How stress is making you fat

Discover what scientists have known for 20 years: that stress is the missing link in the weight loss equation and addressed at last, in The De-Stress Diet. A complete lifestyle plan based in solid science, it addresses the specific ways stress affects your body and brings you a tailored plan for lasting weight loss and increased wellbeing.If regular calories in / calories out diets haven't worked for you in the past, your stress levels may be to blame.

When stress hits, your body produces the stress fighting hormone cortisol. Like all our hormones, cortisol has its part to play in our health. It's replenishes energy supplies after prolonged stress, makes immune cells fight infection and helps regulate blood pressure. Ideally, cortisol is present at high levels in the body in the morning to get us up and at low levels at night to allow sleep. But cortisol also stimulates appetite - signaling that we need to take on more fuel for that physical response - and during periods of prolonged stress, an over-production of it turns those extra calories into fat. Plus, because abdominal cells have more receptors for cortisol than any other part of the body, most of that fat gets stored around the tummy. People who produce excess cortisol tend to have bulky waistlines and apple-shaped bodies rather than pear-shaped ones. But cortisol makes you fat in other, sneakier ways too and even if you're not apple-shaped it could play a part in excess weight. Chronically elevated cortisol can lead to the loss of muscle tone and inhibit your thyroid function, which can slow the metabolism and make it more difficult to lose weight, even when you are following a healthy diet.

Stress not only influences your very biology to store fat, it also influences your behavior, leading you to crave more sugary comfort foods. Anyone who has felt the power of a serious crisp, chocolate or ice-cream craving will know there is something pretty powerful at work that can turn a grown woman or man into a sugar-or-salt-seeking machine. In 2005, fascinating research from the University of California revealed the link between stress and the consumption of comfort food was real. Researchers fed two groups of rats a diet of rat chow and sugar water but put one of the groups under extreme stress. It was this group that gulped down its sugar water. But this effect isn't exclusive to rats. Human studies too have demonstrated that high cortisol is associated with increased appetite especially cravings for sugar, salt and processed fats. One study found premenopausal women who secreted more cortisol during and after novel laboratory stressors chose to consume more foods high in sugar and fat. This ‘using' of junk food to make yourself feel better is habit-forming. The more you do it, the more you want to do it and habitual stress eating can lead to weight gain of the ‘hard-to-shift' variety simply because it becomes your default way of dealing with pressure.

The De-Stress Diet
In the De-Stress Diet, authors Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee show you the specific dietary, relaxation and fitness measures you can take to free yourself from sugar cravings and stress eating and release excess weight forever. You will discover the de-stress measures for your specific body type, a 25 minute strength training routine that shapes the body without exhausting it and breathing and yoga sequences that can be done anywhere and anytime to help you become slimmer and calmer, long-term.

Charlotte practises as a Nutritional Therapist and Yoga Teacher in Brighton - see www.charlottewattshealth.com/yoga and is the author of The De-Stress Diet at www.de-stressyourlife.com