Is Stress Ruining Your Success?

Are you doing all of the “right things” to lose weight but not seeing the success you’d expect? There are a lot of factors at play when it comes to weight loss. These factors include getting the right amount of:

• Calories
• Fiber
• Protein
• Fat
• Carbs
• Water
• Exercise &
• Sleep

On top of all of these things, there’s this thing called “stress.” Even if you’re meeting all of the right numbers for each item listed above, you may not see the weight loss you’re hoping for. Why is that? First off, let’s cover what stress is.

What is Stress? 

Stress is a natural response to something… stressful! The online dictionary defines stress as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.” Below is a typical stress response to help you survive a stressful situation:

1. You are faced with a stressor (ie. a bear, a test, a fight, a robber, a near-death experience, public speaking, traffic, etc.)

2. A complex hormonal cascade follows, and the adrenal glands secrete cortisol (the stress hormone).

3. Cortisol prepares the body for the fight-or-flight response by flooding it with glucose, which then gives an immediate energy source to the muscles. (This can help you prepare to fight or run away – just as the name of the response implies.)

4. Cortisol slows down insulin production to prevent glucose from being stored. This favors the immediate use of glucose.

5. Cortisol also narrows your arteries while the epinephrine (adrenaline) increases your heart rate, both of which then force blood to pump harder and faster to supply oxygen and energy throughout the body.

6. You find a way to resolve the stressful situation (you fight/run/get that speech over with/etc.).

7. Your hormone and blood sugar levels return to normal.

What’s the Problem with Stress?

So what could be bad about this natural sequence that occurs during a stressful situation? Well, there is nothing wrong with stress. UNLESS it occurs frequently. In our current lifestyles, our bodies are almost constantly pumping out cortisol (among other hormones), which results in serious harm to our health. If you’re thinking, “wait, I’m not faced with a bear/robber/speech every day, I can’t be that stressed.” Think again about your day. If your day looks like the average American’s day, then we’re guessing you’ve got at least 10 opportunities for stress to strike including:

• A commute to & from work
• Running late for some reason or another
• Coworkers that you don’t get along with
• A boss you don’t see eye-to-eye with
• Family relationships that are faltering
• Watching the news (this one is HUGE)
• An extended family member going through a hard time
• Personal health problems or depression/anxiety
• Figuring out what to make for dinner
• Pressure to succeed
• Watching an intense movie/show at night
• The list could go on forever!

How Stress Thwarts Weight Loss

1.Frequent stress contributes to belly fat storage. Here’s why: Cortisol pulls triglycerides from storage and relocates them to the visceral area (belly area). Cortisol also encourages fat cells to develop into mature fat cells. To add insult to injury, these visceral fat cells have more cortisol receptors than fat cells throughout the rest of the body.

2. Stress increases blood sugar levels. Remember reading over the stress response above? When you’re faced with a stressor such as the news, work, traffic, an intense movie, or whatever else, your body releases hormones and cortisol to prepare you for fight or flight. Cortisol increases blood sugar levels by tapping into protein stores and turning that protein into sugar. This helps to flood the muscles with sugar for energy to run. This is useful when you’re faced with a robber from whom you’re trying to run away. This is NOT helpful when you’re at home eating breakfast while watching the news. Being chronically stressed leads to higher blood sugar levels AND insulin resistance. Remember also how during that stress response insulin is hindered? This is how cortisol can render cells insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is a topic for another post, but if you have diabetes, PCOS, obesity or any other disorder involving insulin resistance, please be aware that your stress is impacting your health just as much (or more) than your food choices.

3. Chronically high cortisol levels can lead to increased hunger. The reason comes back to point number 2 above. When we have consistently high levels of blood sugar and insulin resistance, our cells signal our brain to eat more. Think about it, sugar is running through the blood, but not getting into our cells to provide energy. This leads to overeating. Not to mention, all of that unused glucose running around is eventually stored as fat.

4. High amounts of cortisol/stress lead to cravings for high-calorie foods. Studies have shown a direct link between cortisol levels and calorie intake in women! (1) Not only does cortisol influence appetite and cravings, but it also influences other hormones that stimulate appetite.

How to Reduce Your Stress

Now that you know how stress impacts your health a little bit more, what can you do about it?

As dietitians, we don’t specialize in how to tell you to manage your stress. We can give you resources to turn to though. There are plenty of ways to help reduce stress, some of which are quite simple. We recommend sitting down and writing out all of the major stressors in your day and what you can do differently to avoid or mediate those. Some basic stress management activities you can try throughout the day include exercise, deep breathing, meditation, yoga, doing your hobbies, and so forth. 

What are you going to do to better manage your stress?

References

(1) Epel ES, McEwen B, Seeman T, et al. Stress and body shape: Stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently greater among women with central fat. Psychosom Med. 2000;62(5):623-632.