After seven months of coronavirus lockdown, many of us have noticed the numbers on the scale creeping upward. People joke about gaining the “COVID 19” thanks to a combination of stress eating and many fitness facilities being closed.
Many of us keep resolving to get up and start moving more right before we give in to the urge to eat a sweet or salty treat. If you wonder why you can’t seem to muster the willpower to stop snacking, you’re not alone. It’s also not a weakness: it’s your brain and reacting to the stress all of us are feeling.
The constant worry about COVID, job security, friends and family’s health, and whether or not kids can go to school and college has a real physical effect on all of us. Our body chemistry actually changes in reaction to stress, and those changes have noticeable results.
The big driver of stress-related issues is a hormone called cortisol. Please keep reading to find out more about what cortisol is and how stress affects our weight.
What is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a perfectly natural substance that everyone produces. The NIH helpfully tells us that cortisol is “the main glucocorticoid released from the zona fasciculata layer of the adrenal cortex.” In plain English, that means cortisol is a hormone produced by your adrenal glands.
I have always associated the adrenal glands and the chemicals they produce with stress. Those glands secrete adrenaline and cortisol, which show up during the fight or flight responses to stressful situations. They are the hormones behind the increased heart rate and jump in energy when you experience a sudden shock. Imagine you’re out for a walk, and a big dog suddenly starts barking at you. That heart-pounding, wide-awake feeling you get is cortisol and adrenaline doing their jobs.
But cortisol isn’t just about sudden stressors. It’s part of the daily cocktail of chemicals that your body produces to keep everything up and running. You release a whole bunch of it in the first half-hour after waking up, and levels slowly drop off during the day. You need to have it circulating because it has an essential role in regulating blood sugar, metabolizing nutrients, and managing immune responses.
How Does Cortisol Work in The Body?
When your cortisol levels are normal, they play a role in metabolizing carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, as well as keeping blood sugar regulated. However, stress can change the balance of cortisol in your system. Once that happens, there is a domino effect of other changes.
When cortisol spikes in a fight or flight response, it will trigger higher blood sugar to provide a sudden boost of energy. It also shuts down digestion, the immune system, and the reproductive system – the systems you don’t need when your big focus is getting away from immediate danger. It shifts your brain over to a fear response and boosts motivation to get away from whatever is stressing you out.
All of this is fine if you’re responding to an immediate but short-term threat. Remember the barking dog I mentioned earlier? In that situation, you have a stress response while the dog is barking, then you move away from the dog’s yard, and the stress recedes. Your cortisol levels and all your other body systems go back to normal.
But what happens when you’re under long-term stress? Unfortunately, our bodies are hardwired to respond to all kinds of stress the same way. Your adrenal glands don’t know the difference between the stress from a possible dog attack and the pressure from a big deadline at work. And your body really doesn’t know what to do with the kind of prolonged stress a global pandemic causes.
Constant stress can lead to a continuous elevation of cortisol. That might be good for the sensation of being energized and motivated. Still, it can also cause problems with your metabolism, including possible weight gain.
How Does Cortisol Impact Weight Gain?
Cortisol itself doesn’t add pounds to your body – it doesn’t build up in your tissue make you heavier. What it does instead is change what you want to eat and how your body processes food.
Part of our natural stress response is to feel hungry. Our whole system thinks stress means a high energy expenditure is required, such as if we had to run away from a physical threat. Our adrenal glands haven’t caught on that the energy needed to get a project finished before its due date doesn’t take nearly the amount of energy that running from a saber-toothed tiger would require. So we respond to all kinds of stress by craving high-calorie food to fill our energy stores.
Cortisol also affects blood sugar. Higher cortisol boosts insulin production, which depletes your existing blood sugar levels. Your body wants you to replace that sugar in the fastest way possible. Before you know it, you might be reaching for a donut to satisfy the urge for a quick fix.
Over time, chronic stress can contribute to chronic over-eating and less nutritious food choices. And, as we all know, that can lead to weight gain.
How Can We Naturally Reduce Our Cortisol?
The good news about chronic stress is that we can manage it once we recognize it. Take the time to recognize what you’re feeling and identify it as stress. Then have a few stress-reduction tactics in mind to help yourself bring those cortisol levels back down.
Here are a few useful techniques:
Exercise
Make use of the restless energy you might feel from a cortisol spike and get moving. Going for a brisk walk or doing a few burpees will cut the stress and burn calories simultaneously.
Mediate
Any type of conscious relaxation exercise will work. Take time to sit, breathe deeply, and relax clenched muscles. Yoga or tai chi are great ways to refocus and rebalance your mood.
Self-care
Sometimes, the best way to destress is by having a little downtime. Get together with a friend for (socially distant) coffee. Listen to a favorite playlist. Settle down with a good book. Do whatever helps take your mind off things that make you anxious.
Get enough sleep
Rest is vital for good health. Paying attention to sleep hygiene – sleeping in a dark enough room, avoiding screens right before bed – and going to bed and waking up at regular times every day can help rebalance your cortisol levels.
Final Words
To sum up, stress has a definite effect on our weight, especially if we aren’t mindful about it. Elevated cortisol can lead to over-eating, which we all know is the quickest way to pack on unwanted pounds. But the good news is that there are easy ways to recognize what’s happening and take steps to react to it in healthy ways. Exercise, conscious relaxation, and reaching for nutritious snacks when the urge to eat comes on will go a long way toward mitigating weight gain.
Even if we can’t make stress disappear from our lives, we can recognize it for what it is and manage it in the healthiest way possible. Pay attention to how you’re feeling and take care of yourself.