The stress can make you fat in some people due to changes in the neuroendocrine system that cause an increase in appetite. In addition to the release of hormones such as adrenaline, choricotropin or cortisol, learned behaviors such as constantly eating food can occur in stress.
"Stress" is a term used in a generalized and colloquial way by most people to refer to a state of anxiety, what we feel when we are overwhelmed by having many tasks and little time to carry them out.
The popular term was coined in 1936 by Hans Selye, an Austro-Hungarian physiologist and physician, who defined stress as "a nonspecific response of the body to any demand for change.".
Any stimulus that poses a challenge or threat to our well-being can lead to a state of stress. Stressors, which are the stimuli that cause stress, can be both physical, psychological or emotional.
For example, we may feel stressed in a situation that is difficult for us to predict or control, such as on a first date, a job interview, or exam times. Other stressors can be loud noises, excessive cold or heat, an unpleasant person ...
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While the immediate response to a stressor may be loss of appetite, for some people, chronic stress may be linked to increased appetite, which in turn leads to weight gain..
The problem is caused by our neuroendocrine system, which connects the brain to the rest of the body in a way that helped our ancestors to survive, but not us..
One of the hormones released during times of stress is adrenaline, which provides immediate energy, along with corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol. A high level of adrenaline and CRH in the body temporarily decreases appetite, but these effects do not last long.
Cortisol, for its part, serves to help the body recover after having made an effort to fight or flee and remains much longer.
These days, we don't actually fight or flee (physically) from stressful situations, but cortisol is released anyway, causing our bodies to "believe" that we need to make up for lost calories and increase appetite. When stress is chronic, this can lead to significant weight gain.
In addition to the physiological reasons just explained, eating more when under chronic stress can also be a learned behavior. In stressful situations, we have the urge to move, do something, and eating is an activity that can be carried out quickly and is immediately comforting..
However, long-term stress can lead to weight gain in some people and weight loss in others. On the one hand, as we have seen, higher levels of cortisol can increase food intake but, on the other hand, stress can inhibit appetite by activating the sympathetic nervous system..
Animal studies offer the opportunity to examine the effect of stress on food intake by controlling for more factors than in human studies.
In these investigations it has generally been seen that animals eat less when the intensity of the stressor is high, but when the intensity is reduced, they eat more..
The interactions between genes and environmental factors are also relevant in this topic. Stable differences between individuals can determine which pattern of reactions (gaining weight, losing it, or neither) would prevail for each individual under stressful conditions..
A field study, in which participants were middle-aged men and women who kept diaries of stress and daily food intake, identified three reactions to stress.
Some subjects ate more, consistently, during periods of stress, others ate less, and there were subjects in whom no stress-related change in their eating patterns was seen.
In line with this, research with university students found both a tendency to eat more reported by the same students and another to eat less during exam periods.
Certain dimensions of the personality have also been linked to a tendency to gain weight. Depressive symptoms, psychological stress and a low level of life satisfaction have been found to be more common among obese subjects than among subjects of normal weight..
Stress, induced by negative life events, and depressive symptoms have been identified as risk factors for short and long-term weight gain.
Obese subjects have also been seen to be more outgoing than control subjects of normal weight, but no differences have been found in the levels of neuroticism of both..
Most of this research, however, focuses on the associations of stress with these characteristics in the short term..
A study published in the International Journal of Obesity (Korkeila, Kaprio, Rissanen, Koskenvuo & Sörensen, 1998) aimed to examine whether certain personality variables predict significant weight gain during two relatively long follow-up periods (6 years and 15 years ).
Continuing with the topic of losing weight, experts say that we should not go on a diet when we are under chronic or severe stress.
In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2001, researchers at the University of British Columbia found that severely limiting calorie intake could lead to a series of biochemical events in the body that not only increase stress levels, but also could make us feel hungrier.
The researchers studied 62 women for three days. Of this group, 33 were on a 1,500 calorie daily diet, while the other 29 were consuming around 2,200 calories each day.
After analyzing urine samples, it was found that women who had eaten the least food had the highest cortisol levels.
Not surprisingly, these women also reported experiencing more stress during what the researchers called "daily food-related experiences.".
In short, the more they restricted their food, the higher their levels of stress-related hormones and, therefore, the more they wanted to eat.
The effects of stress on our body do not have to be entirely inevitable. Here are some tips that can help reduce stress levels and maintain weight..
This will keep your metabolism active throughout the day. Eat breakfast, even if you're not hungry or don't think you have time. Eating breakfast helps jump-start your metabolism and keep blood sugar levels stable, which reduces stress.
Some foods have been shown to increase metabolic rate and, although the effects are not astronomical, they can counteract some decrease in metabolism caused by stress.
Chillies, coffee, green tea, whole foods (bread, pasta), and lentils are some examples of these types of foods. Make sure you also drink an adequate amount of water; metabolism can slow down if we are dehydrated.
The fuel our muscles need to carry out the fight or flight response is sugar; that is why when we are stressed we feel more craving for sweet or carbohydrate foods.
In addition to many other things, exercise is helpful in reducing stress. When starting any physical activity, the body releases a torrent of biochemical substances that can counteract the negative effects of those released when there is stress..
On the other hand, if we exercise too much, stress levels can increase; do a sport that you like and with a moderate frequency.
To do this, moderate your caffeine consumption. Getting too little sleep increases cortisol levels, making us feel hungry and less satisfied with the amount of food we eat.
According to the American Institute of Stress, tobacco and caffeine can cause cortisol levels to rise, as well as stress, lower blood sugar and make us hungrier.
The institute also warns that drinking too much alcohol can affect blood sugar and insulin levels..
Many people argue that they don't have time for breakfast or even lunch. Skipping meals, far from causing you to lose weight, can slow down your metabolism and make you hungrier than usual later..
A massage, going to a spa from time to time, doing meditation… it is shown to lower cortisol levels. You will feel more relaxed and your productivity at work will increase.
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