Stress Makes and Keeps You Fat

Stress is a well-known cause for many health problems, from heart disease to acne. It also makes weight gain more likely due to several metabolic factors - the fight-or-flight cycle of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol, for example - and can lock us mentally into a cycle of stress eating.

Luckily, this can be overcome. Not by going all new-agey and giving up our modern lives to live among the Yanomamo, but by honing the mind to conquer the body's false survival signals.

It is very easy to give up control to stressful life situations and allow ourselves to be pulled this way and that without purpose of action or intention. We remove the "organism" - the self - from the stimulus-organism-response model of behavior. By focusing on the role of the mind, the body's stress response can be mitigated.

Throw a monkey wrench into your body's fat-producing mechanics by filtering your response to life stress:

1. Plan ahead for stressful situations. Of course, some stresses pop up unexpectedly, but having a plan for dealing with tight deadlines, traffic jams and failed workout attempts means a better ability to control future reactions. Pre-prepare your food and make healthy "on the go" snacks yourself ahead of time so you're not pulling into Wendy's drive-thru between errands at 5:30pm. If you do find yourself in the drive-thru out of necessity, take the time to order a grilled chicken wrap and skip the fries.

2. Understand how you eat when you're stressed. Some folks are mindless eaters, snacking throughout a stressful experience while others pig out once the stress has eased up. Both stressful eaters tend to pick foods with lots of fat & simple sugars - foods that turn off the body's stress hormones - but when there has been no corresponding output of energy (i.e. an actual fight or flight scenario), those calories are deposited around the abdomen where they will be available to the liver for quick processing. People under chronic stress will keep depositing fat around the abdomen because, you guessed it, their stress hormones (specifically cortisol) are working 24/7.

Ignore evolution by thinking wisely. If you can predict a stressful situation coming up, plan to hit the gym afterward rather than head out to happy hour to continue the stress cycle by drinking, eating and bitching about it. Work out & head home for an early bedtime. There will be plenty of time for a rehash on Monday morning (or forget about it; your co-workers may respect you more). Be diligent about bringing healthy food along, eating on time & not keeping treats in that lower desk drawer.

3. Practice turning off and tuning out. Everyone has day to day sensitivities, those little things that burrow under the skin & cause low grade stress. Tune out what you can, take a news break once or twice a week, listen to books on CD in the car, log off the computer an hour before bed, turn the TV off half an hour before bed, whatever it takes. Quit making long lists of inconsquential things that "need" doing; they don't, or you wouldn't need a list to remember them.

4. Stimulate other pleasure centers in your brain. The body loves to relax; it's the mind that races around & never wants to stop. A 30-minute workout will stimulate endorphins. Do yoga. Have some good sex. Laugh out loud. Give yourself a five-minute mini-massage. Focus on something other than the negative & give yourself something to smile about.

5. Don't stress about being stressed. If not making a list is more stressful than looking at it (think about it seriously), then make it. The world will continue to go on if you need to take a mental health day or you don't log into Facebook for 24 hours. Scream at other drivers, but only if it makes you laugh & loosens your grip on the steering wheel. You ate three donuts during that committee meeting this morning? No problem. Make a mental note to be more aware of your eating habits when you're under the gun next time. Give up the uncontrolled guilt and focus on awareness. You are the gatekeeper between stimulus and response.

6. Know when to get help. Chronic, unrelieved stress can lead to depression, atypical depression or cognitive distortions which may need more help than a yoga class can provide.