SARAH DI LORENZO: Am I stressing myself fat - understanding how cortisol impacts our metabolism and cravings

Think about the frustration of trying to get to or maintain healthy weight goals.

You can be eating well, doing exercise and just don’t understand why you are struggling with weight gain or not losing weight and the answer could lie with your stress levels.

Yes it is true, long term stress can lead to weight gain.

When we are stressed and under pressure, our stress hormones will trigger cravings that are usually sweet or fatty such as biscuits, chips, pizza, sweets or lollies.

But there is a method to this madness: it’s to keep us safe from danger. We have evolved to want sugar when we are under stress.

To fully understand stress and weight gain you first need to understand cortisol.

Cortisol is a hormone that wakes us up in the morning, our body also releases it when in a “fight-or-flight” mode when we encounter psychological and/or physical stress.

Cortisol slows down our metabolism and shifts our body’s focus to survival.

In this process, cortisol will elevate insulin production and raise our blood pressure while suppressing our immunity. Sounds disastrous, right? And it’s long-term.

When insulin is elevated and blood sugar drops we crave sugar.

If you think back tens of thousands of years ago when humans were living in caves and hunting this makes perfect sense, but the stress today is different — it’s not acute, rather, it’s chronic.

Cortisol stimulates ghrelin, our hunger hormone, increasing calories and body fat.

Long-term chronic stress and elevated cortisol have a negative impact on health.

When cortisol is elevated the fat deposits are visceral — also known as toxic fat, which is hidden inside your body on and around vital organs — which is why there is the term cortisol belly.

Research shows that when metabolism slows, we crave sugar and gain weight.

The extra weight, in turn, impacts our health, increasing the risk of stroke, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, pressure on joints, infertility, sleep apnoea and depression.

Chronic stress means a consistent lowering of the metabolism and constant sugary and fatty cravings.

When we are stressed it also makes sticking to our health goals and a healthy lifestyle — including regularly exercising and good quality sleep — so much harder to achieve.

Besides weight gain, elevated cortisol and stress can also contribute to gut issues, a compromised immune system, low libido, low energy, increased migraines, and poor-quality skin and hair. Many of us also grind our teeth and clench our jaw at night due to stress.

To avoid the negative impacts of stress on our health, we must get to the core of the stress first. That is where we will find a solution.

This could be anything from changing employment, leaving a toxic relationship, learning and applying time management techniques or even seeking professional help.

My other top tips include regular exercise first thing in the morning (to make sure it happens), mindfulness exercises, meditation, avoiding alcohol, staying well hydrated (with water) and adopting a healthy eating plan.

When stressed, it can be hard to apply all of this at once so I tell people to do one thing at a time and take it day by day.

Start small and do what is in your capacity.

And make sure, in all of this, you do things you love. Make a goal to schedule this once a week and see it as self-care.

Time for yourself is essential and you need to see it as investing in yourself. Even going for a short walk when stressed can be a quick, almost instant treatment.

Exercise and movement enhance our mood, reduce stress and helps us feel better about ourselves — plus, doing that little bit of exercise has been shown to minimise cravings.

Walking in nature is even better for mental health.

In all of this, it’s important to avoid negative self-talk and put your energy into what is working. Practising gratitude also supports a healthy mindset.

Make your goals relevant, specific, attainable, measurable and realistic and consider seeking professional help.

Remember fight or flight is an evolutionary adaptation that once helped our species.

Get to the core of stress, arm yourself with knowledge and understanding of what is going on with your body and start making change. But most importantly be kind to yourself.