Breaking the Stress Eating Cycle
The newspaper ad in my local newspaper went something like this:
“Stress and weight gain: Can stress make you fat? When you are stressed out, you may find it more difficult to maintain healthy eating habits. Some people may eat in an attempt to fulfill emotional needs during a stressful time.”
The ad was promoting registration for a lunchtime discussion at a regional hospital’s wellness center. Let’s see if we can make sense of the stress/food connection that can lead to eating, relapse, and weight regain, and identify some strategies for softening it.
How Stress Works
The stress response is embedding in our brains to promote our survival as individuals and a species. The typical response is sometimes called the “alarm” or “fight or fight” reaction. The mind and body react to a perceived threat as though our lives are in danger, and we automatically gear up to promote our survival: the heart beats faster, blood pressure rises, blood sugars increase, and muscles get tense.
There is a distinction between what triggers stress and the experience of being stressed. Stress triggers, or “stressors,” range from everyday hassles such as traffic jams and office politics, to life crises like illness and death. These events or situations can lead to stress symptoms, which generally fall into four categories:
Physical symptoms – muscle tension, upset stomach, and headaches.
Emotional symptoms – anxiety, depression, anger, and irritability.
Mental symptoms – confusion, forgetfulness, negativity, and obsessive thinking.
Behavioral symptoms – crying, insomnia, and withdrawal.
The intensity of stress symptoms depends on how we perceive and interpret situations. We talk to ourselves about events, have beliefs, and draw conclusions about them. As a result, stress is not just a product of the things that happen to us, but is a combination of what happens and our beliefs and interpretations. When Nicky gains two pounds overnight, she views it as a punishment. She tells herself she should have lost a pound, because she did well with food and she exercised that day. Frustrated and defeated, she concludes she might as well reward herself with ice cream. In contrast, Elaine reacts to a two-pound gain by reminding herself it is fluid fluctuation, that other overnight gains have been temporary, reassuring herself she will lose weight, as long as she eats well and exercises. She is calm and confident and focused o what she can control. In reaction to the same event, one person is stressed and one is not. Beliefs and self-talk made the difference.
Of the four main symptoms of stress, the most likely culprit for triggering food use is emotion. When emotions lead to eating we are doing what is called “emotion-focused coping.” This is a style of stress management that is less concerned about addressing the external problem, and more focused on removing a stress symptom (the negative emotion). In other words, we use food to try to blunt or numb the emotions of the moment, or to try to convert them into positive ones. Repeatedly responding to stress this way is “dysfunctional” – we gain weight, feel out of control, are angry, and guilt ridden. We are more stressed, rather than less. The following are some options for replacing dysfunctional eating with more functional strategies.
Take Control
When possible, look for ways to do “problem-focused coping” – reduce the load of the external situation by dealing directly with it. Fran made frequent visits to her elderly mother who was an accomplished baker. Her mother always had freshly baked cake and cookies prepared which Fran could not resist, and she worried about hurting her mother’s feelings if she declined. Fran did two things: 1. Converted some of the visits to an outing at a local park, mall, or visit to the grandkids. 2. Told her mother that she valued their time together and appreciated her wonderful baking talent, but her weight control was now a priority, and she would like to take the baked items to the local food kitchen rather than spend their time eating together. Eliminating temptation and expressing her needs alleviated the stress.
Add Meaning
A study of subjects who, despite stressors, had relatively few stress symptoms revealed that they were spending an average of four to six hours a week in meaningful activities. Mike’s food diary echoed this finding. His weight charts showed a 10-pound loss over nine weeks, and he commented that he was learning to play golf, was taking ballroom dancing classes, and was practicing meditation. These new additions to his lifestyle reduced his stress level and served as food replacements – nourishing the soul and makng it easier to let go of food.
Nurture Self
Follow-up phone sessions with Gloria revealed that her binges increased when she neglected to nurture herself. To counter this, she developed a checklist grid of self-nurturing activities, which she placed on the refrigerator as a reminder. Daily nurturing activities included inspirational reading. Weekly activities consisted of things like a manicure or get her hair done, and occasional activities included tickets to the symphony or opera. The binges disappeared as she become diligent about self-care.
Decompress
Cardiologist and stress management expert, Hebert Benson coined the term “the relaxation response,” the body’s natural remedy to the alarm reaction. The heat rate slows down, blood pressure drops, muscles release tension, breathing regulates, and calming brain waves are emitted. There are many paths to this healing state such as visualization, muscle tensing and release, deep breathing, meditation, and prayer. A regular practice of any of these methods lowers stress and makes triggered eating less likely. Any of these techniques can be used in the stress moment as a positive way to calm or soothe. Susan learned to react to criticism from her boss with three minutes of deep breathing. She realized this was a functional (not dysfunctional) way to calm down and disposed of the ever present stash of sweets in her desk drawer.
Develop Infrastructure
Psychologist and stress management expert. Richard Lazarus found that “daily uplifts” help promote stress resistance, which include positive connections with friends or family, getting adequate sleep, and pro-health behaviors like exercise, completing a task, or enhancing your home environment. Carl’s 75-pound weight loss was fueled by a refurbished infrastructure that incorporated several uplifts. “I moved to a new city, I am more active outdoors, I eliminated fast food eating, I changed the places and people I spent time with, and I have good support from my partner,” he said.
Think Positively
Martha is a wonderful reminder that stress is not just what happens, but wheat we do with what happens. From July, 2007 to July, 2008, she lost 80 pounds, down from 217 to 137. When asked what her greatest challenges were, she stated, “I went on a cruise with my family that used to be an eating extravaganza. This time I called ahead and requested special diet choices, and even when frustrated by some of the options, I spoke up and got my needs met. When traveling with my singing group I ate normally and it helped to tell my peers I had special food needs.” Martha shifted perspectives on what could have been viewed as impossible to control situations. She employed the principle of “finding the hidden challenges inside the stress.” Meal planning, assertiveness, and thoughtful food choices were products of this mental refocus.
Putting It All Together
Jan’s spectacular six-year success of losing from 347 to 184 pounds underscores several of the techniques reviewed above. She cut out alcohol and other food triggers like pizza, put herself first by getting massages, reduced stress by using relaxation techniques and fun reading, talked out her emotions instead of letting them build up, spent social time walking with friends, took walks in the office hallway, or listened to relaxing music instead of raiding the staff kitchen, and viewed the recovery process as a way to explore the depth of her food triggers.
Using the above strategies provides a solid foundation of effectively managing the stressful load of life’s events, and a way to break the vicious cycle of stress, eating and weight gain.
