Maintaining a healthy weight can be a constant struggle for some people, especially if you’re stressed.
The links between stress and weight gain or weight loss are well documented. Stress can be determined as an obvious contributing factor in anyone either struggling to lose weight or suffering from unexpected weight loss, and it’s all due to a ‘stress hormone’ called cortisol.
Stress, whether it’s the result of lifestyle factors, personal issues or a combination of the two, is the body’s reaction to wanting to escape from a risky situation, also known as the fight or flight response. Needless to say, stress can seriously disrupt the body’s internal functioning.
When you’re stressed, your adrenal glands fire up to release adrenaline and cortisol, resulting in the production of glucose being pumped into your bloodstream. Cortisol stimulates your fat and carbohydrate metabolism, creating a boost of energy in your body.
Through this, your appetite may increase, causing cravings for sweet, fatty and salty foods, commonly known as ‘comfort foods’, or you may be the opposite where you might completely lose the desire to eat.
For many people, their bodies store excess sugar for a possible future event, most commonly in the form of abdominal ‘toxic’ fat. And so a vicious cycle begins – get stressed, release cortisol, gain weight, crave more sugar, eat more sugar, gain more weight.
Of course, the cumulative effect of this cycle can result in more serious health problems down the track, such as fatigue, depression, heart disease, diabetes and immune system dysfunction.
Cortisol signals your body to temporarily suppress functions that the body considers to be non-essential during a crisis, for example the digestive, immune and reproductive systems. This can lead to gastrointestinal discomfort, such as stomach pains, heartburn, diarrhoea, constipation and intensify the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. These may cause you to not want to eat, causing weight loss.
An excess of cortisol can also lead to your body producing less testosterone which may cause a decrease in muscle mass.
Decreasing the stress in your life may seem like an impossible task some days, but you can manage the impact of elevated cortisol levels.
Practicing mindfulness, meditation and deep breathing can stimulate the vagus nerve and bring the production of cortisol back down to an acceptable level.
Consuming high quality, preferably organic, plant-based foods, and exercising regularly are also excellent ways to manage your stress hormones.
Wonder Foods have a wide range of supplements and other tools and tips which can help your body, and mind, deal with stress-induced weight gain or loss.
Support your body with our Multiplex Minerals, Wonder Mag, Tangy Vitamin C and Mega 8, to name just a few. We love Wonder Foods Liquid Oxygen to support the body when feeling stressed too.
References:
How stress can cause weight gain – the role of cortisol in the body, E Scott (PhD), 5 Jan 2021
Stress and weight loss: what’s the connection?, N Silver, 31 Jul 2018
