Stress and weight gain

The stress response is incredibly ancient evolutionarily. Fish, birds, and reptiles secrete the same stress hormones we do, yet their metabolism doesn't get messed up the way it does in people and other primates.

~ Robert Sapolsky

According to Stanford mind-body researcher Alia Crum, stress is inevitable when we live a life that’s connected with things we care about. Learning how to embrace it and how to work with it is what helps us thrive, grow, and perform at our highest level.

I like to reframe stress as a perceived challenge, an opportunity for growth. Yet, despite its potential benefits, statistics suggest that over 75% of doctor visits are related to stress.

Unlike animals who do not dwell on the past, when humans relive stressful events, we continue to secrete chemicals designed for short-term physical emergencies that, in the long term, impair our metabolism.

There is sufficient evidence to show that trauma and stress hormones can alter our physiology to promote weight gain.

How stress impacts metabolism

OBESITY is not caused by an excess of calories, but instead by a body-set weight that is too high because of a hormonal imbalance in the body.

~ Jason Fung

Weight gain is seldom just about over-consumption and under-exertion.

Some will unconsciously make themselves big numbing emotional pain with comfort food.

I often find myself looking for other mechanisms of action to explain how stress influences body weight.

This week, I heard Lisa Feldman Barrett cite research I had not yet come across about how stress alters metabolism to promote weight gain.

Researchers from Ohio State University interviewed women about the stress they experienced the previous day and then fed them a high-fat, high-calorie meal.

They found that, on average, women who reported one or more stressors during the past 24 hours burned 104 fewer calories than non-stressed women. These unburned calories can accumulate to eleven extra pounds of weight gain per year.

Stressed women also had higher insulin levels, a hormone that contributes to fat storage.

Mind the gap

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

~ Viktor E. Frankl

How we react to a trigger has much to do with our emotional state in the gap between stimulus and response.

Unless we intentionally reprogram the unconscious mind, our reaction will mimic that of primary caregivers and cultural influencers.

The Adverse Childhood Event research study, which correlates disease outcomes later in life to early childhood trauma, started because, in 1985, Dr. Vincent Felitti, the chief of Kaiser Permanente’s revolutionary Department of Preventive Medicine, was mystified by the fact that, over the previous five years, more than half of the people enrolled in his obesity clinic dropped out, even though they were successfully losing weight.

Weight loss, without changing the habit of being ourselves, is not sustainable.

Closing thoughts

An open mind is a prerequisite to an open heart.

~ Robert Sapolsky

Before judging someone based on their weight status, open your mind and your heart. Have compassion for the likelihood of unresolved traumatic events in their formative years.

A key to preventing obesity is compassionate early childhood care, a time when the programs from which we operate are created.

With awareness of self-limiting thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours, change is possible throughout life. Psychotherapy, hypnosis, and the practice of mindfulness, including breath work, yoga, and meditation, can help reprogram the unconscious mind to create a healthier version of ourselves.

For prevention, children need to be unconditionally loved. Thoughtful caregivers and role models should be encouraged, praised, and supported in their quest to rear healthy children.

Provision of clean, whole food, safety and love at home facilitate learning and growing. Teaching children to cope, embrace, and reframe stress helps increase resilience.