subject: Cortisol and Weight Gain - or How Stress Makes You Fat (the Simple Version) [print this page] There is a serious link between stress and being overweight and these are due to a number of emotional and physiological factors. This article focuses on the latter, the cortisol and weight gain nexus.
Cortisol and weight gain go hand in hand due to the physiological response of your body when your stress response is aroused. When you are stressed your cortisol levels go up, the hormone that is intricately involved with your body's response to stress, whether it is physical or emotional.
Among other things cortisol increases your blood sugar levels to promote your body's fight or flight' response, releasing more glucose into the blood stream to be used as instant energy. Adrenalin is also released to help with alertness and energy levels by helping to release energy from fat cells. So during stress energy is being released from two supply depots and both carbohydrate and fat are available for quick energy.
After the stressful episode cortisol helps to restore your body back to normal and one of its jobs is to replenish the body's energy supplies. It does this by increasing our appetites to help replace the lost fat and carbohydrates that we should have used whilst we were fleeing or fighting. However, today our stress response is much more likely to be caused by an argument with a partner, a disagreement with a colleague or having to wait in a traffic jam which means that we won't have expended very much energy at all. Cortisol however is unaware of this and keeps our hunger for carbohydrates and fat on alert leading us to take in more energy than we expended during our fight' or flight'!
Another factor is that if you have raised cortisol levels due to stress you will also have raised insulin levels as cortisol production stimulates glucose production. Unfortunately for us, the excess glucose is then converted into stored fat particularly around the waist as the fat cells in your abdomen are richer in stress hormone receptors and particularly sensitive to high insulin and therefore very effective at storing energy.
A recent study at Yale University found that women who stored fat around their middle had higher cortisol levels than those who stored it around their thighs and bottom! The production of cortisol and the resultant weight gain can be reduced by a number of practical means.
Anyone suffering from stress and weight gain should start to take more exercise such as a brisk walk, which will also help to burn calories. Other means of helping with this problem would be relaxation strategies such as diaphragmatic breathing before, during and after stressful situations, learning and practising mindfulness, taking up a stress reducing activity such as yoga or tai chi, leaning stress management strategies such as time management, and cognitive behavioural techniques. It would also help to get adequate sleep and eat for optimum nutrition.
Cortisol and Weight Gain - or How Stress Makes You Fat (the Simple Version)
By: Rebecca
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