The effects of stress on belly fat

Emily Bright
11 min readAug 17, 2020

How to combat digestive stress, increase your metabolic power and lose weight.

Who here is stressed? I am sure given the current situations going on around the world, that would be most of us. Stress is almost inevitable and we all experience it in so many different ways. I’m sure many of you have heard that being under chronic stress can cause a lot of symptoms like headaches, migraines, trouble sleeping or focusing changes in mood and mental health and so many others. I am sure you’re also aware that it can also cause weight gain, but how exactly does that work?

Stress can be caused from many different factors including environmental stress, situational stress, workplace stress, financial stress, relationship stress…the list goes on and on. A person can experience stress in their body in 4 different ways

1. Biological/chemical — in the processes of your body

2. Mental/ Emotional — in your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs

3. Spiritual — in your sense of connection

4. Structural — in your bones and muscles

Today, I mainly want to touch on the biological or chemical side as this is where we mainly experience digestive stress. Digestive stress is essentially the stress, pain or bloat you feel after eating.You may feel groggy/ tired, lethargic, upset stomach, headache and other signals sent from your body telling you it’s in digestive distress. It is important to be able to manage our stress for us to live a healthy life, but it can be hard to manage. Digestive stress is certainly one that can be controlled and managed with a bit of effort, listening to your body’s cues and a few simple tools I will be discussing throughout the episode.

Who are you being while you eat?

To start off, it is important to know that some[EB1] research has suggested that digestion is actually only about 25% what you eat and 75% of how you’re feeling and who you’re being while you eat. That may be surprising to many of you and perhaps slightly confusing. Let me break it down. If you were about to eat a beautiful and nutritious salad but were about to eat it at work surrounded by toxic coworkers or at home in a messy, cluttered room with the tv on while looking at your phone…you’re likely going to turn the stress response on. When we feel symptoms of stress we can expect a raise in heart rate, blood pressure, respiration increases and many others. Because of this, our digestive or metabolic power is much less effective and we may not be absorbing many of the nutrients found in a healthy meal and still feel hungry, tired or low energy.

Are you finding yourself plowing through your meals without much of a breather, are you eating while constantly on the go, eating while you watch TV/videos, looking at your phone, or eating in a poor mood or a negative environment surrounded? These are all different types of stressors that can lead to digestive stress and have you feeling tired, groggy, inability to concentrate or “foggy brain” So, you may be wondering what exactly happens when we experience this digestive stress and how it can cause weight gain

Essentially, when eating in a stressful and/or distracted environment we inevitably eat way faster than we should be which stresses out our metabolic power to truly break the food down and absorb all the nutrients optimally. With our metabolic power down significantly, our ability to utilize the food and metabolize it is sacrificed and we instead of breaking down our food some of it may be storing as fat instead (BOOOOO!!)

The stress response in prehistoric times

Think back to prehistoric times when cave men would have to endure fighting off tigers or other wild animals. The cave man would be experiencing the fight or flight response which is essentially an acute stress response from our central nervous system or CNS to harm whether it be an attack or threat to our survival. When this stress occurs, our body re-routes the blood from the stomach to the legs and arms so that the caveman has more energy to run away from the threat. While this is a very efficient power in this situation, not many of us are forced to run away from tigers on a daily basis. This then becomes a problem when we’re face with a stressful situation. Our body doesn’t understand how to differentiate various types of stress and responds in a very similar way to the caveman facing the tiger when our trigger or stress is not so life threatening.

When the body and nervous system issues the fight or flight response, the blood that surrounds our important digestive system is re-routed to our arms and legs for a quick get away which we don’t necessarily need in most circumstances. Our nervous system has a lot to do with our digestion and the autonomic nervous system or ANS has the greatest influence. This is a branch of the peripheral nervous system. The ANS is responsible for stimulating enzymatic secretions to get the digestive process flowing, optimum nutrient absorption and turning digestion on and off. There are two branches of the ANS which are the sympathetic nervous system which turns stress ON and our digestion OFF. The parasympathetic nervous system turns OFF the stress response and turns digestion ON. It is responsible for relaxing the body and telling the body that you’re safe from threat or harm.

