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How stress can make you fat

Stress can make you fat. These two factors are not only bad for your health, they also ruin any feelings of well-being. But there is something you can do. It's not something people think of when they consider weight loss, yet it's free and widely available. It's called sleep and relaxation

The following book extract is taken from Jonny Bowden's Shape Up Workbook by Jonny Bowden (published by Perseus) and reproduced with kind permission.

To understand how it works you have to understand a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is needed and used by every single cell in the body. It's made by the adrenal glands, two little nut-shaped fellows that sit on top of your kidneys. Among other things, cortisol is an anti-inflammatory (the widely prescribed 'cortisone' is a derivative). But cortisol's most famous role is that of a stress hormone.

The fight or flight hormone
When your cavemen and cavewomen ancestors saw a wild boar in the woods, their adrenals would shoot a load of cortisol into their bodies, telling them in no uncertain terms that the time had come to pick up a weapon or run like the devil. Cortisol helps the body release sugar into the bloodstream, sugar that can be used for the immediate energy needed for either of the above actions - running or fighting. In fact, during any stressful time - including exercise, by the way - the body releases more cortisol, hence its nickname as a 'fight or flight' hormone.

Why do we stress eat?
Cortisol is not a 'bad' hormone. As with most things, the problem is when it's out of balance. According to Dr. Pamela Peeke, a leading expert in the field, chronic unrelenting stress (of the kind most of us live with every day) can have a dangerous effect on the body. It makes you more vulnerable to colds, flu, fatigue, and infection, and, if that weren't enough, it gives you a raging appetite in the bargain. Why? Because one of its 'purposes' is to help your body 'refuel' for the next emergency. Hence, when your body's on constant cortisone overload, you eat. She calls this typical reaction 'stress eating', and it has a solid physiological reason: The foods you crave when stressed out (almost always carbohydrates and fat) 'replenish the calories used up during the stress response - which, in simplest terms, is one of the main ways that activating the stress response on a constant basis can make you fat.'

Now if stress is a factor in weight gain - and it almost certainly is a big one - what's the logical conclusion? Reduce it! And with it, your waistline.

Today's stress levels
Most people are living lives that put an inordinate amount of stress on their systems. We're working too hard. We're managing too many projects (including other people's lives). We're worrying too much. We're sleeping too little. We have too little time for ourselves. Our poor adrenal glands, which were meant to simply be an emergency system for occasional use, have been pressed into overdrive - their owners are running on empty and refueling with junk to keep from noticing. Is it any wonder so many of us are overtired, sleep-deprived, immune-suppressed, depressed, frequently sick, and typically overweight?

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