Research suggests elevated stress changes eating patterns, increasing our cravings for hyper-palatable foods foods high in salt, sugar, and fat. Not only are these foods calorie-dense, but they can also be highly addictive. Consuming high volumes of high-calorie foods can lead to weight gain, slow your metabolism, and lead to unhealthy behaviors.

As you can see, this can easily become a vicious and dangerous cycle in regards to both weight loss and health. Now that you understand how stress affects metabolism, here are some tips on how to reduce stress to support your weight loss efforts!

Plus, it can often lead to unhealthy eating habits like binging. When stress cravings occur, instead of restricting, swap unhealthy options for healthier choices. Opt for healthy comfort foods like roasted chickpeas in place of chips, or reach for healthier sugar swaps like a handful of almonds with a piece of unsweetened dark chocolate.

Support stress reduction and metabolism by prioritizing your weekly workout! Exercise can help reduce stress while accelerating weight loss goals. Join our FitOn community by signing up for free and get access to unlimited free workouts you can do anywhere, anytime. Find your inner Zen.

Research suggests meditation can lower cortisol, helping to reduce stress and aid your weight loss efforts. New to meditation? Staying hydrated can benefit mood, fight cravings, and even boost your metabolism. Unfortunately, sugar is actually a very effective stress reliever in the short term.

It also controls hormonal and metabolic processes that can cause weight gain. One group of researchers has come up with a way to inflict chronic bullying on mice, which understandably makes them very stressed.

It makes them fat and very, very sick. It gives them hormonal disorders including dysregulated cortisol rhythms, depression-like symptoms, social withdrawal, and changes to their immune and endocrine systems, as well as spontaneously inducing symptoms that look a lot like binge-eating disorder.

The mice subjected to chronic stress gain weight and develop symptoms very similar to Type 2 Diabetes and metabolic syndrome. When the bullied mice in this group are allowed to eat as much as they want, they overeat and often binge eat and gain a lot of weight.

Research has repeatedly found that social support can help decrease stress levels and thus lower the likelihood of weight gain. In one study , researchers found that while most first-year college students gained weight, students with lower levels of social support at the beginning of college had greater increases in body mass index BMI.

BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight and can be an indicator of disease risk associated with a higher amount of body fat, per the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Stressful eating encompasses consuming extra calories to compensate for increased appetite during stressful experiences, as well as the likelihood to eat more high-calorie foods during high-stress times.

More research is needed to see if this same connection is observed in women as well, although this study did not identify one. RELATED: 5 Fall and Winter Foods With Mood-Boosting Benefits. In several experimental studies, short-term sleep deprivation led to increased calorie intake and weight gain.

This may be because of changes in the appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin, and a greater intake of high-calorie foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. Most adults should aim to get seven hours or more of sleep each night, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC.

Exercise helps lower stress levels and may help decrease symptoms of anxiety , according to a systematic review. Exercise can lead to beneficial adaptations in the stress response system that improve how your body reacts to future physiological stressors, which may result in the body being more efficient at coping with psychological stressors.

Exercising regularly can also help you more rapidly recover from stressors and decrease negative feelings following a stressor. Plus, regular physical activity can stimulate the production of endorphins.

These are brain chemicals that can elevate mood and produce feelings of relaxation, explains Chao. As for how hormones, sleep deprivation, stress, and eating habits are linked, the connections are many.

Sleep deprivation is often thought of as a chronic stressor that can contribute to stress dysregulation and hyperactivation of the stress systems, including higher levels of cortisol. Stress hormones can also impact your metabolism and promote fat storage, particularly around the abdomen.

RELATED: A Science-Backed Plan to Fix Your Sleep Schedule. Set priorities. Become efficient. Chop vegetables for the week to eat as snacks or to throw into stir-fries or salads, and prepack several days of lunch over the weekend.

Keep a set of exercise clothes and shoes at the office so working out after you wrap up at your desk becomes a no-brainer. RELATED: 10 Tricks for Getting Enough Fruit and Veggies.

Love your body. Improve your body image by focusing on being healthy. When eating, for example, fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables, take walks several times a week, and begin other healthful habits, rather than putting all your mental energy into the number on the scale.

Mindfulness meditation is the act of being fully aware and present in the current moment, with a sense of nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance, explains Conason. Recognize what you can appreciate in your life.

At the same time that you acknowledge whatever is stressing you out, recognize what you can appreciate in life. RELATED: How Stress Affects Your Body, From Your Brain to Your Digestive System. Think before you snack.

