Stress and Losing Fat

While there are people who lose weight because of the stress, for most people stress leads to putting on more fat. There are numerous researches that show the relationship between stress and gaining fat and this is hardly surprising. But to blame stress for excessive weight is hardly the best approach. Yes, stress does contribute to leading a less active life and eating more, especially sweets, which in turn lead to fat gain but this sounds too much of an excuse.

First, what is stress? Just being nervous about the outcome of an event? Or the pressure at work or university? Many negative and unpleasant things in life can be classified as stress, even being alive can be named as a cause of stress but this is still an oversimplified view of the problem.

Maybe we have learnt (or are in the process of learning) to live with stress without paying too much attention to it. If this is so, we can congratulate ourselves to be successful stress managers. But unfortunately, even if we don't feel the stress because on the surface we have got used to it, stress influences our bodies in less visible ways, the primary one being the increased secretion of cortisol.

Cortisol is the hormone that tells the body to increase the appetite and store fat. This reaction has been developed in the course of evolution, when dangers were not like today's (will I lose my job, how can I pay back my credits, will the kids graduate successfully, etc.) but were related more with the absence of food and the need to store fat reserves, in case this absence goes on for a long time.

Well, nowadays the absence of food is not so common, at least in the developed countries, so the function of cortisol has turned from a positive to a negative one. When we are under stress, the increased levels of cortisol in our body instructs the brain that we are hungry and that is why we eat more. At the same time, stress does not burn more calories than the usual, so even if we didn't increase the input of food, we would store more fat. And if we increase the input of food, especially when combined with less (if any) physical activity, it becomes a disaster. Now do you see how one nervous-wrenching week can gain you 3-4 pounds of fat?

The increased levels of cortisol are especially bad for belly fat. As already mentioned in other articles, the belly is the first place where the body starts to store fat. But the good news is that a couple of pounds of belly fat are relatively easy to strip off, so if you have not filled up you primary fat reserve – the belly - chances are that occasional stress will not turn you into a fat ball. There is medication for suppressing the levels of cortisol but you'd better resort to it only after a doctor has prescribed it.

No matter if you have heard about cortisol or not, a fact that you might have noticed is that when you are under stress, your daily regime changes. For instance, you forget to eat for many hours and then eat a lot at once. Or you might eat frequently (or more precisely - constantly) mainly sweets and other sugar-rich foods or junk food, like chips. If you can't find the strength to restrain yourself from eating these diet-killers, don't blame the stress for your excessive weight.

One of the most interesting stress-related facts is that generally women are more affected by stress than men. Not that women under stress eat more than men – they simply exercise less, have less muscles and all these are factors for gaining fat. It is arguable if the gender only makes men more resistent to stress but as far as fat gain is concerned, certainly the stronger gender is more privileged, especially when his main occupation is related to physical labor, while hers is mainly tied to the desk.

Cortisol suppressors are not the only way to decrease the damage caused by stress. There are many stress management techniques that also help. For instance, as paradoxical as it may seem, counting calories causes stress, which in turn makes you hungry for sweets. So, if you are not obsessed to take a limited number of calories and not a single calorie above the limit, it will be easier for you to avoid sweets and to prevent the natural stress-caused reaction of your body to store more fat.