When we suffer from chronic stress, we eat more than we should in order to soothe our anxieties. The result? We get fat. So why stress and weight gain are related ?
Why and how does stress make you fat?
When stress is too much to bear, the urge to “fill up” on fatty and sugary foods becomes almost a given. Why? Because these are the most comforting foods. Unconsciously, we associate them with our early childhood… And beyond feeding our stomach, they also feed our emotions.
Gérard Apfeldorfer confirms: “the most obvious reason why we gain weight under stress is that we eat more. The most energetic foods, fatty and sweet, are the ones that best fight the effects of stress and provide comfort. Many people try to minimize their suffering by eating.
People who suffer from separation anxiety, that is to say who are very affected by separations (bereavements, divorces, departures, various losses…) often use this kind of strategy. Sometimes, we start to eat more without being aware of it, and the increase in intake goes unnoticed.
According to Gérard Apfeldorfer, the food response to stress is natural: “we know that the eater, by choosing foods that he or she enjoys, activates what we now call his or her “rewarding” systems (endorphins, dopamine), which produce a soothing effect. But the anomaly is not to seek comfort by eating. It lies elsewhere, in a disorder of comfort, which precisely prevents the subject from managing to comfort himself by eating! Eating when one needs comfort is not a problem in itself when it is a one-time strategy. It becomes a problem if it is a repetitive behaviour: in the long run, one eats more than one’s needs and one gets fatter.
We can gain weight without eating more when we are under stress.
Stress is physiological and is triggered when faced with an emergency or when we have to respond to an uncomfortable and complex situation. A series of mechanisms are put in place to help us “survive”. This is particularly the case for adrenaline, nicknamed the “warrior hormone” which is mobilized to sharpen our vigilance. Then it is cortisol that comes into play to provide us with the necessary fuel to cope with stress, by transforming our fats into sugar, a natural energizer for our body.
As a rule, all these mechanisms stop when the stressful situation is over.
But when stress becomes chronic, cortisol and adrenaline are working at “full speed” in order to maintain our energy capacities. The body therefore stores fat to meet the excessive demands of cortisol and adrenaline. The result? Weight increases.
Gérard Apfeldorfer adds: “some studies suggest that we can gain weight under stress without eating more. The state of stress disrupts many hormonal mechanisms, especially in certain genetically predisposed people. In this case, it is not appropriate to go on a diet and not eat, but to undertake psychotherapeutic work.
Stress and weight gain: what solutions?
Getting help from a psychotherapist can help us understand the cause of our stress and put words to our “ills”. But this is not enough.
At the same time, it is urgent to re-educate our eating behavior: wait to be hungry before sitting down to eat, taste rather than swallow what we have on our plate, chew for a long time to feel the effect of satiety, in short, all these attitudes are essential to stop stressing and to regain a healthy weight.
On the other hand, it is essential to learn how to manage our emotions, so that we are no longer slaves to food when stress overwhelms us. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most coherent solutions to better understand the vicious circle of stress on our physical, psychological and emotional feelings. It is also a way to help us calm our feelings and chase away our negative thoughts. It is finally to be able to live more serenely and not let ourselves be “suffocated” by stress and food.
