Is Stress Making You Fat?

Could adrenal imbalance be causing your weight problem?

* Do you feel bone tired during the day, only to perk up at night?
* Do you tend to nod off at the movies, at meetings, or while reading during the daytime?
* Do you love to snack in the evening and frequently stay up late into the night?
* Do you feel hungry, confused, or shaky when under pressure during the day?
* Do you habitually rely on caffeine and high-carb snacks to boost your flagging energy?
* Have you noticed a “spare tire” growing larger and larger around your waist each year?
* Are you eating modestly and exercising, but still not losing weight?

If you answered to yes to two or more of the above, adrenal imbalance could lie at the core of your weight gain. Continue reading for more information. . . .

After years of chronic stress, our adrenal glands — which govern our stress response, help balance a woman’s blood sugar, and regulate many other of our body’s processes — can become imbalanced. Our adrenal glands are fundamental to our health, and when they are out of balance, the body prepares for disaster the best way it knows how — by storing calories. Genetically, some of us are more predisposed to this than others. But the good news is that if we restore the adrenals to their normal, healthy function, stubborn pounds often fall away without too much effort, and our energy returns.

Women with adrenal imbalance often have a “spare tire,” or what we call visceral fat deposits. This happens for several reasons. Under normal circumstances, when we haven’t eaten for a while, our blood sugar (glucose) drops and the brain sends a message to the adrenals to release cortisol. This cortisol mobilizes glucose (via glycogen in the liver), amino acids (primarily from muscles), and fat (from fat cells). This prevents hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), keeping your brain and body fueled with energy in the absence of food. So cortisol maintains glucose levels in the blood, while insulin helps usher glucose into the cells.

When we have long-term stress, cortisol and insulin remain high in the blood, and the extra glucose that isn’t needed for energy gets stored in the form of fat — primarily abdominal fat cells, or “visceral fat.” Scientists have discovered that fat cells have special stress-hormone receptors for cortisol, but that there also seem to be more of these cortisol receptors on the fat cells in the abdomen than anywhere else in the body! And sadly, visceral fat doesn’t just “sit there” doing nothing; it’s almost as if this fat is, itself, an endocrine organ that reacts to the stress response, spurring still more abdominal fat deposition. So the cycle continues unless we take steps to heal the metabolic imbalance.

What to do?

Eat well, and regularly. Sounds funny, I know — telling women to eat more instead of less! But if you want to convince your body that it’s in no danger of starving to death, that’s exactly what you have to do — only make sure it’s good food that provides nutrients you need.

As I explained above, cortisol is integral to maintaining blood sugar, so it makes sense that keeping your blood sugar as level as possible lightens the load on the adrenal glands. Allowing yourself to get too hungry sends the “oh, no! famine is here!” message and puts added stress on your adrenals, forcing them to pump out excess cortisol. To prevent this, I recommend you eat well and regularly — three balanced meals and two balanced snacks per day, spread out across the day to work with your natural circadian rhythm.

When you eat matters too. Cortisol has a natural cycle that works with your circadian rhythm. Normally, cortisol is highest in the early morning and declines gradually throughout the day to help you get ready for sleep. Because eating always bumps up cortisol, it’s ideal to eat your largest meal in the morning. Eating within one to two hours of waking helps cortisol reach its optimal morning peak, replenishes your body, and relieves your adrenals from maintaining fasting blood sugar levels. Healthy snacks between meals help moderate the natural downward slope of cortisol levels as the day wears on. If you experience a slump in the late afternoon, a balanced, low-carb snack around 3:00 PM will help avert this. I also advise eating dinner early, around 5:00–6:00 PM if you can, and making this your lightest meal of the day.

Keep healthy foods close at hand. What you eat is equally important. And if they don’t have access to healthy food when they need to raise energy levels, many women load up on sweets and caffeine, because they’re so easy to get! But this often leads to an even greater drop in energy. When you need a boost, make sure you have micronutrient-rich foods that support your adrenals, like asparagus, avocado, cabbage, garlic, ginger, and lean protein. Limit or avoid refined and processed sugars, other processed foods, damaged fats, alcohol, caffeine, and possibly gluten. I’ve found that many of my patients with adrenal imbalance are sensitive to gluten, and do much better when they take it out of their diets.

Key points in this article:
* Chronic stress causes cortisol to increase in your blood, which can increase blood sugar, increase hunger, and promote more fat storage.
* The body stores “stress fat” in the belly to prepare for a crisis.
* Eating 3 healthy meals and 2 snacks with some form of protein with each can help regulate cortisol and relay the message that your body is not in crisis mode.
* Finding ways to lighten your stress load, like good sleep habits, deep breathing, light exercise.

To receive support for balancing your hormones, losing weight and getting healthy contact:
Lighten The Load @ 979.229.8070 or email Faith@LightenTheLoad.net

Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP
Women To Women
2011