Is Stress Making You Fat?

Short-term stress is good and prepares our bodies to respond to physical, emotional and psychological stress. However, long-term chronic stress has many negative effects on our bodies.

You may have heard that stress interrupts our sleep patterns, which is true. In addition to needing sleep so we feel refreshed and can think clearly, we need 7-9 hours of sound sleep a night to maintain a healthy weight. How? Sleep influences our body’s production of hormones, which influence our appetite (leptin and ghrelin).

Ghrelin is produced in the GI tract and stimulates appetite whereas leptin is produced in fat cells and tells our brain we’ve had enough to eat. Sleep less and leptin levels go down so we keep eating and eating but don’t feel satiated (full). And, like a double edged wammy, ghrelin levels rise so your appetite really kicks into full gear.  And at least one study found that men who slept less than 8 hours a night had lower levels of leptin and higher levels of ghrelin and higher body fat than those men who slept 8 hours or more per night. And, the men who slept the least weighed the most.

Aside from it’s affects on sleep, chronic stress hurts our waistline in other ways as well:

• Triggers the constant release of cortisol, which keeps our blood sugar levels high so we have fuel to fight against stress.
• Stimulates appetite
• Stimulates the production of fat
• Stimulates the enzyme lipoprotein lipase which inhibits the breakdown of fat in our body
• Contributes to apathy, anxiety and depression. And, when we are more apathetic we don’t care what we eat. Call it soothing the soul, comfort foods or just increasing your levels of the feel good hormone serotonin through a high carb diet, this type of eating can pack on the pounds.

So, how can you de-stress? Find the root cause of your stress first and see what you can do about it. Meditate, try yoga or Tai chi. And, whatever you do, find something else to do to calm your nerves besides eating.