What is a stress belly?
What exactly is a stress belly? Basically, stress belly is not a medical diagnosis, it’s a way of describing how stress and stress hormones can affect your weight, especially your belly. For instance, higher levels of cortisol – the primary stress hormone – have been associated with abdominal obesity.
What causes stress belly?
A stress belly is the extra weight that accumulates around the abdominal area due to prolonged or chronic stress. While belly fat may be caused by many things, including genetics, a stress belly is caused by the actions of a hormone called cortisol, which you will learn about below.
What does stress belly feel like?
When your stress levels are off the charts, you may start to notice physical symptoms like tension headaches, tight shoulders, or sleeping issues. And if you’re dealing with chronic stress, you may even start to notice some weight gain — especially around your midsection (a.k.a. the dreaded “stress belly”).
How do you lose stress weight?
Here are a few strategies that can help you break the cycle of stress and weight gain:
- Make exercise a priority.
- Eat healthier comfort foods.
- Practice mindful eating.
- Keep a food journal.
- Drink more water.
- Incorporate stress–relief strategies into your daily life.
Does stress make it harder to lose weight?
Stress causes the body to produce more of the hormone cortisol: cortisol is a stress hormone that promotes body fat and makes it harder to lose weight, especially around the middle.
Does stress cause belly fat?
Study: Stress may cause excess abdominal fat in otherwise slender women. Non-overweight women who are vulnerable to the effects of stress are more likely to have excess abdominal fat, and have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, a study conducted at Yale suggests.