Do you gain or lose weight when stressed?

While weight gain is often related to stress, it also triggers weight loss in many people. Here's how to decode which category you fall into...

For most people, stress goes beyond the usual feeling of anxiety and discomfort. While it adds to weight gain in most people, there are others who lose weight drastically when under stress. Says bariatric surgeon, Dr Apratim Goel, "The stress hormone, Cortisol, is responsible for this. Constant worrying and everyday pressures at work and home can cause mental imbalance in many people, which gives rise to various health-related problems like putting on or losing weight."

Stress = Weight gain

Too much of the stress hormone, cortisol, slows down your metabolism, which in turn leads to gaining more weight than you would normally experience.

What you need to watch out for —

- Indulging in emotional eating: Do you tend to hog on pizzas, pastas, burgers, chocolates, ice cream etc., when stressed? A recent survey has established that people who consume high-fat meals when worried tend to put on an unnatural amount of weight.

- Prolonged stress can affect blood sugar levels: Says clinical psychologist Dr Seema Hingorrany, "Too much worry can make you diabetic and susceptible to various cardiac diseases, thereby making you put on extra weight."

- Storage of abdominal fat: High level of stress is often linked to storage of abdominal fat in most people, especially those who have a tendency to put on weight.

- Lack of exercise: When under stress, one tends to stop exercising. Lack of physical activity then leads to weight gain, which becomes difficult to shed.

Stress = Weight loss

Unintentional weight loss is possibly the worst, as it affects your health in more ways than one.

What you need to watch out for —

- Loss of appetite: Many people lose interest in food under stress. You don't feel hungry, thereby eating less than usual. Starving yourself under stress is common, but not healthy.

- Rapid movements: Some people tend to move constantly when suffering from anxiety. They develop leg shakes or nervous ticks — they feel that they have to be on the go continuously. This, in turn, burns calories.

- Change in lifestyle: Many people stop eating out and socialising when under acute stress. Though such lifestyle changes are considered healthy, at times, they make you lose muscle mass, thereby leading to drastic weight-loss.

- Depression and lack of interest: There are many who, under acute depression and lack of interest for everyday things, tend to lose weight drastically.Read more here:long prom dresses uk

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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