Stress leads to obesity! How to break out of the vicious cycle of "stress → eating → stress"?

Audit expert: Wu Xi

Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Endocrinology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University

Doctor of Medicine

In modern urban life, many unhealthy living habits are gradually harming our health, such as uncontrolled intake of high-calorie greasy food, sleep violations... and stress and rhythm disorders are all affecting our bodies invisibly, and obesity has become the most direct manifestation. At present, some studies on metabolism have revealed the fact that stress and body rhythm disorders can lead to obesity.

Source | pixabay

What is stress-induced obesity?

What we commonly call stress fat and overwork fat actually have a common cause, that is, obesity caused by high-pressure environment. This condition occurs in both men and women, with women appearing around the age of 25 and men being more likely to suffer from stress fat after the age of 30.

As people grow up and leave school to enter society, the rapidly changing environment and the major events that come one after another bring pressure to people unconsciously. Work, marriage, child-rearing, and other factors add up, and the psychology is very easy to fluctuate, making people often feel stressed. For women, the hormonal changes brought about by the menstrual cycle will aggravate emotional and psychological problems.

Under the condition of "high pressure", many people will overeat or lose their appetite. People under high pressure are like a taut spring, in an acute stress response. This psychological state will produce a chain reaction, and the human body's neuro-endocrine system will cause changes in the body's hormone balance through a series of stimulation reactions.

Source | pexels

What causes stress obesity?

When we pay attention to people who gain weight due to stress and explore the causes of their obesity, we can easily find that the biggest reason is their over-reliance on comfort food and the bad habit of overeating. "Eating is the best therapy", comfort food refers to those foods that can comfort or make people feel happy, usually high in sugar, high in fat or childhood favorites, such as cakes, milk tea, barbecue, etc. When people are under stress, they will unconsciously continue to eat more, leading to obesity.

The vicious cycle brought about by obesity and fatigue is also terrible. Due to the influence of stress, the body's cortisol secretion is disordered, accompanied by the emergence of metabolic problems. Under the superimposed negative effects, the stress response will be intensified. This is why it is easy to grow positively once you become fat. The more tired you are, the more you eat, the fatter you get. Specifically, the increase in stress hormones, especially glucocorticoid levels, directly leads to a person's "big appetite". Its secretion is like opening the gate of "eat more if you want to eat", which greatly increases people's demand for energy supplies such as carbohydrates and fats.

Source | Xinhuanet

But this is an incorrect signal. It breaks the body's energy demand-consumption balance, which can easily lead to overeating, which in turn leads to increased fat and weight, and makes people become one of the people who are overweight due to stress. A team of scientists from Cornell University pointed out: "The chronic release of the stress hormone glucocorticoid or the disordered release cycle can cause a series of metabolic problems. For example, it increases the growth of fat cells and the production of insulin, which enhances the body's absorption of sugar in the blood."

For the majority of modern urban people, long periods of sitting are also a cause of "stress-induced obesity" . Sitting still for a long time is one of the harmful lifestyles recognized worldwide. The harm of long-term sitting is comprehensive: blood circulation and respiratory gas exchange in the body slow down, and the metabolic rate decreases. Long-term incorrect sitting posture can also cause skeletal muscle damage, such as occupational diseases of urban white-collar workers represented by cervical and lumbar spine diseases, neck muscle strain, and lower back pain. Lack of exercise when sitting for a long time, and just wanting to lie down after sitting for a long time, so obesity will naturally come to you.

Source | pixabay

How does circadian rhythm disorder make the body fat?

Recently, a paper published in Cell Reports focused on the relationship between rhythm and obesity. The research team found that just like the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the cells inside our body also follow a strict rhythmic clock. For example, when there is no obvious fluctuation in the circadian rhythm, fat precursor cells will respond to signals and trigger fat cell proliferation (mainly at night). In other words, when we artificially break this rhythm, stay up late at night, and sleep in the morning, this transition will not proceed smoothly, fat will easily accumulate too much, and people's mood will also be affected negatively.

Source: sciencedirect.com

It can be seen that in order to control weight and maintain a good mood, it is extremely important to live and work according to a normal rhythm. Many people who are under high pressure for a long time have sleep disorders, which are caused by the continuous excitement of the sympathetic nerves. Insufficient sleep will affect normal metabolism, aggravate the imbalance between energy supply and consumption, bring fatigue, and make it impossible to participate in sports and burn fat.

How to avoid obesity caused by stress and rhythm disorders

In the face of obesity caused by stress and circadian rhythm disorders, "stress management" is naturally the first priority. Under the concept of "pressure is motivation", we should face pressure correctly, learn to adjust our emotions , and try to avoid falling into the quagmire of emotions. At the same time, never "turn stress into appetite" and consume high carbohydrates regardless of the consequences. Try to consume more protein, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables, and non-gluten grains.

Of course, effective exercise is also necessary. Low- to medium-intensity aerobic exercise (running, swimming, etc.) is very suitable, which can balance hormones, promote metabolism, enhance immune system function, slow down aging, and help you sleep better.

Finally, get a good night's sleep . Adequate sleep can not only reduce the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction and cerebral hemorrhage, but also help you maintain your figure.

Source | pixabay

When "stress-induced obesity" becomes a common problem among modern people, when rhythm disorder becomes the condition of many people, and when obesity becomes a problem of great concern to the public, it is worth pondering how to return to a healthy life and maintain a good mentality.