His job is hanging by a thread, and the credit card bills are mounting. His teenage son wants to quit school and become a professional Snowboarder. Or maybe it’s increasing tensions in the world, brought to you 24 hours a day on the TV screen, getting it down.
Whatever the reason, stress is a way of life in the 21st century. And for some people, the effects go beyond the feelings of anxiety and discomfort. For these people, stress can mean facing ravenously hungry every day - and adding the weight gain to their list of concerns.
“While the immediate … response to acute stress may be a temporary loss of appetite, we are increasingly coming to recognize that for some people, chronic stress can be linked to an increase in appetite - and stress-induced weight gain, “says Elissa Epele, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco.
The problem, he said, lies within our neuroendocrine system - a brain-body connection that harkens back to the changing times and that helped our distant ancestors to survive. Although today the source of stress is more likely to be a bill pending payment of a saber-tooth tiger, this system still activates a number of hormones every time they feel threatened.
“These hormones give us the strength we have to fight biochemical or flee from our stress,” he tells WebMD Epele.
The hormones released when you’re stressed include adrenaline - that gives us instant energy - along with corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol. While high levels of adrenaline and CRH decreased appetite in the first place, the effects usually do not last long.
Cortisol and works on a different schedule. His job is to help us replenish our body after the stress has passed, and it hangs around a lot longer. “You can remain high, increasing your appetite, and ultimately lead to eating more,” said Epele.
While this system works well when our stress comes in the form of physical danger - when we really need to “fight or flight”, and then replenish - do not serve the same purpose for today’s garden-variety stress.
“Often, our response to stress today is to sit and stew in our frustration and anger, without spending any of the calories or food stores that if we were physically fighting our way of stress or danger,” says Shawn Talbott, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of Utah and author of The Connection cortisol.
In other words, from his neuro-endocrine system does not know that you do not fight or flee, that still responds to stress with the hormonal signal to replenish stores of nutrition - that can make you feel hungry.
After these signs of stress can lead not only to weight gain, but also the tendency to store what is called “visceral fat” around the midsection. These fat cells that are found deep within the abdomen have been linked to an increase in both diabetes and heart disease.
To complicate matters further, the “fuel” our muscles needed for the “fight or flight” is sugar - a reason why we crave carbohydrates when they are stressed, says endocrinologist Ricardo Perfetti, MD, PhD.
“To move the sugar from our blood to our muscles require insulin, the hormone that opens the doors to cells and allows the sugar,” says Perfetti, who runs the outpatient diabetes program at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. And the high levels of sugar and insulin lay the groundwork for the body to store fat.
“Therefore, people who are under stress, metabolically speaking, increasing weight for the same reason,” he tells WebMD Perfetti.
Mind over matter
As much as we’d like to blame all our weight gain on stress, experts say they eat in response to stress may also be a learned habit - which is a mere encouraged by the brain chemistry.
“Under stress, there is an impulse to do something, to move and, often, eating becomes the activity that relieves stress. It’s easy to do and it is comforting,” said David Ginsberg, MD, a psychiatrist and director Program of Behavioral Health at New York University Medical Center.
In fact, it may be our bodies’ initial response to increased levels of cortisol teaches us that there are in the comfort of starchy foods and sugars.
“During the first couple of days after a stressful event, cortisol gives you a clue to eat food high-carbohydrate,” Perfetti tells WebMD. “Once they meet, learn a quick response from behavior that can be felt almost destined to repeat anytime you feel stressed.”
Now for the good news: Whether your need to eat is driven by hormones or habits or a combination of both, research shows there are ways to break the cycle, break the stress and stop the weight gain.
This is what experts recommend:
1. Exercise. This is the best stress-Buster - and also happens to be good for you in many other ways. “It not only burns calories, when you move your body, even with a simple activity such as walking, you begin to produce a cascade of biochemical substances, at least some of which counteract the negative effects of stress hormones - as well as the control insulin and blood sugar levels, “said Talbott.
At the same time, Ginsburg said that the exercise too hard for too long can raise levels of cortisol and, indeed, increase the stress. The answer, says is choose an activity you really enjoy doing - whether a sport like running or aerobic activity such as Pilates quiet - and then keep Workout to a length that does not exhaust him (this could be as little as 20 minutes a day, three to five days a week).
2. Eat a balanced diet - and never skip a meal. “Eat breakfast - and try to consume six small meals instead of three major daily, with foods from all food groups,” Ginsberg tells WebMD. This helps keep levels of blood sugar constant, which in turn put a damper on the production of insulin and eventually reduce the levels of cortisol - helping to control appetite and weight.
3. Do not lose sleep, along their weight problems or stress - When you do not get enough rest, cortisol levels rise, making us feel hungry and less satisfied with the food we eat, says Ginsberg.
4. Devote time to relaxation - Because it works much like exercise to produce brain chemicals that counteract the effects of stress, Ginsburg suggested the pursuit of activities that make you feel relaxed and calm. For some, he said, yoga can do the trick. Others may prefer meditation techniques or deep breathing.
And do not overlook the power of relaxing on a sofa cuddling with a good book or magazine, or even play your favorite movie on the VCR. “Anything that makes you feel relaxed and calm will help counteract the biochemical effects of stress,” Talbott said.
5. Snack on whole grain, high in fiber. If you can not ignore the stress-related hunger, attempts to fill your stomach with foods rich in fiber and low in sugar, such as oats, wheat bread, or fruits like pears or plums.
According to Pamela Peek, MD, MPH, author of the fight against fat after forty, foods that are high in sugar and simple carbohydrates - like white flour, cookies, cake, white rice, pasta or - insulin levels causes a increase, which in turn increases stress hormones and, ultimately, it makes you feel more hungry. However, high-fiber, whole grain food - including cereals such as oatmeal or more flakes of cereal and fruit - to help keep insulin levels, including a keel, so that may help control levels of blood sugar, and, ultimately, hunger, according to Peek.
6. Avoid caffeine, cigarettes and alcohol - According to the American Institute of Stress, cigarettes and caffeine-laden soft drinks, coffee, tea, chocolate and even, can cause cortisol levels to rise, to increase the stress, sugar in the blood to drop and hunger to prevail. The institute also warns against excessive consumption of alcohol, which can affect blood sugar and insulin levels.
7. Take your vitamins - A series of medical studies have shown that stress can deplete important nutrients - especially the B complex and vitamins C and sometimes the minerals calcium and magnesium.
Because these nutrients are necessary to balance the effects of stress hormones such as cortisol, and may even play a role in helping to burn fat, it is important to maintain high levels, said Talbott. While a good diet will help, he said, taking a high potency multi-vitamin can ensure you give your body what it needs to cope not only with stress, but also burn fat and lose weight.
And speaking of losing weight, here’s some news you may be happy to hear: Experts say you should not try to follow a strict diet when you’re in a situation of extreme or chronic stress.
In one study, published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2001, researchers at the University of British Columbia found that severely restricting calorie intake could set in motion a series of biochemical events that ultimately not only increased the levels of stress, but it could make people feel more hungry.
The researchers followed 62 women in three days. Of this group, 33 were on a diet of no more than about 1500 calories a day, while the other 29 were up consuming about 2,200 calories daily.
After analyzing samples of urine, the researchers found that women who had consumed less food had higher levels of cortisol. Not surprisingly, these same women also reported more stress during what researchers called a “daily food-related experiences.” In short, more restricted food intake, the higher their levels of stress hormones, and ultimately, the more I wanted to eat.
If you are chronically stressed, experts say you should do whatever possible to reduce their stress levels, then follow a reduction of calories, but balanced diet to stop the weight gain and lose the extra pounds.