Stress is a universal non-specific response to any pressure or demand. It affects plants, animals, and humans. Stress is a condition caused by a stressor. In humans, the stressor can be physical activity, cold, heat, noise, workload, unemployment, financial difficulties, harassment, racism, domestic violence, separation, divorce, relocation, disease, and deployment to combat.
There are differences in the impact of the stressors on the genome, gender, age, country, culture, education, social status, and memory. Stress can also be called perceived stress since what is stressful to one person may not be to another.
Stress is an experience that is challenging with multiple effects on the physiology and the behavior of humans. Stress has been linked to the pathogenesis of numerous medical conditions including depression, hypertension, atherosclerosis, peptic ulcer, osteoporosis, and obesity. Stress may ultimately lead to death.
How stress leads to weight gain
Stress is a normal reaction to everyday pressures. However, chronic stress can cause physiological changes in the body, leading to weight gain. For some people, gaining weight can further contribute to stress, resulting in a vicious circle.
Stress causes hormonal changes that can increase blood sugar levels and blood insulin levels, causing people to crave foods high in calories, fat, and sugar. Stress can also disrupt levels of other hormones involved in hunger and satiety and can impair cognitive processes such as self-regulation. All these factors can result in weight gain.
Several factors are released during stress (e.g., corticotropin-releasing hormone, arginine vasopressin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, corticosteroids, catecholamines, neuropeptide Y, and inflammatory cytokines). The excess release of these factors may interfere with the normal equilibrium of an individual and cause different disorders. Corticotropin-releasing hormone causes the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone from the pituitary gland, which it leads to the secretion of the stress hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol: The Stress Hormone
What is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a hormone naturally produced by your body, created by the adrenal glands located on your kidneys, cortisol is released when you are under stress. This sends your body into fight-or-flight mode, temporarily pausing regular bodily functions and slowing your metabolism. While this hormone is essential to survival, it can become harmful in excess amounts.
How Cortisol Affects Your Weight
These stress hormones slow down physiological processes that aren’t crucial to surviving an immediate threat like your metabolism and speed up the ones you need to survive in the moment. Cortisol stimulates your fat and carbohydrate metabolism, creating a surge of energy in your body. While this process is essential for survival situations, it also increases your appetite. Additionally, elevated cortisol levels can cause cravings for sweet, fatty, and salty foods. This means you’re more likely to indulge in french fries and a milkshake than you are with a well-balanced meal.
Under normal circumstances and in the normal state, cortisol should not affect your appetite. However, when we are stressed by different factors like sleep deprivation or excessive worrying, cortisol production can increase and lead to excess hunger. Prolonged exposure to high cortisol can predispose someone to weight gain, insulin resistance, higher risk of type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.
These are a few symptoms of high cortisol level;
Weight gain—especially around the abdomen Fatigue
Muscle weaknessIrritability
Difficulty concentrating
Chronic stress
Constant exposure to high levels of cortisol in your body can lead to Cushing’s syndrome, which is characterized by such symptoms as a fatty hump between the shoulders, a rounded face, or purple stretch marks on the skin.
Cushing’s syndrome can instigate high blood pressure, bone loss, and diabetes. To effectively measure levels of cortisol, you’ll need to undergo blood, urine, and saliva tests.
Keep in mind that low levels of cortisol are also a cause for concern and may indicate Addison’s disease, a chronic autoimmune condition symptoms of Addison’s disease include low glucose, low blood pressure, weight loss, dehydration, muscle weakness, and abdominal pain, among others.
How to manage stress for weight loss
- Get the right amount of sleep:
Prioritizing sleep may help reduce cortisol levels. Chronic sleep issues such as obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, or shift work are associated with higher cortisol. - Get regular exercise:
Exercise can increase or decrease cortisol depending on the intensity.
Intense exercise increases cortisol shortly afterward but decreases it a few hours later. This short-term increase helps coordinate the growth of the body to meet the challenge. Additionally, the size of the cortisol response lessens with routine training. Managing your stress levels through restorative practices such as meditation, yoga, massage, or simply walking can help you sleep better and reduce stress and its negative effect on glucose. Establishing boundaries, prioritizing self-care, and seeking support when needed is also essential. - Learn to recognize stressful thinking:
Adding a mindfulness-based practice to your daily routine may help you manage stress and reduce cortisol levels.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction is a strategy that involves becoming more self-aware of stress-provoking thoughts, accepting them without judgment or resistance, and allowing yourself to process them
Training yourself to be aware of your thoughts, breathing, heart rate, and other signs of tension helps you recognize stress when it begins. - Breathe:
Deep breathing is a technique for stress reduction that can be used anywhere. Deep breathing helps reduce the effect of stress on the heart and nervous system in general. You can cultivate a habit of taking regular deep breaths especially when you are stressed. - Lifestyle modifications:
Socialize with people, avoid smoking, and anxiety. This will help to reduce your cortisol level to normal.
