Fat from stress

Via Yahoo Health I found this very interesting article at Men’s Health talking about that stress could actually makes us fat. I have hard about the theory before, but not as good explained as here.

Under stress, your body produces two hormones: adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline is like lighter fluid, and cortisol is like charcoal. The former quickly burns off the immediately available sugar in your blood, so you can fight or flee whatever is stressing you. Cortisol continues to fuel the fire, pumping more sugar into your blood so you have energy to burn. The problem is that excess sugar coursing through your blood is meant to help you flee the saber-toothed tiger or battle the charging wild boar. It's made to be burned off quickly as you either escape or attack. When the stress comes in a more modern form — like a pressing deadline or a stack of unpaid bills — you can't literally fight back or flee. And without that burst of physical activity, you don't have the chance to burn off that extra blood sugar. Instead, it gets stored in your belly as fat.

Every time you feel anxious over those bills or deadlines, there's more mush added around your middle. In a recent study at Yale, women who were most susceptible to stress had both higher levels of cortisol and greater abdominal fat than nonstressed women. And the ladies under stress stored fat primarily in one place: their bellies.

OK, I know gaining weight cannot all be blamed on being under all lot of stress. The decision to eat that particular food is ultimately yours. But thinking back on how my life was back then when I lost all that weight and how my life is now. Back then I worried mostly about having money all month until the next paycheck. Working out was something I did during lunch and when the clock struck five I left work with no worries in the world. So then it’s me striving for a better job, career and life that are to blame? Not really. I believe it’s a combination of everything. Even though life seemed sort of carefree back then, I’m in a better place both mentally and physical now. What I need to learn now is how to handle stress and find the ultimate balance between work, food and exercise. Very hard work indeed but I can only try over and over again until it clicks for me.