Is your Stress making you Fat?

Being the nerdy person that I am, I've been keeping track of how many times I reached for an unhealthy snack last month, while rating how I was feeling at that moment on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 on my scale equaled being on a beach in Hawaii (of course looking drop dead gorgeous in that sun and sand), while 10 was a clock ticking dangerously close to my deadline with a LOT remaining to be accomplished.

Guess what? I reached most for the highest cal snacks when I was close to a 6 or higher on that scale. I can see you nodding your head in that “I told you so Meera...” look on your face. Well yeah, I knew it too... you know, there was a time when I sweared by ice-cream therapy for stress.

But why do we reach for the high calories foods in strong correlation with our stress levels?

You can breathe easy: Its not your supposed lack of will power. We are, to some extent wired that way. Thanks to a god-sent hormone called Cortisol that's released when you're stressed. A bunch of other fun sounding hormones (like adrenaline for instance) are released too, and they mess with our weight-loss goals in different ways, but lets keep it simple by talking only of Cortisol. It is one of the potent hormones that whets up our appetites in times of stress. Cortisol also potentially interacts with our appetite and satiety related hormones (leptin and ghrelin), and we tend to feel hungrier, and reach for more higher-calorie foods laden with sugars or simple carbs. Sugars and simple carbs are the foods that can most easily and quickly be converted to a lot of energy that our bodies presume we need to tackle the “stress.”

Further, for reasons not quite well understood, women tend to reach for relatively higher-fat foods as opposed to men when under stress. Also, in the lab, women tend to reach for those high-fat foods when they're presented a problem that they couldn't solve - sort of to comfort themselves after a perceived failure, as opposed to the men - who reach for the higher-fat foods when they've accomplished something, sort of as a reward.

Ahhh. Now I know why I reach for that doughnut instead of carrots when I'm stressed.

But I can certainly resist the temptation, can't I - you ask?
Sure I can. But guess what? When we're stressed or on a diet, our will power reserves aren't exactly running optimally on their full either making it a little less likely that we'll resist it unless we're rrreeallllllly committed (more on that later...)

But all isn't lost for us when stress knocks on our doors. After all, we don't just give up, do we? There are a couple of really quick things that have helped me when I'm stressed and about to derail my eating:

Take a few deep breaths: Seriously, just get up, take a few deliberate back and forth steps. Then take a deep breath or two, and disengage with whatever you were doing. Raise your arms up and interlock your fingers above your head, stretching the torso as you do so. Again take a few deep breaths. Massage your shoulders and neck, stretch, rotate your torso to the left and right as you breathe deeply in and out.

It instantly shifts your focus, and the slow deliberate calm breathing and stretching sends signals to our system that we don't need to “fight or flight” to make it through the perceived threats!

Try a balancing task: I try to do variations of the tree-pose in Yoga. You could try any challenging enough balance task – like standing on your tip-toes with your arms stretched out (close eyes for an added challenge), or standing on one leg with arms outstretched like a ballerina.
(Please don't fall if you try this! )

It instantly shifts your focus from a mental to a physical challenge. Your mind is taken off of what was upsetting you, to the more urgent task of keeping you upright. It almost forces you to get calm immediately, or risk falling. The few minutes spent doing this give our minds enough time to switch off that emergency stress-alarm. Yes, I do look funny trying to do ballet in the midst of deadlines and my boss gives me funny looks, but it helps me stay away from those devious Twinkies that seemingly go straight to my butt!

Drink some really chilled water: I amn't sure why this works, a guess is, the same way as everything else: it shifts my focus from the stress to the sensation of chilled water. It probably helps relax my face and neck muscles as I sip water. Also, being dehydrated feels to the body the same as being stressed: rapid heart beat, dry mouth, fatigue, headaches. Water counters all of these. Also, when we're intently focused on something stressful for long periods of time, it is very likely that we've not had enough water to drink for a while. And, often when I want to snack, it turns out that I'm usually just thirsty instead of hungry, so drinking water helps me many ways!

I just listed three strategies that immediately disengage my brain from the stresses. Meditation works for me at times too, but mostly I'm too wound up to even start meditating! Walking, exercising, running – any physical activity will help you beat stress too, but for me, they seem to take much longer to work. I've to meticulously walk every day, consistently for a few days to start feeling those effects. And there is good reason why, studies consistently show that cortisol levels start dropping significantly within a week to ten days of following a consistent exercise and diet program in healthy volunteers. That's another reason to get moving by the way!

The key is in keeping yourself happy. Do that, and you are certainly going to be able to stick to your weight-loss plans relatively better. Any strategy that works to reduce your stress will help fight your food cravings better and help you with your weight-loss goals!

What are some of your strategies that help you beat stress instantly or over the long term?

PS: There are several factors that influence our responses to stress, hunger, hormones, and exercise and it is important to remember there isn't any simple, straightforward one-to-one relationship between them!
We're still learning!

 

Amen to than knot2share. Once, while in grad school I was struggling with all the stresses that come with it and managing the family. I often ended up skipping sleep, food, water, or rest to get things done. And a friend wrote a little note for me saying "If you are well rested, you will take care of things a lot better. If you won't take care of you, who will?" It sounded a bit selfish, but that was the truth, if you're well rested, you can give back a lot more.

Its also strange how we're conditioned to just keep giving without focusing on the inner healing and rest, feeling guilty for resting at times.

Thanks for stopping by, and for your thoughtful comment. I enjoy what you write a lot.