A Garvan Institute weight loss researcher says that stress normally adversely affects your weight. But long term stress such as negative job or relationship problems can affect your weight!
One of the things stress does is release stress hormones cortisole and neuropeptide Y. Cortisole affects your fat cells. More specifically, when we experience stress our adrenal glands trigger a fight or flight response which sends messages to the cortisol receptors in our abdominal tissue, which absorb fat. Cortisol gives you a higher preference for high fat, high sugar foods, it also acts on the hypothalamus in your brain increasing your hunger and driving you to eat more in times of stress. The researchers also found that neuropeptide Y acts directly on fat cells, also stimulating new blood vessels to form and further help develop and grow fat cells.
Long term stress places our body in a constant state of panic, slowing our metabolism, increasing cravings and storing fat.
Some solutions such as vigorous exercise can also help by releasing endorphins, which help calm and reduce stress hormones in your body. Taking a holiday, learning time-management skills or working to resolve the underlying issues in your relationship that lead to friction.
According to a new research in mice, bacteria in the intestines play a key role in weight gain. The study found that ‘a high-fat, high-sugar diet alters the composition of bacteria in the gut, making it easier to gain weight and harder to lose it.’ According to the study featured in the new journal Science Translational Medicine, ‘the changeover can happen in as little as 24 hours.’
Human beings ‘need such bacteria to help convert otherwise indigestible foods into digestible form.’ 90 percent of such bacteria ‘fall into two major divisions, or phyla: the Firmicutes and the Bacteroidetes. Previous research had shown that obese mice had higher levels of Firmicutes, and lean ones had more Bacteroidetes.’ Firmicutes are said to be ‘more efficient at digesting food that the body can’t.’
The study states that ‘after the bacteria were transplanted from a lean human donor, the colonies in the mice had a high proportion of Bacteroidetes and a low proportion of Firmicutes. But within 24 hours after the mice were switched to a high-sugar, high-fat diet, the proportions of the two phyla were reversed.’
This means that ‘animals with a higher proportion of Firmicutes convert a higher proportion of food into calories that can be absorbed by the body, making it easier to gain weight