Got Stress? Watch Out for Weight Gain

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By Rachel Martin

The daily demands of life—working, caring for children and/or parents, running errands, cooking, cleaning—are challenging enough without the added layer of holiday festivities, which can make anyone’s blood pressure soar. Even worse is the news that unchecked stress can make you fat. And that fat tends to collect around your middle rather than being distributed throughout your body.
           
In times of stress, our bodies produce a variety of hormones, the best known of which is cortisol. Cortisol is responsible for the fight-or-flight reaction that helped save our ancestors. Under threat of attack from a toothy prehistoric beast, for example, cortisol would kick into overdrive, shifting energy from nonessential functions like digestion and reproduction to the nervous system to maximize muscle control and reflexes. This gave humans a better chance of defending themselves or running away. Once the coast was clear, cortisol levels would return to normal.

Our bodies still respond to stress by boosting cortisol—except now there is no predator to fight or flee, just a boss awaiting an overdue expense report, cranky kids up past their bedtime, or an argumentative spouse. If you are chronically stressed, your cortisol levels are always elevated.