How Stress Can Cause Serious Weight Gain, And How To Overcome It

The Unknown Reasons Why Stress Affects Your Weight

We all know how stress can influence our health, mood, and general well-being. But surprising studies show that our stress levels greatly influence our weight.

And unfortunately, according to national surveys conducted by the American Psychological Association, the majority of people report moderate to high levels of stress.

Not only that, after following thousands of people and their stress levels over a long period of time, we can see a firm connection between stress and substantial weight gain.

So let’s start by understanding why higher levels of stress cause us to gain weight, and then we'll share a couple of easy steps we can do to lower this unhealthy stress.

Stress = Almost 1,000 Extra Calories?

We reached a place in today's world, where most of our stressors are psychological rather than physical. 

We’re more likely to be stressed by our demanding schedules, or a fight with our spouse than a snake, but our bodies respond the same way, we produce cortisol. Within seconds of a stressor, we get that fight-or-flight burst.

Cortisol is regarded as the stress hormone. 

The first effect of cortisol is to boost our appetites, which is beneficial if the stress is physical danger, such as a predator or famine, but it is ineffective if that stress is just trouble at work or financial insecurity.

In the following study, they injected people with a drug like cortisol and it boosted daily intake by nearly 60 percent, resulting in more than 1,000 extra calories consumed a day.

How crazy is that!

Just to comprehend how much 1000 calories is, it’s around 2 1/2 burgers! 

This fact alone gives us an understanding of why we gain weight under stress. 

Moreover, we also start to crave foods that are higher in sugar, fat, and calories. We all know that under stress we won’t eat any broccoli or salads, we’re much more likely to grab a warm & delicious bag of cookies. 

It's Not Only About Overeating

Yet, the most shocking fact about stress, is that we burn less fat when we’re stressed. 

In one study, those reporting a stressful event the day before testing burned about one hundred fewer calories in the six-hour period after eating compared to days not preceded by anything particularly stressful.

Unfortunately, many people don’t know this. They work really hard, sticking to their diet but they don’t know that what may be keeping them from losing weight faster or breaking the plateau is relaxing. Instead, many go the opposite direction and get stressed that they don’t lose weight as they should be, causing the situation to be even worse. 

Lastly, the weight gain caused by cortisol isn’t uniform across the body, we seem to deposit more fat in the worst place, in and around our abdominal organs. Fat cells deep in our bellies have a greater density of cortisol receptors. Cortisol may be the reason stress levels correlate with visceral obesity (deep belly fat).

Luckily, the riskiest fat is the easiest to lose. Our bodies prefer to burn visceral fat first. So let’s see now what are the best recommendations for lowering stress.

What Are The Best Ways To Ease The Pressure?

1) Exercise

Exercise has a powerful effect on lowering stress levels, many studies have shown that small bouts of exercise are effective in reducing stress levels and improving quality of life. Physically active individuals have lower cortisol levels and healthier cortisol responses to stressors. Important to note, that it’s advisable to choose an activity that you like and love, making it more likely to stick with that activity for the long term and more importantly not increase your stress!

Also, physical activity has the added benefit of burning more calories (:

Well, it's almost impossible to find time and energy for long gym workouts or cardio sessions throughout the week. But remember, even short walks in the early morning or in the evening give you the stress-relief benefits of exercise!

2) Music

Music, as we all know, is soothing & relaxing. As Bob Marley once said, “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”

But now on a more serious note, more than a dozen studies have found that listening to music can significantly reduce cortisol levels.

Although not all music is suitable for this, the heavy metal did the opposite effect, sorry metal fans 😉

 3) What About Regular Yoga? 

A conclusion of hundreds of studies found that yoga interventions can lower cortisol levels! Furthermore, doing about thirty hours of yoga has been shown to lead to about five pounds of weight loss and an inch off the waist.

It sounds like a lot of work, but even 10-15 minutes yoga sessions reap most of the stress-relief benefits.

4) Nature

Spending at least 20 to 30 minutes immersed in a nature setting was associated with the biggest drop in cortisol levels.

It doesn't have to be wild nature or serious hikes. Even walking in your local park, surrounded by trees and plants, is helpful.

And a small tip for those of you who spend long hours in the office is that research that was done in hospitals, offices, and schools has found that even a simple plant in a room can have a significant impact on lowering stress and anxiety.

Easy to implement yet it has great results!

5) Social Support

Social support has been widely studied as a factor that minimizes the effects of stress, and the results are remarkable. Not only does social support help people feel less stressed, but it can also actually improve your health and decrease your mortality risk!

Surround yourself with at least a few good friends, and family members with whom you can share what’s going on in your life in an open unjudgemental way.

✅ The bottom line 

Stress is a complicated and personal issue. For every person, the solution varies on their lifestyle and period of time in their life. It can be difficult to overcome however it’s totally worth finding time to relax. With less stress, it’s easier to make better decisions when it comes to food, thus making weight loss a bit faster & easier.

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