These hormones may over the long term reduce insulin sensitivity. Cortisol may also favour the development of central obesity. In healthy individuals, mental stress increases heart rate, but simultaneously decreases vascular resistance in skeletal muscle.

This results in a moderate increase in blood pressure, and an acute increase in insulin-mediated glucose disposal. In obese patients, mental stress elicits responses which differ widely from those of healthy individuals.

While mental stress enhances catecholamine-mediated energy expenditure in obese patients to the same extent as in lean subjects, it fails to decrease systemic vascular resistance due to endothelial dysfunction. This leads to enhanced blood pressure responses and the absence of stimulation of glucose disposal in obese subjects during mental stress.

This increases enjoyment of the meal and improves digestion. Mindful eating can also help us realize when we are eating not because of physiological hunger but because of psychological turbulence, which may lead us to eat more as a coping mechanism.

Regular exercise. Physical activity will help to lower blood pressure and stress hormone levels. Aerobic exercise like walking and dancing increases breathing and heart rate so that more oxygen reaches cells throughout the body.

This reduces tension in muscles, including the heart. Meditation or deep breathing techniques. Fast, shallow breathing and erratic thoughts occur in response to stress. Therefore, take slow deep breaths to reduce muscular tension, lower the heart rate, and calm the mind. Whenever you feel stressed, breathe slowly, focusing on each in- and out-breath.

Through this simple act, your parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and can help you calm down. Additionally, certain exercises like yoga and tai chi emphasize deep breathing and a focused mind.

Research has also found that meditation training may lengthen or prevent the shortening of protein structures called telomeres. Meditation practice has been associated in some studies with greater telomere activity and length in response to a reduction in anxiety, chronic stress, and cortisol levels.

Mental health counseling or other social support. Feeling alone can add to stress. It can help to talk through feelings and concerns with a trusted individual. Often, just realizing that you are not alone and that your feelings are not unusual can help lower stress.

Practicing work-life balance. Use vacation and personal time, or just set aside an hour a day. A periodic escape from the pressures of work can do wonders to reduce stress, increase productivity, and decrease the risk of physical and mental illnesses that are associated with workplace burnout.

Schedule fun activities or hobbies at least once a week. Gardening, reading, enjoying music, getting a massage, hiking in nature, and cooking a favorite recipe are examples of welcome stress relievers. Good sleep hygiene. Stress can cause a heightened sense of alertness, which delays the onset of sleep as well as cause interrupted sleep throughout the night.

This can prevent one from entering the deeper sleep stages in which the body repairs and grows tissue and supports a healthy immune system. The REM rapid eye movement sleep stage in particular helps with mood regulation and memory.

Aim for hours of sleep a night by slowing down about 30 minutes before bedtime. Controlling stress through the other tips listed above can also improve sleep quality. References Waxenbaum JA, Reddy V, Varacallo M. Anatomy, Autonomic Nervous System.

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Clin Epigenet. Download references. Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Yang Xiao, Mark A. Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.

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Gilbert ORCID: orcid. Abstract In obesity, endocrine and metabolic perturbations, including those induced by chronic activation of the hypothalamus—pituitary—adrenal axis, are associated with the accumulation of adipose tissue and inflammation.

Introduction Adipose tissue, in addition to providing a reservoir of energy, serves as an endocrine organ, as it synthesizes and secretes a diverse array of hormones and cytokines that regulate metabolic homeostasis and control various physiological functions such as energy metabolism, thermoregulation, food intake, and glucose homeostasis [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].

Table 1 Fat mass and adipose tissue distribution Full size table. Full size image. Availability of data and materials Not applicable. References Galic S, Oakhill JS, Steinberg GR.

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Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Zhang CY, Baffy G, Perret P, Krauss S, Peroni O, Grujic D, et al. Stress somehow impairs the ability of the stressed mice to make metabolic adaptations to a higher-calorie intake. Stress makes the difference between getting fat and not getting fat, on the same obesity-inducing diet!

Stress, in other words, is a metabolism-destroying machine. People who get fat and sick working stressful jobs are evolutionary successes: their survival programming is working exactly as planned.

Must preserve energy! Stress is notorious for causing comfort-food cravings and depleting the willpower you need to make healthy choices, but it can do a whole lot of metabolic damage even if you never cave to the sugar demons. Stress wreaks metabolic havoc by reducing the total number of calories that you burn in a day, impairing blood sugar control, and affecting insulin, testosterone, and thyroid hormones.

Instead, go for the less-sexy option that actually works: regular sleep, moderate exercise that you enjoy! Your email address will not be published. menu icon.