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5 Ways stress make you gain weight
As if you didn’t have enough to stress about already, new research published in the journal Obesity links chronically high stress levels with weight gain and obesity.
For the study, researchers at the University College London followed 2,527 adults over the course of four years. They found that the men and women who had chronically higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol had body mass indexes and waist circumferences (both measures of body composition and obesity) that were significantly greater than those whose cortisol levels weren’t elevated for extended periods. Cortisol levels in obese individuals were especially high.
[See: 8 Weird Ways Obesity Can Make You Sick.]
While the study only found that stress and obesity are related (not that one causes the other), it adds to mounting evidence implicating stress as a huge culprit behind our country’s collective waistline.
Here, we dive into the research to uncover five of the most common ways stress promotes weight gain. Or, put another way, five reasons why you need to de-stress ASAP.
1. It promotes insulin resistance. “Under stressful conditions, cortisol provides the body with energy by tapping into and breaking down the body’s protein stores into blood glucose, or sugar,” says registered dietitian nutritionist Lauren Blake, a sports dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “This energy can help an individual fight or flee a stressor.” However, over the long term, consistently elevated cortisol and blood sugar levels contribute to insulin resistance, which can lead to fat storage, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
References
K. Aleisha Fetters, 2017 www.health.usnews.com
For the study, researchers at the University College London followed 2,527 adults over the course of four years. They found that the men and women who had chronically higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol had body mass indexes and waist circumferences (both measures of body composition and obesity) that were significantly greater than those whose cortisol levels weren’t elevated for extended periods. Cortisol levels in obese individuals were especially high.
[See: 8 Weird Ways Obesity Can Make You Sick.]
While the study only found that stress and obesity are related (not that one causes the other), it adds to mounting evidence implicating stress as a huge culprit behind our country’s collective waistline.
Here, we dive into the research to uncover five of the most common ways stress promotes weight gain. Or, put another way, five reasons why you need to de-stress ASAP.
1. It promotes insulin resistance. “Under stressful conditions, cortisol provides the body with energy by tapping into and breaking down the body’s protein stores into blood glucose, or sugar,” says registered dietitian nutritionist Lauren Blake, a sports dietitian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “This energy can help an individual fight or flee a stressor.” However, over the long term, consistently elevated cortisol and blood sugar levels contribute to insulin resistance, which can lead to fat storage, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
References
K. Aleisha Fetters, 2017 www.health.usnews.com