3 Ways Stress Impacts Your Weight (And How to Manage It Better)

When I am stressed I go into full couch potato mode.

I crave comfort foods like burritos the size of my head or bowls of ramen so salty I have to chug water to wash them down. I stare at my phone until my eyes cross and I should have been in bed hours ago. I skip the gym and pour myself a glass of wine instead.

The problem with stress is that it causes you to do all of the things that will compound the problem and make it worse, like some kind of antagonistic demon on your shoulder, hell bent on sabotage.

The other problem with stress is that it can have a big impact on your health, and especially your weight.

While weight loss begins with diet and exercise, that’s far from the whole story. In fact, weight loss is just as much about your mental and emotional health as it is physical.

Being able to manage and respond to life’s stressors in positive and constructive ways will help you to not fall victim to stress, but to overcome it and thrive.

Read on to learn 3 ways stress impacts your weight and some methods to effectively manage stress in your own life.

How Stress is Connected to Weight Gain

Although stress feels like it exists only in your mind, it actually causes a very physical response starting with your hormones. Through hormone dysregulation, stress can impact your weight, disrupting your eating patterns as well as your digestion.

There are three main ways that chronic stress can impact your health and your weight, including your body, mind, and sleep.

1. how Stress impacts your body

Stress is not only external, whether it’s a big deadline, a strained relationship, or a big life change. These external factors cause a reaction in your body, causing it to produce an excess of the hormone cortisol.

Cortisol is responsible for that panicked, fight or flight feeling. Our ancient ancestors needed cortisol to help us respond to danger in the environment, and cortisol can still be a necessary response to external stress.

However, chronically high cortisol in the body can have negative impacts on your health and especially your weight.

Remember when I told you about my stress cravings— burritos and ramen which are full of salt and fat? Well there is actually a biological reason for this stress response.

High cortisol causes increased appetite, cravings for sugary, fatty foods, and increased storage of fat, especially around the belly which is particularly harmful to your health.

2. how Stress impacts your mind

A stressed mind has lower inhibitions, and it seeks out easy ways to find comfort or positive feelings. Stress overrides the decision making part of your brain, causing you to make worse decisions.

This can lead to emotional eating, or eating for comfort rather than for hunger.

Consuming food triggers the reward center of our brains, stimulating a release of dopamine which can counteract cortisol. This is especially true for high fat, sugary, and salty foods which give us a bigger dopamine release.

Over time, emotional eating can become a habit, and the more you repeat a habit, the more ingrained it becomes.

Eventually, it feels hard or scary to break the cycle, especially when you don’t have healthier, more positive coping mechanisms to fall back on and replace those harmful habits.

3. how Stress impacts your sleep

Cortisol is released in response to a percieved threat, causing you to become more alert. Stress also affects your nervous system, increasing your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.

The physical effects of stress can make it difficult for your body to relax and fall asleep.

Stress also causes you to worry and ruminate. The mental impacts of stress like a racing, overactive mind can also prevent you falling asleep.

Additionally, the effects of stress can make it more difficult to stay asleep, affecting both the quality of your sleep and even causing you to wake often throughout the night.

Poor sleep, in turn, effects your appetite. It makes you more susceptible to cravings, more likely to store fat, and lowers your energy and motivation for exercise.

Why Stress Management Is Essential for Weight Loss

While you might not think it, stress management is a key aspect of weight loss. We’ve told you about why stress makes it easier to gain weight, but how about the reasons it makes it harder to lose it?

Chronic stress makes it more difficult to build consistent habits, because you are too tired or too overwhelmed to take care of yourself through diet and exercise.

However, building routines that support your mental wellbeing can solve both problems at once, making it easier to be consistent, and reducing your overall stress.

Stress reduction will improve your hormonal balance and help you sleep better, make better decisions, and stay motivated and energized to work toward your goals.

Having positive coping skills to fall back on also builds emotional resilience, which comes in handy when you encounter setbacks or even weight loss plateaus.

The key to managing your stress is to put together a toolbox of effective methods and positive habits that reduce your cortisol and make you feel good. The goal is to replace the unhealthy coping mechanisms with those that serve your greater good.

Easy & Effective Stress Management Strategies

Managing stress takes intention. It can be easy to fall back on unhealthy coping skills because they feel so good in the moment. In the long run, though, you end up in a worse place than where you started.

Doing what’s good for you can sometimes feel like the harder decision, but like any habit, the more you choose to practice it, the easier it becomes.

