With the science increasingly showing that weight gain is much more complex than we thought, the “calories in vs calories out” rule just doesn’t hold true anymore.
It’s time to look at the whole picture. In this edited extract from Why Diets Make Us Fat, neuroscientist and reformed yo-yo dieter Sandra Aamodt explains how physical – and sociological – stressors can make us gain weight.
Stress makes us sick.
Persistent overproduction of cortisol [stress hormone] leads people to gain visceral fat, the type located inside the abdomen that is strongly linked to inflammation and health problems. Such fat is prominent in so-called apple-shaped people […]. This type of fat isn’t always obvious though, as some thin people also have a lot of it.
Persistent overproduction of cortisol leads people to gain visceral fat.
[…] Visceral fat cells have more receptors for cortisol than fat cells beneath the skin, which may explain why stress has a specific effect on visceral fat. […] Many people with abdominal obesity show biological signs of long-term stress, including increased responsiveness to stressors, which can be a lasting consequence of stressful life experiences.
The stress of social stigma.
Widespread weight discrimination, along with everyday expression of negative stereotypes and hostility, add up to a strong experience of social stigma for many obese people. Shame, a common reaction to social stigma, reliably causes the release of stress hormones. Obese adults have almost four times the cortisol in their hair, where it accumulates due to long-term stress exposure, as overweight or normal-weight people.
Obese adults have almost four times the cortisol in their hair.
[…] Persistent stress is one reason obesity is more common among poor people. As early as age 10, children from families with the least money and social status have cortisol levels that are twice as high as those of children from the most prestigious families. Discrimination also reduces willpower, because it takes a lot of mental effort to suppress the urge to react negatively to poor treatment.
Stress and overeating.
Stress makes food more rewarding. Activation of the stress-hormone system leads to the sustained release of endogenous opioids, neurotransmitters of the brain’s pain-relief system, which act on the same receptors as opiate drugs like heroin.
The release of endogenous opioids amplifies the rewarding power of tasty food, so that the sequence ‘stress leads to food, which leads to feeling better’ is likely to be remembered and repeated. […] That’s the stress trap: dieting makes people stressed, which makes it easier to gain weight, especially after the diet ends.
Dieting makes people stressed, which makes it easier to gain weight.
How to manage stress.
Whether it is possible to reduce exposure to stress or not, lifestyle changes can help break the inflammatory cycle that leads to disease. A few studies support the idea that eating omega-3 fatty acids, anti-inflammatory components of foods like salmon or walnuts, can help to prevent inflammation from leading to metabolic syndrome.
For stressed bodies, exercise really is the best medicine.
Exercise also reduces inflammation. […] In addition to decreasing visceral fat, exercise triggers muscles to produce anti-inflammatory compounds. For stressed bodies, exercise really is the best medicine.
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