So when the caveman is faced with the threat of a tiger, the sympathetic nervous system turns ON that stress response and our digestion OFF. This means that the blood that was supporting our digestive tract has now been re-routed to those extremities for survival. Do you ever notice that when you’re stressed you get a stomach ache or loss of appetite or you feel the needs to go to the bathroom? That’s because the blood that was helping your digestive system digest and absorb the nutrients it needs isn’t working as efficiently as it’s being re-routed and that digestion is off. When we’re not able to digest our food properly, our metabolic power decreases meaning we’re burning much fewer calories than normal (which is also called your basal metabolic rate or BMR).

Why you eat when you’re stressed

What’s worse is that after a stressful situation occurs, our body releases cortisol, a stress hormone that is released by our adrenal glands. Usually cortisol returns back to normal after the stressful event and our parasympathetic nervous system can turn OFF the stress on our digestion ON. However, if you experience chronic stress or stress more often than we can experience an overexposure to cortisol. Unfortunately, cortisol is also a significant appetite stimulant which is why people tend to overeat when they experience stress.

If we’re always stressed and have excess cortisol you can also experience premature aging, decreased nutrient absorption which cause nutrient deficiencies, increased sodium and fluid retention, decrease in thermic efficiency which means your ability to burn calories is limited, decrease in sex hormones, growth hormones and insulin resistance which can lead to diabetes, heart disease and of course weight gain. Feeling stressed about stress yet?

Tools for combating digestive stress and eating while stressed

You’re probably thinking what do I do about it? What can I do to help prevent stress eating? One way is to utilize emotional brain training or EBT. EBT is a way to reliably and consistently “digest” your emotions so you can get into a relaxed state before each meal. EBT is a science-based program that was developed over the last 30 years by Laurel Mellin, PhD. It integrates advances in neuroscience and stress physiology that rewires patterns of anxiety, depression,overeating, and unhealthy habits by using practical, easy-to-implement tools. The way it works is that you do a check-in once a day. Take a deep breath, check in with your feelings and ask yourself, “Right now, what is my stress level? Am I feeling great, am I feeling good, am I a little stressed, am I definitely stressed?”

You’re moving through feeling angry, feeling sad, feeling afraid, and feeling guilty. And then you’re moving into gratitude, happiness, security and pride. Use this emotional housecleaning to clear away the negative feelings and then become aware of the positive feelings that are underneath them. I would suggest that when you’re doing this that you write them down to notice patterns and acknowledge how you’re feeling and stress levels throughout the day. State the facts about why you are feeling stressed. No feelings just facts. Continue until your feelings become very strong, then continue on.

This offers a moment of opportunity to change the way you process the daily stress of life. Perhaps you write down I am angry that my house is a mess, I am sad that I have to clean it, I am afraid of others thinking I am dirty and I feel guilty that I haven’t gotten to it yet. Then write down the positive statements such as I feel proud that I have a place I can call home, I feel secure in a safe neighbourhood and that I have belongings I love and pride that I can own wonderful things that bring me joy. You’re transitioning out of negative, stressful emotions and into positive, relaxed emotions, readying the body for food. This is going to be especially powerful for those of you who have challenges with emotional eating, binge eating, overeating or compulsive eating.

Another option is to instead take a few minutes before your about to eat a meal and check in with yourself. How are you feeling in this moment? Are you in a stressed state? If so, try taking 2 minutes to do some deep breathing or a technique I use called the 5–5–7 breath. The 5–5–7 breath shifts you from a state of low digestive activity to full digestive force. At every meal or snack, any time food is about to pass across your lips ask yourself, “Am I about to eat under stress?” If the answer is yes, pause. Then take ten long slow, deep breaths using this simple method: Inhale for a count of five, hold at the top for a count of five and exhale for a count of seven. Let the exhale be a bit longer than the inhale.

