Cortisol and Weight Gain – Does Stress Make You Fat?

One of the most common questions in the health industry is also one of the most debated, does stress make you fat?

When talking about the stress hormone, cortisol,  and weight gain, it’s easy to write it off because to many, losing weight is simply and only a matter of lowering calories below maintenance level (the caloric intake you wouldn’t lose or gain weight at).

But what’s commonly forgotten about is that hormones don’t only have a major impact on our bodies, but also what we do with our bodies.

For instance, when you’re stressed about the plethora of things that could go wrong, your body releases cortisol, among other hormones.

Cortisol will cause an immediate release of glucose from your tissues in case of need for energy. Since the sympathetic nervous system is activated, digestion is impaired, immunity is impaired, and memory is impaired.

Hormones aren’t Inherently Bad:

Cortisol and other hormones aren’t inherently bad, actually the opposite, they provide necessary functions that keep us alive and functioning. But, it’s the excess that can be dangerous, and our society can cause the production of excess cortrisol because of stress.

My point here is that hormones have a wide variety of functions across many different fields, even though this post will be on cortisol’s effect on fat.

Onto Cortisol and Weight Gain:

There is plenty of research on cortisol and its effects on weight. Many interesting points were brought up by the research.

In the first study below, some emotional participants experienced increased susceptibility to sweet fatty foods when under stress, and chose to eat them when under stress.

So, if you’re an emotional eater, which many people are, food can be seen as a temporary solution to the stress, a vice of the sorts.

This second study showed that individuals were more likely to make poor diet choices when under stress.

So, when you’re under emotional or mental stress, and presented with the choice to eat fruit or chocolate, you’re more likely to go for the chocolate, even though the healthy food you might choose at other times is in-front of you.

Food Selection Changes Under Stress

This third bit of research showed that as cortisol concentrations increased, consumption of sweet foods and saturated fats also increased.

Once again, it seems that stress not only makes us more susceptible to making different diet choices, but also making sure that those choices are poor ones.

This last bit of research shows that stress may increase the risk of storing fat in the abdominal region. This isn’t surprising, taking the large concentration of cortisol receptors in the abdominal region.

On a more anecdotal note, it’s not uncommon to feel that shooting feeling in the stomach when you get stressed. I’m not sure if the two are related, but it is interesting to note.

Stress May Cause Excess Abdominal Fat in Otherwise Slender Women, Study Conducted at Yale Shows

So, Does Cortisol cause weight gain?

The research above leads me to believe that stress itself isn’t the sole cause of weight gain, but excess stress and cortisol can create an environment that sets you up for failure.

Not only does the research point to excess stress making us more likely to eat low quality high calorie foods, but it points to the idea that when we eat foods under stress, fat is more likely to be stored in the abdominal region.

The Fix:

The fix here is a tough one because it does require a somewhat constant effort. Stressing in emergencies and larger situations isn’t something we can really have an effect on, but it’s the smaller things that stress us out that we can fix.

For instance, something like texting when driving can cause a surge of stress because of the multitasking, but also the danger that we inherently know about. That’s an example of one of the small stressors I’m speaking of.

Make an effort to reduce the small stressors, and your overall stress could be greatly reduced, resolving the issue created above. Get rid of the stress!

P.S. stressing about what foods you should eat or what you should make is still stress! When I was lost in the kitchen, the Dark Side of Fat Loss was my guide!