How do you get fat and why? Yes, no doubt if we eat too much we tend to get fat, but why do many of us tend to overeat? Why do we prefer some foods over others? Why do we fail and gain weight if we go on a diet? These last three questions can only be answered in one way: due to stress.

HOW IT GETS FATTY DUE TO STRESS: Glucocorticoids
According to a brand new study , the action of glucocorticoids , hormones produced by a specific area of ​​the adrenal glands (among them we remember cortisol) if nocturnalit interferes with our tendency to convert energy into body fat: the more these hormones remain high even at night, the more we risk putting on fat, while the body manages them better during the day. During the day, in fact, the cortisol peak for example is high in the early hours of the morning, but then, in a normal person, it should drop during the day until it drops at night, when we should sleep. If this does not happen and we are stressed even at night, we will have disturbed sleep, early or frequent awakening, difficulty falling asleep, feeling hungry with each awakening. Clearly, getting up and eating is the worst thing to do in these cases.
Even those who make a drug treatment based on synthetic glucorticoidshe should take them during the day and never in the late afternoon or worse in the evening. If you are someone who has high cortisol, you can try to eat carbohydrates in the evening, at dinner, and eat mostly proteins and fats during the day: this prevents high cortisol from raising blood sugar during the day, and in the evening. , reduces the action of the adrenal glands, favoring the lowering of glucocorticoids. Coffee should be drunk in the morning and at least after lunch: many people stressed to “go on” during the day are often “slaves” to nerve or exciting substances , such as smoke, coffee, tea, energizing drinks. But that worsen the situation, leaving us loaded in the evening.

HOW TO GET FAT FROM STRESS: crash diets
Often people who say they can’t lose weight have actually lost weight, but haven’t been able to maintain it . Even a pound less on the scale should be an achievement and confirm that if we want the weight we can lose it. But, both for the desire to lose weight as quickly as possible and for the desire to lose weight at all costs, we often run into drastic diets that only worsen the situation: every time we regain weight, we gain weight, or change the our body composition for the worse. Word of Dr. Miriam Stoppard, which explains: The more drastic the diet, the more the body will try to keep body fat. The solution is to try to take small steps to make your diet healthier, while at the same time moving more.

HOW YOU GET FAT DUE TO STRESS: watch out for smoking
Smoking in itself does not make you fat. Almost. Yes, because two studies have taken stock of the physical fitness and diet of smokers: discovering that smokers accumulate more fat around the waist (do you remember point one?), And that smokers make a worse diet both from the point of view. qualitatively (many industrial foods, rich in sugars and poor in nutrients), and quantitative (an increase of 200 calories per day). If you are afraid that quitting smoking will make you fat , working on stress and managing it can allow you to eliminate this risk and gain health.