This may be the #1 reason behind your weight loss struggle...

You may think you know this already. Most likely you have this image in your head: your average adult, usually female, comes home after a long and stressful day and what does she do? Unbutton her trousers, change into sweats, open the fridge, and sink into the couch with all the snacks, sweets, and other junk foods she could find to "unwind".

But while overeating and overindulging are important culprits in weight gain, listen to this. Even if you're eating all the salads in the world, exercising religiously 6 days a week, and still not shedding a pound, the main reason for your failures can be...stress.

And here's why: As humans, our genes and underlying mechanisms that drive our physical existence have been widely altered over time, as part of simply speaking, evolution. You see, back in the day, if you were under constant stress, your body would think that you were in danger, the type of danger threatening your survival, so it would convert over all of the available energy into fat and glycogen, which would be easily and quickly available when needed to activate that "fight or flight" response.

The key here is that it would have to be "constant" or chronic stress that would alter the existing metabolic pathways and affect weight loss as a result (Rabasa & Dickson, 2016; Scott, Melhorn, & Sakai, 2012). As you may know by now from some of my other posts, occasional stress is necessary, and even good for the body. But when the body is under constant stress, a very important pathway called the HPA or the hypothalamic-pituitary axis becomes dysregulated. This pathway intertwines with and influences the function of our adrenal glands, which make something called "cortisol" (Cleveland Clinic, 2017; Tomiyama, 2018). That may sound familiar.

Cortisol is the stress hormone. It normally fluctuates throughout the day, but what researchers have found, is that when they counted how many cells turned into fat cells in response to stress and cortisol secretion, "One 48-hour long pulse of the hormones caused most cells to turn into fat cells, whereas shorter pulses led to minimal cell differentiation" or creation of fat cells (Sandoiu, 2018).

So not only does this lead to actual growth of fat cells (*gasp*), but cortisol also stimulates your appetite and cravings, which contributes to weight gain even further (Sandoiu, 2018).

If you thought that wasn't enough, chronic stress can also affect your gut microbiome, which influences everything, from your mood to your metabolism (Tomiyama, 2018). Then, when you begin to feel the effects of this, you start stressing even more about not being able to lose weight, and a vicious cycle begins to wreck havoc on your body.

Of note, your body is especially sensitive to the effects of stress at the end of the day or in the evening, when cortisol is naturally at its lowest. This is why it's so important to figure out what works for you and make it a habit to incorporate an activity of your choice into your daily (more like nightly) routine. And the activities I'm referring to are those aimed at stress-reduction and management, and often overlap with those used in mental health as a whole. They include things like yoga, meditation, mindfulness exercises, practicing gratitude, breathwork, aromatherapy, and physical activity (especially outdoors). Not only will these help keep your cholesterol levels at bay, but they will also help you get a better night's rest, and you guessed it, aid in weight loss (hence the whole point of this post).

While these may sound easy, or "too good to be true", become conscious of your self-harming and self-destructive habits (i.e. stress for one), and you will soon realize that the fix to many of your issues can really be as simple as that.

References:

Cleveland Clinic. (2017). Can long-term stress make you gain weight? Study finds a link. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-long-

term-stress-make-you-gain-weight/

Rabasa, C., Dickson, S.L. (2016). Impact of stress on metabolism and energy balance. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 9, 71-77.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352154616300183

Sandoiu, A. (2018). Why does stress lead to weight gain? Study sheds light. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321407

Scott, K.A., Melhorn, S.J., Sakai, R.R. (2012). Effects of chronic social stress on obesity. Curr Obes Rep. 2012 Mar; 1(1), 16-25. doi:

10.1007/s13679-011-0006-3.

Tomiyama. (2018). Stress and obesity. Annual Reviews. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-102936