Some people are blessed with a fast metabolism. Other people struggle to lose a pound. Genetics is one factor that determines how fast your metabolism is, but environment also plays a role. A high-intensity workout temporarily speeds up your metabolism by forcing your body to expend more energy while recovering, the so-called afterburn effect. Other environmental factors may slow your metabolism down. According to a new study, one of those factors is stress.
What Effect Does Stress Have on Metabolism?
There’s no lack of evidence that stress can impact your weight. Some people eat more calories and make less healthy food choices when they’re stressed out. When stress rears its ugly head, you’re more likely to reach for “comfort foods,” foods that remind you of happier times. When you munch on these foods it sends a subconscious message to your brain that everything is A-Okay. In most cases, these foods are high in fat or carbohydrates – sweet desserts, ice cream, and other sugary goodies. Now, a study shows stress makes it harder to control your weight another way – by slowing your metabolism.
In this study, researchers questioned 58 middle-age women about the stress they had dealt with the previous day. Some of the stressors included work-related problems, family arguments, and disagreements, things almost everyone experiences from time to time. After assessing their stress level and their resting metabolic rate, they gave the women a high-fat, high-calorie meal with more than 900 calories and 60 grams of fat. Afterward, they measured their metabolism every hour for seven hours.
The results? The women that reported feeling stressed the previous day burned an average of 104 fewer calories relative to women that didn’t feel stressed. That may not sound like a lot but it’s enough to cause almost a pound of weight gain per month if sustained. Not only did their metabolism slow, their insulin levels increased. Higher insulin levels are linked with increased fat storage and can lead to insulin resistance and metabolic problems over time. Slower metabolism, insulin resistance, increased fat storage – not a good combination.
The Overeating Factor
It’s clear that stress can change your eating habits – but how? When you’re stressed, your body releases stress hormones like adrenalin, the fight-or-flight hormone, which hypes you up and prepares you for action. Adrenalin alone may temporarily reduce your desire to eat – but when stress becomes chronic, another stress hormone predominates – cortisol.
It’s cortisol that sends you running to the kitchen to grab a brownie. Cortisol also contributes to another problem related to long-term stress – increased belly fat. When you pump out too much cortisol day after day, more fat gets deposited around your waistline and belly. Producing too much cortisol over a long period of time also leads to a reduction in lean body mass as well as an increased risk for infection due to suppression of the immune system. Some people produce more cortisol than others in response to stress. It’s these people who are more likely to deal with stress by overeating and snacking on the wrong foods.
When you’re stressed out, you may have difficulty sleeping. In response to lack of sleep, your adrenal glands pump out even more cortisol. This overabundance of cortisol increases the desire to eat and leads to further weight gain. Lack of sleep also affects appetite hormones like leptin and ghrelin, causing you to feel hungrier. To make matters worse, lack of sleep alters glucose metabolism and increases insulin resistance, leading to a greater risk for belly fat and metabolic syndrome.
How to Avoid Weight Gain When You’re Stressed Out
Since overeating and making unhealthy food choices is a common response to stress, monitor your eating habits more closely when you’re stressed. A study published in the Journal of Obesity showed mindful eating combined with stress-reduction techniques helps curb stress-related overeating in women. In this study, women were taught to be more aware of what their body was telling them. It’s easy to reach for a cookie when you’re stressed without really thinking about it. The key is to be conscious you’re doing that and do something else like relax for a few minutes, take deep breaths, meditate, exercise or take a hot bath. In the study, the women also meditated 30 minutes a day to help reduce their stress response. Research shows meditation reduces cortisol levels.
Exercise, Stress, and Metabolism
Exercise is another stress reliever. High-intensity exercise helps you battle the slow-down in metabolism that happens when you’re stressed out. Low-intensity exercise like yoga helps lower cortisol levels. Both forms of exercise have a role in reducing stress and keeping your metabolism primed when you are under stress. Research shows exercise helps your body better deal with stressful circumstances and may lower the risk for anxiety and depression. According to researchers at Princeton, exercise actually “reorganizes” your brain so it deals with stress better. If you’re looking for something to help you deal with the things that stress you out, exercise is it.
The Bottom Line?
Stress sabotages your waistline and your health by changing how you eat and slowing your metabolism. When things get stressful become more mindful of how you’re eating, exercise and practice stress reduction techniques like yoga and meditation – and don’t skimp on sleep.
References:
Science Daily. “Weighty Issue: Stress and High-Fat Meals Combine to Slow Metabolism in Women”. July 14, 2014.
The University of California at San Francisco News. “Stress Reduction and Mindful Eating Curb Weight Gain Among Overweight Women”
J Med Assoc Thai. 2013 Jan;96 Suppl 1: S90-5.
Harvard Health Publications. “Why Stress Causes People to Overeat”
Medscape Family Medicine. “The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Hormones and Metabolism”
American Psychological Society. “Exercise Fuels the Brain’s Stress Buffers”
News at Princeton. “Exercise Reorganizes the Brain to Be More Resilient to Stress” July 3, 2013.
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