Running from Tigers and Bears

At least 75% of our patients identify stress as a major factor in causing weight gain for them. Dealing with stress effectively can make a huge difference in your ability to manage your eating behaviors and your weight. A lot of the solution boils down to being able to self-soothe without food.

Why does stress lead to weight gain? The basic explanation is that we are hard-wired to respond to stressful situations in a way that makes us ready to defend our lives. Back in the day, our stressors were things like tigers and bears. Nowadays, our stressors are unreasonable bosses and crazy family members. While we don’t have to outrun them or get into physical fights (or least we try not to), our bodies still respond in a way that makes us feel like we need to be prepared for that possibility. To be prepared, our bodies get signals from hormones and chemicals that we synthesize to fuel up for the impending danger. However, we our access to food is ever-present and much more calorically dense than when we were running from tigers and bears. So instead of foraging for nuts and berries, we forage at the vending machine, choosing the 650 calorie honey bun and the 200 calorie soda to get through the afternoon.

Another part of the explanation of how stress leads to weight gain is the behavioral reinforcement to which we unknowingly fall a victim.  Remember when you had a bad day at school and your mother offered you a piece of cake to “make it all better”? That type of experience conditioned you to associate feelings of comfort and solace with cake. The cake didn’t necessarily have anything in it that was a mood altering substance—I don’t think she would have slipped you some Prozac; however, your mother’s comfort and concern for you were linked to the cake. We have the ability to associate memories and emotions with inanimate objects like food. This is especially true for food because the sight, smell, and taste can be an incredibly powerful stimulus.  So now as an adult 40 years later, you’re still looking for a piece of cake when you get home from a tough day at work or after arguing with your significant other.

So if we know all of this, why can’t we simply change how we respond to stress and stop eating? This is a central question to why obesity is so challenging to treat effectively. Food is powerfully consistent in its effects on your brain. Part of this is due to the fact that a lot of our manufactured food is designed to be exactly the same bite after bite. So you know that the last bag of candy you ate is going to taste just like the next one. Even though you intellectually understand that you shouldn’t go for the chocolate just because you are upset, you still do it because you can count on it making you feel a certain way, even if only temporarily. Until you can identify something that helps you soothe yourself and relieve stress as reliably and immediately as food, it’s hard to beat the feeling you get from that food.

All hope is not forsaken though…