The Surprising Way Stress Makes Your Body Vulnerable to Weight Gain

This goes way beyond emotional eating.

May 5, 2014

You already know that stress can do a number on your weight. Feeling tense can drive you to go on a doughnut bender—or prevent you from making it to cardio class. But there's another way stress appears to increase body fat: by changing the way you metabolize fat and sugar. That's the suggestion of a new study from the University of California at San Francisco, which found that women under excess pressure who consumed a high-fat, high-sugar diet ended up with larger waistlines and more abdominal fat than women who ate a similar diet but reported low stress levels.
The study, published online in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, looked at 61 women, about half of whom were stressed-out caregivers for a partner or parent with dementia. For a year, the researchers compared the weight, waist circumference, and body-fat levels of the caregivers with the less-stressed women who weren't caretakers. They tracked both groups' metabolic health by measuring insulin resistance; levels of free radicals, which are associated with inflammation; and body chemicals linked to stress and obesity. Even though both groups ate the same not-exactly-healthy diet high in fat and sugar, the caregivers were the ones who ended up with additional abdominal fat and other negative metabolic changes. 

Why is visceral fat so important? It's linked to metabolic changes that in turn increase the odds of diabetes, cardiovascular issues, and other dangerous health conditions.  Fat on other parts of the body, such as the thighs and hips, isn't associated with the same metabolic changes. This was just a small study, but it's the first to demonstrate these results in human subjects (not animals). Need help feeling more Zen? Check out these 10 ways to relieve stress


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