Does Stress Cause Weight Gain? (Stop Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Efforts!)

Feeling stressed lately?

One of the things that’s been increasingly recognized is the role of stress when it comes to weight gain. When we talk about stress, we immediately talk about cortisol. Right? If you don’t know what that is, it’s a stress hormone which is a general activator of a lot of things.

So remember, as humans as we evolved to activate a certain number of systems in response to stress. Let’s say you’re on a hike and you see a bear. Your hypothalamus, a tiny region at the base of your brain, sets off an alarm system in your body. You immediately activate your sympathetic nervous system which floods your body with energy as you prepare to either fight or run. And we all know this feeling. It’s a huge rush of energy in your system and you get all jacked up because of it. And this is commonly referred to as the fight of flight response.

And as you face that bear you either have the extra energy and awareness to fight it or you use that extra energy to run away. By the way, unless you have a can of bear spray in hand, I would not recommend fighting a bear with your bare hands. You can’t outrun a bear either so this is actually kind of a lose/lose situation here.

If we go back to our hunter/gatherer days, most of the stress that people dealt with back then were generally physical. Right? Usually when they’re out hunting animals. In other words, they’re short term stress responses. That is again if you see a bear, you’ll either fight it successfully, or not. Kill or be killed if you will. Either way, it doesn’t matter. You’re only dealing with stress for that short amount of time.

However, in today’s modern society, that’s not what happens. Right? From students stressed out of their minds studying for exams, to relationship problems. Maybe you’re going through a long drawn out divorce process and you’re dealing with legal problems, maybe you’re having a hard time making ends meet. Or maybe you’re going through a combination of all those things.

Either way, you’re constantly stressed and it never goes away. And that’s the problem. In this video, I’m gonna show you why stress is almost directly associated to weight gain.

Does stress cause weight gain. 

So whereas in the past, life was a lot simpler, the cortisol response was really just a one time thing. Right? And you would counter it with some vigorous physical activity, that fight or flight response, to burn off all that extra glucose in your body. Because that’s what you use to get that extra energy.

So remember, cortisol is one of the counter regulatory hormones and it acts as an activator of that fight or flight response. You actually push glucose out into your blood so your muscles can use it. And you have that surge of adrenalin. But then afterwards it should go down. And that’s kinda how your body stays in balance. Right? But modern society stress is not like that.

In today’s world, people are always stressing about something. Again, whether it’s about relationship problems, financial problems, or school problems. You’re stressed all day. In fact, you’re stressed out of your mind. Social media also plays a big part when it comes to adding unnecessary stress in people’s lives. You can’t help but feel like you’re not good enough if you spend enough time on social media.

So, what happens is this sort of stress builds up and over time your body keeps pushing out glucose in the blood stream, again that’s your body’s natural response to stress, and eventually your body has to respond by producing more insulin to bring down the extra glucose in your blood. And if you’ve been watching my videos, you know that high levels of insulin has a direct correlation to weight gain. If that’s new to you, then watch the video below.

But if you’re always stressed, it becomes a very unhealthy system because you’re chronically activating your cortisol response. And this puts you at an increased risk of numerous health problems, including anxiety, depression, digestive problems, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems, and yes, weight gain.

There’s a famous quote out there that says in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. You can probably add stress to that list. Stressful events are just a fact of life. That’s just how it is. The question is, what can you do about it? And it’s a tricky question because if you’re trying to lose weight and you’re trying to improve your diet, but if you’re chronically stressed, well, you’re not gonna get very good results. You can’t just focus on one aspect of your life and completely ignore the rest if you’re trying to lose weight.

Here are three tips that I’ve found to work time and time again to lower stress levels.

Tip #1: Practice gratitude. It sounds so simple but it’s one of the best things you can do to relieve stress. One study found that even just writing about past stressful experiences increased cortisol over one month compared to writing about positive life experiences or plans for the day. That’s why I like to start my day by journaling about things that I’m grateful for. It really sets you up for success when you start the day with gratitude.

Tip #2: Learn to relax through meditation. On top of the usual suspects like fixing your sleep, and I’m gonna put a link to one of my videos at the top here if you wanna know how to get better sleep, and if you work out, one of the best ways to lower stress is to learn how to practice relaxation. Active relaxation if you will. Unfortunately, “relaxing” in front of the TV doesn’t count. It’s an active process. Things like yoga and practicing meditation are prime examples of this.

And I wanna quickly talk to you about my experience with meditation if you’re feeling some resistance towards it. Earlier this year, I was having relationship problems and I went through a tough break up. Needless to say, I was stressed out of my mind and I had a hard time trying to relax, and I had no peace of mind. Life sucked.

After hearing enough people tell me that I should meditate, I finally caved and tried it. I mean, I had nothing to lose at that point. And just like a lot of people, I had a lot of resistance towards it. I thought it was just some voodoo hippie stuff that people do and I couldn’t further from the truth. All you literally do is find a quiet place, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. How could that be such a bad thing? And you don’t have to go crazy on this right away. You know what I mean? I’m not expecting you to be the next Dalai Lama here. Just start by meditating for a minute and go from there. I find that using a guided meditation app really helps to get you started with this and I personally use an app called Headspace for this.

Tip #3: Find a community. Being part of a community has been proven to help lower stress. Having sort of a happy place and knowing that you belong somewhere and having someone to talk to does a lot of good things to your cortisol levels. For me, personally, the gym would be that happy place.

So just remember, all the things I just mentioned on how to lower your cortisol levels, you’re not changing the actual stress. You know what I mean? The stress is still there. It doesn’t just magically go away. That is if you’re having problems with your relationship or money, talking about it doesn’t make the problem magically go away. But it changes your body’s response to the stress. And makes your body less damaged by this kind of chronic stress response. Because you have a way to relieve it. And everyone should be able to relate to that. It really helps if you have someone to talk to when you’re stressed out.

Long story short, the more you could reduce your cortisol response, the better the chances of you losing weight. Ignore it and it’s gonna be an uphill battle moving forward.

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!