who was really at a highly stressed ten would be behaving and feeling. Imagine all the worst possible scenarios that might happen if they became overwhelmed. Then, question if that was likely to be true, examine any crooked thinking, or any evidence for that worst possible scenario all becoming reality.
Now, come up with a more balanced thought about how the situation could be managed more effectively. Visualise some potential ideas and solutions and switch to this different script.
Rate your new stress level, again one to ten. The results might surprise you.
Achieving Inner Harmony
Inner harmony is a peaceful feeling where there’s a connection and a sense of belonging between our inner life and the outer world. When the outer world doesn’t conform to our expectations and desires, we can become anxious, resentful, jealous, angry, and stressed. For those of us used to swallowing our anger and drowning our sorrows, that list of emotions reads like a recipe for, “Give me food, now.”
Feeling stressed is a common trigger for overeating and drinking. Yet stress can be as much to do with your perception of what’s happening rather than what’s actually going on, which means you often have it in your power to deal with it differently.
Understanding your underlying stress factors can make your weight management efforts much more successful and sustainable. Healthy weight management isn’t only about physical health but mental and emotional wellbeing too. And when you achieve all three, that’s inner harmony.
