When the body signals that it is hungry, the hormone ghrelin is usually behind it. It is produced in the gastrointestinal tract and triggers a feeling of hunger in the brain. But ghrelin has other properties as well, it fights anxiety and depression.
An unwanted side effect!
Chronic stress elevates humans' ghrelin levels, anxiety, and depression decrease, but hunger increases and weight gains. Constant stress makes you fat in several ways, because the hunger for something sweet increases, chocolate and other sweets are eaten more often because they release endorphins, i.e. create feelings of happiness. This reduces stress. It's constant stress and it makes you fat. The stress hormone cortisol also has a fattening effect on the human body. Cortisol causes the blood level to be permanently too high, causing an increase in the abdominal area.
Stress has many names!
Whether it's trouble with your partner or time pressure in the office, everyday life promotes stress. Some stressful situations are "positive" and others are "negative". Some people even lose so much weight under constant stress that it is harmful to their health. It's the negative stress that causes the pounds on your body, for example when you're exposed to mental stress. This increases the risk of becoming overweight. Mental stress increases the feeling of hunger , which is usually compensated for in a high-calorie diet.
Why can't people control themselves?
If the researchers are to be believed, humans have an incorrectly programmed brain that is to blame. Stress causes the brain to first supply itself with energy and then give it to the muscles, organs and fat tissue. As a result, the brain is unable to draw sufficient energy from the body, and this undersupply then signals a feeling of hunger. This means that more is eaten than is good, and above all more than is needed. Stress leaves you no time for the daily regular meals. People like to go to the bakery around the corner or to the snack bar for a currywurst. Although these are a lot of calories, they are not really filling . So that's how the stress makes you eat more, and that's how you gain weight. If the pounds have already taken hold, the focus should not be on diets, but rather doctors recommend anti-stress therapy. This works particularly well with yoga, but also with autogenic training. The body learns to deal with stress differently and also that it cannot be compensated for with hunger .