As you continue this conscious breathing, scan the senses. The scent of the air in your nose, the red and oranges of your eyelids, your taste buds, the feeling of your butt on the chair and your feet spread wide on the earth. Keep breathing and scanning, tuning in with a heightened awareness. When we’re able to take these 2 minutes to focus on nothing but our breath, you will likely notice a slower heart rate, more calm mind and less tension in the body making your body ready to use its power to digest your meal.

Another easy way to avoid eating under stress is by analyzing your environment. Are you in a toxic or stressful area? Are there a lot of distractions like TV's, your phone, loud noises or toxic people nearby? If so, do your best to find a quiet and relaxing space you can enjoy your meal. When we’re distracted by our environment, we tend to focus less on the food and more on the distractions which causes us to eat quickly and minimizes our digestion and nutrient absorption. I know it can be very difficult to put the phone down or avoid watching tv while eating, but even try it for one meal a day and focus on nothing but enjoying every bite of your meal. It has been shown to increase the enjoyment of your meal and feeling satiated and less likely to overeat.

Another tool I like to use with clients is the 20 minute meal. Along with everything else, it is important to be able to set aside enough time to thoroughly enjoy a meal. It has been said that the body requires 20 minutes before it feels that it is full, so if you time yourself and finish lunch in 10 minutes, give yourself another 10 extra minutes before trying to eat something else. Ideally, it would take you 20 minutes to complete your meal which would allow your body to digest properly. Next time you go to eat, time yourself and see how long it takes you. The average person finishes their meal in under 7 minutes!

Aside from actually eating or prior to eating, what else can you do to help with stress? Well movement plays a big role in our mental health and digestion. Try aiming to get in at least 30 minutes of movement per day whether that be walking, running, hiking, biking, dancing, gardening, yoga, stretching…whatever feels good for you and makes you happy. It is also important to practice self care. As we all know, in tough and stressful times such as these, self care can be neglected, especially for parents. However, setting aside a little bit of time each day to do something that you enjoy, that relaxes and rejuvenates you is so important. Maybe that is reading a book, taking a bath, going for a walk, trying a new recipe, talking to a loved one, having a glass of wine. Whatever it is, make sure it nourishes you from the inside out.

Journaling is another great resource to help combat stress. By journaling even for five minutes a day and jotting down what emotions are coming up for you that day and why. Being able to log these feelings and emotions and know and roughly what caused them can help you begin to take more action and control over them. A few other techniques I would suggest would be to seek support from friends, family and loved ones, perhaps a registered dietitian or a health coach who can help you to uncover your barriers, beliefs and habits that are holding you back or keeping you stuck from the results you want and provide the tools for you to be able to transition into healthier habits, beliefs and experiences that nourish your mind and body

I hope that by reading this that you’ve been encouraged enough to analyze the stress that you may be experiencing in your life and start with small little changes that can help you manage it better. Not only for your physical health, but your mental health as well. If you need someone to talk to, vent to or help come up with an action plan for some holistic tools for managing your stress, I would be happy to chat with you.

References

Talbott, S. M. (2007). The cortisol connection: Why stress makes you fat and ruins your health. Almeda, CA: Hunter House.

Mujica-Parodi, L., Renelique, R., & Taylor, M. (2008, November 18). Higher body fat percentage is associated with increased cortisol reactivity and impaired cognitive resilience in response to acute emotional stress. Retrieved August 17, 2020, from https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2008218/

Program, F. (n.d.). Stress and Body Shape: Stress-Induced Cortisol Secretion Is … : Psychosomatic Medicine. Retrieved August 17, 2020, from https://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/2000/09000/Stress_and_Body_Shape__Stress_Induced_Cortisol.5.aspx

--

--

Emily Bright

Holistic health & lifestyle coach, personal trainer and active aging specialist