A study was conducted to determine the effects of stress on eating habits. This study revealed that people who had experienced stress were more likely to eat fatty food. In addition, the stress would slow down their metabolism. This leads to significant weight gain. The efficient working of the metabolism is important to ensure the food you eat gets digested properly and passes through your system. If it doesn’t, fat builds up in the body, leading to you putting on weight.
Stress and High-Fat Meal
The research, which has been published in Biological Psychiatry, reveals that experiencing stressful events in life is likely to make women more vulnerable to weight gain. Not only do high-fat meals induce weight gain but they also reduce your metabolism. Stressed-out individuals were also found to have higher levels of insulin in the body. This is another factor that hampers the fat-burning process. When the metabolism is slow, it leads to fat storage in the body.
The research explained that stress itself is likely to lead to a person making unhealthy food choices. Depression alone does not play a significant role in weight gain. However, stress resulting from depression results in a rise in triglycerides. This happens after you eat. Triglycerides are fats that are found in blood. If these fats develop within the body in excess quantity, they lead to heart diseases.
The Role of the Adrenal Gland
Adrenal glands play an important role in regulating stress. The adrenaline glands secrete hormones. These hormones are relative to the body’s stress level. The gland’s responsibility is to release adrenaline and cortisol into the body. This provides your body extra energy to counter stress.
But if the cortisol level in the body has increased, the body won’t respond to leptin, which is a hormone that makes you feel full so you do not overeat. If the cortisol levels increase, you will experience the need to consume more food. If you eat more, you are bound to gain weight. Belly fat is another sign of the elevated cortisol levels in the body. This is because elevated cortisol levels in the body reduce your metabolism.
Always keep in mind the adverse effects of stress on your health. Combined with excessive stress, meals that are high in fat can induce serious weight gain. This is because stress can reduce your metabolism and therefore must be relieved somehow.