Honor your body and heal your relationship with food to ignite health and happiness.

Stress is sneaky when it comes to putting on weight. Excess cortisol that gets released during the stress response teams up with sugar cravings and comfort foods to cultivate the perfect conditions for unwanted weight gain. The more chronic stress we are exposed to the more challenging it becomes to manage a healthy weight.

We can’t control everything that life throws our way, but we can learn how to control the way we respond to stress and what we put in our bodies.

You don’t have to search for the perfect diet anymore. Instead, you can learn how to trust your body’s inner wisdom and become in tune with what your unique body truly needs. Building a healthy relationship with food, practicing stress management, and learning to love and appreciate your body and its power are essential keys to achieving the health you’ve been dreaming of.

Hormone Imbalances

When the body reacts to stress, less energy is spent on keeping all our hormones in check and most of the energy goes toward producing stress hormones - cortisol and insulin. All the other hormones, particularly thyroid hormones which are responsible for metabolism, take a back seat when the body is in stress mode.

Temporarily, this hormone imbalance does not pose much of a threat to our health. In the absence of stress, hormone levels can balance back out. BUT… if the stress continues day after day without letting up, these hormone levels remain in an unhealthy state. In the long run – elevated stress hormones create changes in the body that contribute to extra weight gain and potentially more disease.

Risks associated with unintentional weight gain…

Diabetes

Digestive issues

Joint pain

Sleep deprivation

Heart disease

High blood pressure

Mental health concerns – anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairment

Reproductive challenges

Respiratory issues

Stroke

Link to certain cancers – pancreatic, colon, breast, and kidney

The intricate relationship between cortisol and insulin

Cortisol and insulin signal the body to store fat and stop building muscle.

Cortisol is a glucocorticoid – gluco- meaning glucose (sugar) and corticoid meaning a steroid made from cholesterol.

Cortisol stimulates appetite, motivation for food, and slows down metabolism – a dangerous combination when it comes to weight gain. Thyroid function which is responsible for maintaining healthy metabolism is inhibited by excess cortisol.

Another key role of cortisol is to raise blood sugar to provide quick energy to defeat the stressor. Cortisol stimulates glycogen breakdown in the liver – releasing glucose that increases blood sugar levels.

This process leads to the release of insulin to lower blood sugar. The relationship between these two hormones becomes complicated when cortisol levels continue to increase. As cortisol remains elevated, we can develop insulin resistance. Our cells stop responding to insulin and our blood sugar levels stay high contributing to weight gain and potentially other chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Sugar Cravings

Sugar offers the body a quick energy supply – it often becomes the thing we crave during stressful times when we think we need an energy boost. Much like insulin resistance – prolonged stress can cause our cells to become resistant to cortisol - another cause for sugar cravings.

When we over-consume sugar, our bodies cannot process all of it, so it gets stored as fat. A lot of this fat accumulates in the abdomen which has more cortisol receptors than any other fat storage part of the body.

Sugar provides a jolt of energy that stimulates the production of dopamine and serotonin - the feel-good hormones. We can become addicted to this feel-good reaction. However, after the initial pleasure of eating sugary foods - the chemical reactions that occur interfere with metabolism, hormone balance, blood sugar regulation and consequently compound the effects of stress on our bodies.

Stress-induced food behaviors

Many of us are emotional eaters – stress or no stress. We eat to celebrate when we’re happy and we eat to comfort ourselves when we’re not. We often associate feelings of safety and comfort with food. When life feels out of control, we use food as a coping and numbing mechanism – it keeps us distracted from feeling discomfort.

Stress adds a whole new layer to emotional eating. It’s common for people to change their eating habits under stress – favoring high fat and sugary foods. In other words, foods that provide pleasure. Studies have shown neuropathways that encourage this response involve learning and memory of pleasure and reward combined with habit formation and decreased cognitive thought.

Stress hijacks our brains making it impossible for us to access the frontal lobe – the part of the brain responsible for cognitive thinking. Without the use of this part of the brain, it is really hard to make a healthy food choice and easy to give in to impulses.

Emotional eating does not satisfy hunger and may even occur without the presence of hunger. It’s more likely that we will choose foods high in fat and sugar when we snack without being hungry. Insatiable cravings for sweets and carbs can come on suddenly. Only to leave us feeling guilt and shame a short time later – leading to more stress.

Common stress behaviors that contribute to weight gain

Not hydrating enough – Water is important for metabolism. Without enough water, enzyme function is reduced, and we cannot properly break down fats, carbs, and proteins causing them to be stored as fat in the body.

Overeating - Nervous energy causes people to eat more – we turn to food for comfort when we feel negative emotions like stress, anxiety, sadness, frustration, exhaustion, hopelessness, and nervousness.

Skipping meals - Eating regular meals helps to avoid further cortisol production that exacerbates stress on the body. When we skip meals our body releases cortisol to keep our blood sugar balanced.

Choosing not-so-healthy processed and fast foods - When we are overwhelmed with stress, commonly, we will grab the most convenient and accessible foods – which often aren’t the healthiest choices. During stress, we often lack physical and mental energy to prepare and plan healthy balanced meals.

Trying fad diets – Fad diets wreak havoc on our bodies especially when we are already experiencing the effects of stress. Often these diets send the message of “you aren’t good enough” - adding to the existing stress. Building a healthy relationship with food and your body is an important step to achieving lasting results.

Sleep disturbances - Sleep deprivation is linked to slower metabolism, inflammation, more cortisol, and insulin imbalances, to name a few.

Lack of exercise or too much exercise - Movement is important for weight loss and overall health. Stress and lack of energy make it hard to get motivated for physical activity. Beware…too much exercise releases more cortisol which is counter-intuitive when trying to manage stress. Gentle exercises like yoga, walking, or tai chi are ideal.

The essence of healing

Stress may complicate things when it comes to maintaining and losing weight - but there are many steps you can take to combat it. When you become attuned to your body’s sensations you gain insight into your physical and psychological state. This is when you can truly determine how to meet your body’s needs. When you tap into your inner wisdom you can become the expert of your own body.

Here are some daily practices you can incorporate into your life to support healing and combat stress-induced weight gain.

Managing stress - make self-care and relaxation a necessity rather than a luxury.
Light exercise is beneficial to managing stress, reducing cortisol, and can even reduce unhealthy eating behaviors by replacing the “reward” of comfort foods. A short post-meal walk can help to regulate blood sugar and boost metabolism.
Eat a combination of protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats every 3-4 hours to keep blood sugar levels balanced and prevent a stress response.
Get enough quality sleep. Sleep is important to keep most body functions working properly. Try going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.
Forget about eating a low-carb diet. Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. If you aren’t getting enough of them your body will begin to break down muscle to convert its amino acids (protein) into glucose (sugar).
Avoid trying fad diets. Repeatedly following popular fad diet crazes instead of listening to your own body can leave you confused, conflicted, and mistrustful of your own body. Many diets are based on the idea that “you aren’t good enough” – this simply is not true. You are more than good enough. Also, they often leave you starving and rarely have lasting results. More things to stress out about.

If you need extra support to heal your relationship with food and finally achieve natural and lasting weight loss - click here - to connect with me. I look forward to hearing from you!

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Sources

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