Top Tips To Tackle Stress And Weight Gain
When you feel stressed, what’s your go-to way to relieve it? For many of us, it’s easy to turn to comfort foods, high in sugar and fat, or pause our healthy eating routines. Stress doesn’t just affect mood; it’s also a common trigger for behaviours that contribute to weight gain, and the link between stress and weight gain is more complicated than you may think.
So, if you’re reaching for a glass of wine or ordering a takeaway after a stressful day, rest assured – it’s not just about willpower. In fact, your stress response and hormones play a large role in stress-related weight gain.
How Stress and Cortisol Lead to Weight Gain
Stress, Habits, and Weight Gain
When we’re stressed a lot, it can lead to frequent bouts of overeating, which in turn become habits, which leads to weight gain on a larger scale and eventually, obesity. And if your stress is causing you to have poorer quality sleep, it makes it harder to make sensible, healthy decisions.
Today, it’s often easier to order from a fast-food app than prepare a balanced meal, or nip to the supermarket or local drive-through to get high-calorie foods, than to stop and cook a healthy, balanced meal when we’re tired and stressed out.
Find out more about how sleep can support your weight loss here.
The “Fight or Flight” Response
When we’re stressed, our body releases the hormone, cortisol. With our body in a high-stress state, cortisol stimulates glucose to be released into our blood stream to create adrenaline in our body, to help give us the energy to escape whatever is causing our stress – the ‘fight or flight’ response.
However, once the adrenaline wears off, our cortisol kicks in to tell us that we’re hungry and our cravings for sugary, high-energy foods tend to begin, and we reach for the chocolate and sweets.
Cortisol and Belly Fat
To make things worse, the weight we tend to gain as a result of stress and cortisol is often stored around our waistline and organs – the most dangerous place to store fat! High cortisol levels signal your body to store fat, particularly around the waistline. This isn’t just a cosmetic issue; excess belly fat increases the risk of metabolic issues and health conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
A Slower Metabolism
If you’re stressed a lot, which, frankly, who isn’t?, you could find that your metabolism slows. Because your metabolism is responsible for converting the food you eat into energy, a slowing of it could cause issues. A slower metabolism can mean the body burns fewer calories, making weight gain more likely, even if you’re eating the same foods.
Some common side effects of a slowed metabolism include:
- Weight Gain
- Fatigue and Exhaustion
- Depression
- High Blood Pressure
- Weakened Immune System
Find out more about how body fat stored around our organs is bad for us.
Top 5 Tips – How to Stop Stress Weight Gain
What can you do if you’re highly stressed, to help keep your weight loss on track and keep away from the bad habits? Here are our top 5 tips to manage stress without resorting to unhealthy habits.
1. Try Healthy Comfort Foods
Not all comfort foods need to be high-calorie or carb-heavy. You can try things like popcorn, nuts or dark chocolate to see if it takes the urges away for comfort food and helps to improve a negative mood.
Try some of these healthy comfort foods.
2. Exercise Regularly
It could be a gym class, or just a 15 minute walk in the fresh air, but regularly incorporating movement into your day can significantly reduce stress levels. Find activities that make you feel good, and try to incorporate them throughout your week.
Can’t get out? Try some of these indoor exercises for weight loss.
3. Practice Mindful Eating
When you’re stressed and find yourself thoughtlessly strolling to the fridge or cupboards. STOP. Before you reach into either, think: “Am I Hungry?” – in truth, unless your tummy is rumbling, or empty, you’re likely eating due to a response to stress and don’t need to eat. Mindfulness can be incredibly helpful in breaking the cycle of stress-related eating. Need more mindset support for your weight loss diet?
Download our FREE little book of mindset.
4. Stay Hydrated
You’ve probably heard us say it a million times, but keep hydrated. Your body can so often mistake thirst for hunger and cravings. So if you’re feeling the need for something sweet, try drinking a glass of water, waiting 15 minutes and then reassess how you feel.
Read more about how water can help with weight loss.
5. Build in Weekly Stress Relief
Whether it’s a massage, reading, yoga or taking deep breaths, find what works for you to release a bit of your stress. Make sure you take time to incorporate these relieving tactics each week, even if just for 10 minutes, as they could make all the difference to your healthy lifestyle and weight loss diet.
If you feel your stress is impacting your health or causing weight gain that’s hard to manage, it may be worth seeking support. At The Slimming Clinic, our weight loss doctors can help you get back on track with tailored solutions for managing stress, weight gain, and healthy lifestyle habits. Remember, with the right approach, you can manage stress without compromising your weight goals. Start by booking an appointment with one of our specialised weight loss doctors.