The link between stress and weight

Stress: Nobody likes it; everybody experiences it. While some stress is just a part of living and doesn’t impact your health in a huge way, too much of it over too long of a time period could cause negative health issues and might even play a role in weight gain. Here’s more about the physical side of chronic stress, how it can impact your weight, and ways to improve your well-being.

What is stress?

Stress is defined as a physiological or emotional response to an external source (known as a stressor). Anything could generate a stress response, like a physical or mental threat to your safety, work overload, financial troubles, social pressures, being a caregiver, and even running late.

Stress can be short-term (acute) or long-term (chronic). Acute stress might last for a few minutes or hours and could be brought on by something like a traffic jam or a tough workout. Chronic stress, on the other hand, is slow and continues over an extended period of time — like consistently not getting enough sleep, a job that puts way too much pressure on you, or a tough family dynamic.

You may even be stressed and not “feel” stressed. Symptoms of chronic stress include difficulty concentrating, fatigue, reduced ability to meet demands, irritability, sleep disturbances, and physical symptoms like chest pain, heart palpitations, and gastrointestinal symptoms.

Stress is also somewhat individual — what you find stressful may not impact someone else in the same way. How you respond to stress is determined by a number of factors like genetics, early life experience, environmental conditions, sex, and age.

The nervous system’s role

Your body’s stress response is ruled by your nervous system, which acts as your body’s command center. Your nervous system can be divided into two categories: the central nervous system (CNS), which includes your brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which maintains your organs and limbs. The PNS is further divided into the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

Your sympathetic nervous system is responsible for your “fight or flight” response that occurs when you’re stressed. This response is designed to keep you alive during stressful situations by making sure you have adequate fuel (like blood sugar and fatty acids) for energy. The sympathetic nervous system also works to promote alertness, motivation, and goal-directed behavior.

Your parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for your “rest and digest” mode. It plays a role in restorative functions, like immunity and digestion, and promotes processes that heal, repair, and recover your body.

It’s essential for your long-term physical and mental wellbeing to maintain a balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. Too much time in that “fight or flight” mode and your body can start to react negatively.

The impact of prolonged stress on your health

In the initial stages of an acute stress response, the brain releases important neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and epinephrine (i.e. adrenaline) that act to increase heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. As a result, your blood vessels constrict to promote blood flow and maintain your internal temperature, your pupils dilate, and you may even begin to sweat.

The body also releases cortisol, which is often referred to as the “stress hormone.” Cortisol helps us deal with the stressor at hand by making fuel like blood sugar and fatty acids available and raising blood pressure. Cortisol also downregulates other processes that aren’t necessary for immediate survival like immunity, digestion, and reproduction. With acute stress, cortisol ultimately goes back down, but when you have chronic stress, it can remain elevated and contribute to widespread inflammation in the body.

This inflammation has been linked to various conditions including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, diabetes, cancer, gastric ulcers, mental health disorders, and increased susceptibility to infection.

5 ways stress impacts your weight

It may not seem like an obvious link, but stress can affect your body in ways that can make it harder to maintain your weight. Here’s how:

• Stress increases your appetite for energy-dense foods: The high levels of cortisol can cause you to feel hungrier than you otherwise would, especially for foods that are higher in calories and delicious (in scientific terms, these are called “highly palatable foods”). It makes sense: Eating “comfort food” can alleviate feelings of stress in the short-term, which is why it feels so good in the moment. But over time, this pattern of eating can cause weight gain.
• Stress can increase belly fat: When chronically elevated, cortisol can promote fat storage, particularly in the abdomen and around internal organs. This specific type of fat is referred to as “visceral fat,” and it’s been linked to various health conditions like insulin resistance, elevated triglyceride levels, high LDL-cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.
• Stress may slow down your metabolism: Excess cortisol can interfere with the secretion of something called thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which then suppresses metabolism-governing hormones. This, in turn, can slow down your metabolic rate, possibly leading to weight gain.
• Stress may make it harder to build muscle: Research shows that chronic stress may prolong the amount of time it takes to recover from intense exercise. Elevated levels of cortisol may also suppress testosterone, which supports the growth of lean tissue, making it harder to put on muscle.
• Stress may impact your sleep: Some people may find it harder to get good quality sleep when they’re stressed, which can further elevate your cortisol levels. And poor sleep is also linked to higher calorie consumption during the day.

How to better handle stress

While it would be amazing if there was a one-size-fits-all approach to feeling less stressed, it’s a personal thing. What works for one person may not work for someone else. That said, here are some tried-and-true ways to feel better and improve your health:

• Journal: Writing out your feelings can help you figure out what is really causing your stress and give you an outlet for your emotions.
• Exercise: Being physically active stimulates the production of endorphins — chemicals in the brain that elevate mood — and people who regularly work out secrete less cortisol during stressful times than people who don’t.
• Reach out to friends: People with high levels of social support are more resilient against stressful situations and have a lower perception of stress. This may be because social interactions cause your body to release a chemical called oxytocin, which reduces your blood pressure and cortisol levels.
• Spend time in nature: Studies show that exposure to nature has a positive effect in reducing perceived and real stress. Even listening to sounds of nature or looking at photos of nature may reduce sympathetic (fight or flight) activity.
• Be more mindful: Research shows that mindfulness techniques can reduce stress responses and lower blood pressure, among other benefits. There are different approaches to mindfulness, including body scans, mindful eating, meditation, yoga, tai chi, and focusing on your five senses.

• Eat certain foods: A balanced diet in general is good to optimize your physical and mental health, but certain nutrients specifically impact cortisol levels and stress.
  - B-vitamins: Beef, chicken, eggs, fortified cereal, organ meats, and nutritional yeast are all excellent sources of vitamin B12, which assists in cortisol metabolism, helping bring levels down.
  - Omega-3 fatty acids: Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and tuna; flaxseeds, chia seeds, and walnuts are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which may help to reduce perceived stress and reduce how much your cortisol rises when stressed.
  - Magnesium-rich foods: Magnesium acts on a number of neurotransmitters to promote feelings of calmness and relaxation. Fill up on magnesium-rich foods like spinach, pumpkin seeds, tuna, almonds, dark chocolate, avocado, non-fat yogurt, and bananas.

The bottom line

Stress isn’t something you can eliminate from your life, but when it becomes a chronic issue, it can have a big impact on your physical health. The elevated cortisol levels raise inflammation throughout your body, putting you at risk for conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure and weakening your immune system. On top of that, stress can impact your weight by slowing your metabolism, increasing your appetite for high-calorie foods, making it harder to gain muscle, and increasing your belly fat. While it may not feel easy to put an end to chronic stress, habits like journaling, regular exercise, and leaning on friends can all help.