The Connection Between Stress and Weight and What to Do
Stress can lead to weight issues
You may not make a connection between being under stress (and in particular constant stress) and your weight but there is one.
Studies have shown chronic stress can play a role in how much a person weighs.
In particular how a person copes with the everyday stresses that come their way can have an impact on what they weigh.
When you live with too much stress it can lead to fat building up around the abdominal area.
In fact this is the worst spot on the body for fat to accumulate.
Abdominal fat is considered to be extremely harmful as it has been linked to an increase in a number of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. According to a study done at Yale University, females are at a greater risk of developing fat around their midsection due to an increase in stress, than are males. Why this is the case is unknown.
Cortisol – The Stress Hormone:
When an individual is experiencing a great deal of stress, the body responds by releasing a hormone into the system known as cortisol. Cortisol plays a role in fat storing itself around the waistline and in the abdominal region.
There is a negative side to cortisol however. If you’re unable to find a way in which to calm yourself and alleviate the stress, your levels of this hormone will remain high even after the stressor has disappeared.
Let us look at a fictional example of how this works.
You have a 5PM deadline at your workplace and your stress level is through the roof! What this means is the level of cortisol in your body rises in response to the added stress. If you don’t find a way to cope adequately with the stress and to relieve it in a healthy manner, then the cortisol level will still be high the next day, and possibly even the next day, even though the problem has been resolved. In time this will add inches to your waistline.
The stress associated with the original source remains high because you did not cope with it in the most appropriate manner possible. If cortisol levels remain high for a prolonged period of time, this will open the door for more and more fat to be deposited around your middle. To make matters worse, there are many people who consume more food when they are stressed.
Taken together, this can greatly expand the waistline of an individual living under stressful circumstances.
Find a Healthy Way to Cope with Stress:
The key is not to eliminate stress because it’s simply not realistic. What you need to do instead is to find appropriate and healthy ways to deal with stress.
One of the best ways to cope with stress is to incorporate regular physical activity into your day-to-day schedule. Exercise plays an integral role in the reduction of stress. People who do some form of physical activity on a consistent basis suffer from less anxiety and tend to have fewer health issues.
Exercise will keep the pounds from inching up on you and it is also excellent for a person’s mental health and well being. Being physically active boosts self confidence levels and allows a person to be more mentally fit. This means stress is so much easier to cope with, regardless of what the root cause of it is.
If the thought of exercise sends your stress level up – then it shouldn’t as walking is a fine form of exercise to start off with. Consider reading-up about the PACE Exercise Program here as it’ll introduce you to an exercise program that takes just 20-minutes per day.
What if your Stress Level is Way UP?
As mentioned earlier is impossible today to reduce your stress level to zero. But if you’re finding that whatever you try to continue to feel overwhelmed then hypnosis has been shown to help control people’s stress and anxiety level.
There are self-hypnosis products out there that can help but generally a private session will a certified hypnotist will yield faster results. You can discover more details about a private session Hypnosis for Stress and Anxiety in the Worcester Massachusetts area here.
Becca Scott
Staff Writer
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Filed Under: Weight Loss
