Slash stress for better weight-loss results.
As if you didn’t have enough to stress about already, new research published in the journal Obesity links chronically high stress levels with weight gain and obesity.
For the study, researchers at the University College London followed 2,527 adults over the course of four years. They found that the men and women who had chronically higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol had body mass indexes and waist circumferences (both measures of body composition and obesity) that were significantly greater than those whose cortisol levels weren’t elevated for extended periods. Cortisol levels in obese individuals were especially high.
While the study only found that stress and obesity are related (not that one causes the other), it adds to mounting evidence implicating stress as a huge culprit behind our country’s collective waistline.
Here, we dive into the research to uncover five of the most common ways stress promotes weight gain. Or, put another way, five reasons why you need to de-stress ASAP.
1. It promotes insulin resistance. “Under stressful conditions, cortisol provides the body with energy by tapping into and breaking down the body’s protein stores into blood glucose, or sugar,” says registered dietitian nutritionist Lauren Blake, a sports dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “This energy can help an individual fight or flee a stressor.” However, over the long term, consistently elevated cortisol and blood sugar levels contribute to insulin resistance, which can lead to fat storage, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
2. It kicks your cravings into high gear. Cortisol has a keen ability to make you increase your intake of foods that are high in fat, sugar or both. While the exact mechanisms are still unclear, it may have to do with cortisol’s influence on levels of hormones such as the aptly named “hunger hormone,” ghrelin, Blake says. What’s more, once consumed, high-sugar foods contribute to an increase in levels of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin, inhibiting activity in brain regions that produce and process anxiety, and literally staving off stress, she says. Unfortunately, the effect is brief, typically resulting in one junk-food binge right after the other.
3. It moves fat to your belly. When it comes to the fat on your frame, visceral (aka belly) fat, which takes up residence in and around your vital organs, is the most deleterious type, increasing the risk of insulin resistance and, according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, even heart disease and cancer. Unfortunately, cortisol can actually mobilize triglycerides, the main components found in human body fat, and relocate them within visceral fat cells, Blake says. Stress-induced belly fat is a risk even in those who aren’t overweight. In one Psychosomatic Medicine study of normal-weight healthy women, those who reported more life stress had greater levels of abdominal fat.
4. It makes you miss out on sleep. Stress is the No. 1 cause of insomnia, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Meanwhile, research published in the journal Diabetologia shows that sleep deprivation reduces the body’s insulin sensitivity while decreasing levels of human growth hormone, thereby increasing the body’s propensity for fat storage and potentially decreasing metabolic rate. To promote a healthy weight, it’s vital to get solid sleep every night, Blake says. The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours.
5. It wrecks your workouts. It’s easy to skip the gym when you’re stressed (there’s just so much to do!), but science also shows that mental stress shortchanges the effects of whatever exercise you do perform. In one study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers with the Yale Stress Center at the Yale University School of Medicine found that psychological stress inhibits muscle recovery following strenuous resistance exercise. This may be in part because cortisol is a catabolic (muscle-degrading) hormone, blunting the effects of anabolic (muscle-building) hormones such as testosterone and human growth hormone.
Written for Health.USnews.com