Do Stress And Anxiety Make You Fat? - kiwiwell

Do Stress And Anxiety Make You Fat?

fat gain

You know how heartbreaks work, don’t you? There’s the feeling of rejection, loss, and loneliness. Anger creeps in and before you say, Jack! You feel hatred taking over your heart. Different people have different ways of dealing with anger or even stress.

To a lot of us, it is scooping mindlessly on a plate of ice cream, with the complete abandon of any possible effects. To others, it is eating a plateful of hamburgers and fries, while staring furiously at their computer screen. Perhaps you are even a small business owner, who has a lot of work to meet up your target.

If you are in any of this category, then the good news is that you’re not alone – There are millions of people going through the same. Staying stressed for a long period of time often has adverse effects on Weight – there is the tendency of having increased appetite, making us add fat unconsciously.

Below are four reasons why the increased level of stress results in increased weight

Hormones

Our brains are wired to be the detector of threats. When your brain detects a threat – Either a dangerous animal, a sadist boss, or an outrageous bill, it triggers the release of a number of chemicals. The body collaborates with the brain in becoming alert and ready for action. Within this short period, Adrenaline acts to make you less hungry as more blood pump to your muscles and prepare you to fight. However, as the danger begins to die down and adrenaline begins to decline, your stress hormones become active, giving signals to your body to replenish the supply of food. Handling dangerous situations require a lot of energy, so your body naturally begins to long for fat and glucose. Unfortunately, the first line of action your brain will suggest to you is to grab a bucket of ice cream or a plate of cookies.

Belly Fat

In the old when our ancestors lived by fighting off tigers and other perceived dangers, their bodies learned to adapt by storing up fat. In today’s world, when we get stressed up or intensely angry, we become extra prone to getting extra layers of visceral fat. Your belly is equipped with sufficient vessels and cortisol receptors to increase efficiency in the process. This may have its own good sides, but a major turn-off is that your belly will grow fat that is difficult to get rid of. From the fat, a number of chemicals that support inflammation are released, making you more frustrated when trying to fit into your skinny jeans.

Anxiety

This has also been pointed as a major factor. Naturally, the surge of adrenaline will cause fidgeting.

Adrenaline is in fact the main feeling we get when battling stress. While you may argue that fidgeting and anxiety will help burnout calories, the truth remains that they will also trigger emotional eating. It is very common for people to result back to overeating as a way to calm anxiety. In a recent American study, about 40% of respondents agreed to deal with stress through eating extra, while another 42% admitted that they watching the TV for an extended period to reduce stress.

Watching TV is not a solution. You know how sitting in one place over an extended period of time can also further create an urge to remark.

Cravings and Fast Food.

Stress often leads to an intense desire to eat comfort foods, such as a bucket of ice cream and potato chips. These foods are easily available and can easily be eaten, but their fat and sugar content is incredible. When angry or stressed, Americans become less likely to Cook and more likely to eat out of the house.

  • Less Sleep

Piled-up bills can cause you to stay awake all through the night, thinking. Do you ever fall into this category, then you are not abnormal, there are a lot of us with the same characteristics. Worry is the leading cause of insomnia. Our minds continue to think, and won’t switch off, even when we try to sleep in the middle of the night. Some other times, trying to study and prepare for an important event may keep you sleepless. Sometimes, you even take coffee to stay awake. At such times, your blood sugar level will decrease, leading to fatigue. Once your sleep cycle is cut short, you result in food filling up for this time of lost sleep.

Best Solutions To Minimizing Weight Gain When You are Stressed

  • Exercise

Exercise is important for a number of reasons. Weight loss is certainly one of these reasons. Engage in aerobic exercises when faced with stress-related situations. It can also help the process of the neurons involved in the metabolic reaction to burn off extra indulgences.

  • Eat Mindfully

You don’t have to go about eating carelessly because you are stressed. You can train the way your body reacts to food in times of stress and anger. You can learn to slow down on your rush for food by slowing down your sensory reaction to food

  • Write in a Journal

Writing down your experiences keeps you motivated in everything. You can set goals, write them out in your journals, so that you can stick to them, reducing your likelihood to go about snacking on foods that are unhealthy.