How Extreme Stress Affects Your Weight

Stress is a bitch. Intense, chronic stress messes with your body in so many different ways that it's hard to realize quite to what extent you're being altered — your muscles, respiratory system, heart, brain, liver, hormones, bowels, and reproductive system are all affected. It's not for nothing that doctors stress the need to destress, but we all know that isn't always possible. Find yourself in a life-altering situation, whether it's a relative's terminal illness, the loss of a job you financially depended on, divorce, war, or being stalked by a psychopathic ex, and your body will suffer the consequences.

What kind of an impact is a prolonged period of stress likely to have on your weight?

Why Extreme Stress May Make You Lose Weight

Stress affects all bodily systems, and your gut is no exception. When you are acutely stressed, your gastrointestinal mobility, gastrointestinal secretion, and  intestinal permeability are all affected. In plain English, the speed at which your food moves through the digestive system and the way in which it works are altered when you experience extreme stress. 

We all, however, know that stress does cause us to alter our lifestyle. 

People facing extreme stress, anxiety, and depression are prone to losing their appetite. When you genuinely don't feel hungry or the thought of eating makes you feel nauseous, your daily calorie intake is going to decrease, clearly causing you to lose weight. If a loved one has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness, for instance, you are likely to be focused on supporting them and being at their side. You won't have much time to eat, and when you do, you may simply not feel like it. Because your body is running on adrenalin, you may not feel hungry at all.

Traumatic events also cause people to feel nervous, sometimes physically forcing them to be more physically active to release some of those worried feelings. Pacing around a room, engaging in more exercise to feel better, or simply running around town all day in order to try to solve your problems all increase the rate at which you burn calories, adding to weight loss.

When you face extreme stress, lots of people will tell you to try to remember to take care of yourself. Ironically, the self-care mechanisms you develop may be partially repsonsible for unwanted weight loss. You may sign up for the gym or an aerobics class to destress, and you may attempt to eat healthier foods, which are also incidentally less caloric. You may add therapy sessions to an already busy schedule, again giving you less time to cook and to eat.

READ Best Tips for Stress Management

While it's logical and tempting to blame your stress for your weight loss, it is also important to keep the possibility that other factors are responsible for your ever-dropping pounds in mind: those suffering from existential stress may also suffer from hyperthyroid or other genuine medical conditions that cause them to lose weight. If you are worried about your weight loss, seeing your doctor is always recommended. 

When Stress Causes You To Gain Weight

Though severe stress and anxiety can certainly be responsible for significant weight loss, people facing life-altering situations are actually more likely to gain weight than to lose it. Why is that? The stress hormone cortisol is primarily to blame. High levels of cortisol signal your body that you need to be ready for activities that require more energy than usual. Evolved to survive, your body tries to start storing fat, especially around the waist area. Unfortunately for our bodies, most modern forms of stress aren't caused by the type of physical danger that requires us to prepare for a fight, but by intellectual traumas. 

Comfort Eating

While some people react to traumatic events by losing their appetite, others will turn to food for comfort. If you are generally a comfort eater, you are also more likely to react to unusually high stress levels by binging on the foods that you associate with safety and comfort. What's more, people who are under extreme stress tend to lack time to source, prepare, and eat healthy foods. Some people react to this challenge by skipping meals, while others turn to highly processed junk foods instead. If you simply don't have time to prepare cooked meals, you may find yourself eating in fast food restaurants or ordering take-out all the time, leading you to gain weight. 

Inactivity

Just as some people who are going through stressful periods of their lives react by boosting the amount of exercise they do and generally moving around more, others react by becoming less active. If your chosen stress-relief is browsing the internet, reading books, talking to your friends, and being a couch potato, you are decreasing the amount of calories you burn. This means you may gain weight, particularly if you are also engaging in comfort eating.

READ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Alcohol

Though it isn't the best coping mechanism by any means, lots of stressed people form a habit of drinking more alcohol. You'd be surprised how many calories there are in your chosen alcoholic beverage, The term "beer belly" didn't emerge for no reason. If you are finding yourself drinking just so that you can relieve some stress and sleep at night, however, you are dealing with bigger issues that potential weight gain alone. Rather than risking turning into a full-blown alcoholic, try to find healthier ways to cope with the trauma you are going through.