EMELINA
How Stress Makes You Fat
How Stress Makes You Fat
Stress can make you fat.
And keep you fat. According to Dr. Pamela Peeke, stress phisiologist,
and author of Fight Fat After Forty, how you respond and cope
with stress determines your appetite, body composition and over
all fitness level.
When the body’s under chronic,
unrelenting stress, what she calls Toxic Stress, sustained, high
levels of cortisol are released. Under ideal circumstances, when
a stressful (frightening, frustrating, depressing) situation
occurs, adrenaline and cortisol rush through the body but then
leave the bloodstream when the body returns to its normal state.
However, when the stress is repeated
over and over and it’s never resolved, sustained high levels
of stress hormones continue to flood the body in high levels
never leaving the blood and the tissues. When the stress response
(rapid heart and pulse, shallow breathing, sweaty palms, depressed
immunity) is on constantly, cortisol can have a dangerous, even
life-threatening effect on the body and---give you a raging appetite!
One of cortisol’s major roles is to help refuel the body
after each stress episode. Toxic stress then, keeps the refueling
appetite on, inducing stress eating and weight gain.
This excess Toxic Weight settles
primarily inside the abdomen and differs from fat anywhere else
in the body. As opposed to fat on your thigh, which is not associated
with deadly diseases, Toxic Weight is highly associated with
heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Dr. Peeke believes that after age
40, accumulated stresses of a lifetime, declining metabolism
and the onset of perimenopause begin to take a physical toll
on women.
After age 40, many women live their
lives on fast-forward (dealing with aging parents, career, spouse,
children), and hormones including stress hormones begin to flood
the body, causing mood swings, muscle fatigue, loss of memory
and intense food cravings.
Even though we all respond to stress
differently, most women trying to balance career and family are
stress eaters. After treating hundreds of women from Hollywood
actresses to corporate CEOs to athletes and political figures,
Dr. Peeke found that these women used food to numb the pain of
their chronic stress, some of which they had been dragging around
since childhood.
Once the source of their stress
was identified, the emotional hunger lessened allowing for healthy
eating habits to develop. Dr. Peeke believes the key to weight
management for life is learning to manage the stress in our lives,
to ACKNOWLEDGE and HONOR the needs of our bodies and to balance
mind and body. We must learn to curb our guilt and anxiety about
caring for ourselves. Her mantra is: A BEAUTIFUL HEALTHY BODY
EMANATES FROM A HEALTHY MIND.
Dr. Peeke three-pronged approach
to a balanced life consists of: STRESS-RESILIENT REGROUPING,
STRESS-RESILIENT NUTRITION AND STRESS-RESILIENT PHYSICAL ACTIVITY.
The backbone of Dr. Peeke’s
activity recommendations is weight training. TO LOSE WEIGHT,
YOU MUST LIFT WEIGHT! She says. One of the primary factors in
boosting mid-life metabolism, developed muscles are the furnace
that help to burn calories even at rest. Without regular strength
training to build and maintain muscle mass, the body’s metabolism
cools over time and burns fewer and fewer calories.
Dr. Peeke emphasizes that after
40, exercise must become "a nonnegotiable part of every
woman’s daily life."
Based on the best of science, Dr.
Peeke’s accessible program will help you to identify your
stress profile---are you a Stress Overeater or Stress Undereater---and
you’ll learn how to break the stress-fat cycle that has
thickened your waistline once and for all!
Emelina, July 2000
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