Stress and weight gain

Stresses can leads to weight gain. Stress causes us to loose sleep and as a result leads to rapid aging and cell degeneration. Furthermore, stress causes our body to store fat, decrease metabolism and increases our blood sugar level.

Under stressful condition, our body releases the hormone ‘Cortisol’ which is responsible for making our body less sensitive to the hormone ‘Leptin’. Leptin is the hormone that tells our brain that we are full. Thus once our body become less sensitive to Leptin, we will feel hungry all the time and this causes us to increase food intake unnecessary.

Our body is wired to response to danger by eating as much as needed to store energy in preparation for dangerous and trying times ahead. Thus when we are stress out, the body perceives danger lurking and signals the brain and this in turn causes our brain to signal to our gut to increase food intake.

Therefore getting adequate rest and sleep is vital for our health and help to regulate and maintain our appetite. This indirectly helps us to maintain proper weight.