Stress less to lose weight

By Linda Drummond First published: June 6th, 2010

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If your excess weight won't budge, getting your anxiety levels under control could help.

A bit of stress every now and again is normal, but living with continual stress can have a major impact on your health, wellbeing and weight. Dr Amanda Sainsbury-Salis, a Garvan Institute weight-loss researcher, says that stress normally adversely affects your weight. "Don't worry about short-term stresses," she says. "They're normal and usually help us lose weight if anything. But long-term stresses, such as a negative job or relationship problems, can affect your weight from the ground up."

Cortisol connection

"One of the things that stress does is release stress hormones cortisol and neuropeptide Y," Dr Sainsbury-Salis says. "Cortisol acts directly on your fat deposits, causing you to gain fat around the belly." When we experience stress our adrenal glands trigger the fight or flight response, which sends messages to the cortisol receptors in our abdomen. This is like a red alert for the body and all functions are put on standby to prepare for danger: fat is stored around our abdomen to ensure there's enough food in case of famine or another life-threatening situation.

And when it comes to the cravings we experience during times of stress, it's our stress hormones at work again. "Cortisol gives you a higher preference for addictive behaviours and makes high-fat and high-sugar foods much more attractive," Dr Sainsbury-Salis says. "It also acts on the hypothalmus in your brain, increasing your hunger and driving you to eat in times of stress."

While our ancestors had a clearly defined beginning and end to their stressful periods, many of us don't, which is why our bodies can react in such an extreme fashion. Some of us are living in a constant state of stress and our bodies just aren't coping.

Stress and fat cells

Garvan Institute researchers recently found that neuropeptide Y acts directly on fat cells. "It causes the birth of new fat cells, increases new blood vessels to the cells and generally helps promote their growth and development," says Dr Sainsbury-Salis. Interestingly, this response was only displayed when the animals in the experiments ate high-fat, high-sugar diets.

Clinical psychologist Louise Adams says that how we cope with stress is very individual. "People have different tolerance levels, but when it starts to affect your quality of life then it's time to act," she says.When stress is only short-term and irregular, our body can cope with it. Long-term stress places our body in a constant state of panic, slowing our metabolism, increasing cravings and storing fat for the future.

Adams says we need to learn to recognise our physical responses to stress: do your shoulders tense up, heart pound or breath become short? Learn some breathing exercises. When you start to experience these signs, distract yourself. Walk away and do something else for five minutes or call a friend - anything to calm yourself down.

Define your problem

"If work is what's causing you stress, put boundaries around it. Take meals and snacks away from your desk and make sure you leave the building at least once a day," Adams says. "If you have a BlackBerry or iPhone, switch off the email function at the end of the day and set some clearly defined work hours for yourself."

Exercise and stress

"Vigorous exercise can also help by releasing endorphins, which help calm and reduce the stress hormones in your body," Adams adds. "Unwinding at the end of the day by going for a walk can really help." Yoga and meditation also help you switch off. Just as how we deal with stress is individual, so are the ways in which we can resolve it.

Whether it's taking a real holiday, learning time-management skills or working to resolve the underlying issues in your relationship that lead to friction, find what works for you. If your stress levels are overwhelming, consulting a psychologist can teach you problem-solving skills and techniques to help bring your stress levels under control.

At a glance

Steps to food control

Accredited practising dietitian Julie Gilbert, from Solutions Food Management, offers the following tips to deal with stress eating:

Keep a diary to focus on whether you're actually hungry, or just eating because you're stressed. If you're stressed, look at non-food rewards to help you cope. For example, get out for a brisk 10-minute power walk.

Have plenty of small, healthy snacks to hand; high-fibre muesli bars, nuts and dried fruit will quell your cravings and your hunger.

If you're craving something sweet, try jam on a cracker or honey on toast. Don't always reach for the high-fat,high-sugar option.

Don't get hungry: eat every three hours to stop your blood sugar plummeting and the stress cravings from rising.

Have a little bit of what you fancy. Take a sliver of cake, put it on a plate and take yourself away from the source of stress to eat. Nibble it slowly for about 20 minutes and quietly enjoy every mouthful.