High cortisol levels are linked to increased appetite and higher fat deposits

Did you know that the problem of being stressed could cause you to become overweight and makes it harder for you to lose weight? The reason for this is a complicated metabolic process that can occur in the human body when it is under extreme mental worry and pressure. When under stress the brain sends a hormone to the adrenal cortex in which in turn releases both the adrenaline and cortisol. This enables you to think more clearly and puts your body into overdrive as your heart beat rate increases. Not only this but the amount of insulin that you produce also increases and sends a signal to your body to store more fat rather than burning it immediately.

The problem occurs when you are repeatedly under a lot of stress as it means that you are producing too much cortisol on a daily basis and this can cause a metabolic upset which makes your body retain too much fat especially around your stomach. High cortisol levels have been shown in clinical research to be the linked to increased appetite and higher fat deposits around the body and some scientists believe that the extra fat is stored around the stomach because it is very close to the liver where it can be easily metabolised into energy.

The main point is that being stressed is not good for your health in general and especially your weight, and there are a number of things which you can do which will not only calm you down and relieve the stress but also help you to burn off more calories. Research done at Yale University shows that by doing weight training on a regular basis you can counteract the negative aspects of producing too much cortisol and insulin. The researchers claim that after as little as ten minutes of vigorous exercise the brain produces beta-endorphins which work by calming you down and also lowering the amount of stress hormones.

Another way of making sure that you reduce your stress is getting good sleep.  Good sleep produces energy which means that the body is less reliant on food fuel throughout the day and therefore you are less likely to feel hungry. Obviously getting to the root cause of why you are stressed is important it could be for example that you are worried about money or relationships and these need to be dealt with too, however getting regular strenuous exercise can clear up your mind and allow you to deal with the problems that you have more effectively.