It can be helpful to actually write down a list of positive coping skills to refer back to when you need a gentle reminder, or just refer back to this post!

Move Your Body

Exercise is a powerful stress reliever. It lowers cortisol and creates endorphins, a hormone that is both a pain reliever and mood booster.

You don’t have to do a full workout every time you get stressed, though. Even gentle movement can give you relief.

When I get stressed or upset, one of the first things I do is go for a walk outside, letting the fresh air and gentle movement elevate my mood.

Other options are yoga, dancing, and even stretching. Just 10 minutes per day is enough!

Practice Mindful Eating

We talked about how stress can cause you to overeat, and mindfulness can help you correct this bad habit.

Mindful eating is the practice of slowing down, removing distractions, and really focusing on the taste, smell, and texture of the food as you are eating. Pause to really enjoy and appreciate each bite.

Mindful eating lowers the chances of an emotional binge, slowing down enough to be aware of your body’s fullness cues and when to stop.

It’s also a good idea to practice gratitude, saying a quiet thanks for all that it took to get your food to your plate from the farmers to the grocery store employees.

Breathe It Out

Breath work is a research-backed method to countering stress, particularly in a moment of intense feeling or panic, when you need to bring yourself back to the present moment.

Deep breathing exercises include box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, or alternate nostril breathing.

Breathing combats stress because it counters all of those physical symptoms, slowing down your heart rate, lowering your blood pressure, and allowing you to focus on something besides what is stressing you out.

The best part is that you can practice these techniques anywhere, whether you are at work, out and about, or at home.

Create a Wind-Down Routine

Stress and sleep are a catch-22. You need quality sleep to reduce stress, but stress can actually be the cause of poor sleep.

It is really important to have a good wind-down routine that you are consistent with and helps your body know when it’s time to go to bed.

Avoid screens and lower the lights at least an hour before bed, take a warm shower, get cozy, and read or listen to calming music to help shut your brain off.

For more tips on creating a bedtime routine check out this post!

Write It Out

One of the most effective ways to relieve stress is to process and express yourself through writing.

Keeping a journal can help you to identify your triggers and patterns that may be contributing negatively to your mental health. It also gives you the chance to release any emotions that you are having without fear of judgement.

Your journal shouldn’t be all negative, though. You should also make sure to take time to reinforce positive emotions by practicing gratitude journaling.

Writing about what you are grateful for shifts your focus away from stressors, but it also helps to reinforce positive thought patterns over time.

Get a hobby

One of the best things you can do to improve your mental health is to find things that make you feel happy and relaxed.

These days, it’s easy to spend all your time scrolling on your phone or binge watching t.v., but these habits are not fulfilling. Instead, find things that bring you joy and make you feel creative and fulfilled.

I love coloring with alcohol markers and cute coloring books, but you could also draw, sculpt with air-dry clay, play board games, build puzzles, garden, play with your pets, or read.

Reach Out for Support

You don’t have to suffer in silence, and in fact, social connection is proven to reduce stress and produce positive emotions.

Talking it out can help to release stress as well as give you constructive ways to make changes. Having a solid support system helps you to realize that you aren’t alone, and social connection produces mood boosting hormones that make you happy.

You can reach out to friend or family member you trust, join a support group, start therapy, or even connect with your telehealth provider.

Make Stress Management Part of Your Weight Loss Plan

When you create a weight loss plan, usually you are focused on your diet plan and exercise schedule. Hopefully you now understand that it is just as important to include stress management strategies in this plan.

Sometimes this means actually scheduling stress-reducing strategies into your day, or making them a daily habit.

You could start by committing to journaling or going for a walk for 10 minutes each day. You could also schedule a weekly check in with your best friend. You could invest in a new hobby or spend some time learning a breathing technique that will come in handy when you really need it.

Try not to overwhelm yourself and start by making small changes that you can slowly build on over time. Overhauling your life all at once will probably make you more stressed in the long run.

Instead, aim for consistency over intensity, committing to one small change and making sure it sticks before adding another.

Let’s Relax

Managing stress is just as much about taking care of your long term health as it is about feeling better in the moment.

Not only does stress negatively impact your weight, but it can harm your overall health if you don’t find productive ways to cope. When you start to care for your mental health, your physical health will also benefit.

Start by trying just one of the stress management tips you learned about this week, and try your best to be consistent.

Ready to reduce stress and reach your weight loss goals?

Our expert team can help you build a plan that works for your life. Schedule a consultation today!