Having crossed my thirties, I am a mom to a toddler. Growing up, I would always notice women who were in their mid-thirties or early forties were bulkier compared to their husbands or the men of a similar age. Every young woman, after a few years into marriage, would start losing their charm, no matter how slim, beautiful, and lively they were in their twenties.
Now, when I am in their shoes and have started putting on weight that is unexplainable to me, as I have not recently made any significant changes in my diet or lifestyle and have never weighed more than 50 kgs except during pregnancy.
Connecting Stress and Weight Gain
When I looked back, I found one significant change in my life during recent years, and it was stress.
I have a family history of obesity. Combining the given two factors, I started studying the correlation between the two.
To my surprise, obesity had a great correlation with stress and was more common in women as compared to men.
How Stress Contributes to Obesity
Chronic stress can contribute to obesity by influencing eating habits, increasing cortisol levels, and disrupting the body’s energy balance, potentially leading to weight gain and increased abdominal fat.
According to research, when a person is in stress, our adrenal glands release a hormone called cortisol, also known as the “stress hormone,” which plays a role in increasing the appetite and craving for high-calorie, sugary, and fatty foods. The person in stress starts increasing their intake of sugars, leading to overeating, resulting in weight gain.
Insulin is another hormone responsible for the regulation of sugar in our blood. In the case of chronic stress, our muscles, fat, and liver cells stop responding to insulin, and the metabolism of the whole body becomes disrupted. What happens as a result? The excess fat starts getting stored in the abdominal area, hence explaining the round bellies in the obese population.
Ghrelin and leptin are another pair of hormones that regulate our hunger and signal satiety, respectively. An increase in cortisol levels also impairs the function of these two hormones, leading to the inability of a person to balance or control their hunger.
The release of an excess amount of cortisol as a result of stress can also lead to demotivation, sadness, and a decline in physical activity, further contributing to weight gain.
Stress can also trigger emotional eating, where an individual uses food as a coping mechanism, and this binge eating sometimes even leads to an eating disorder called bulimia nervosa, which further exacerbates obesity.
Marriage, Middle Age, and Obesity
Now, returning to my original hypothesis interconnecting marriage, middle age, and obesity.
After a few years into marriage and giving birth to one or more children, a woman’s body has already been through massive hormonal changes, physical and mental stresses of adjusting to a new family, managing responsibilities, taking care of old age parents/parents-in-law, raising kids being the greatest. At this point, if she does not get enough support and motivation, she might lose interest in her own health and well-being.
Furthermore, pre-menopausal changes, social discrimination, and financial dependence also play a major role in women not being able to keep themselves physically and mentally fit, specifically after marriage and kids.
This lack of motivation and chronic stress often leads to health issues like obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and other metabolic disorders.
Medical Students and Stress-Related Obesity
Another group of the population that is more prone to stress-related obesity is the population of medical students.
The study of medicine has been ranked as the most difficult field of education so far. Studying a complex being anatomically, physiologically, and mentally in detail and dealing with real-life patients with a vast range of diseases, doing long hours of duty certainly puts a person under a lot of physical and psychological stress.
A 2022 study found that 21.38% of medical students had a BMI ≥25.0 kg/m². And stress, along with other factors, was found to be the major culprit. Other factors included a sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy eating habits, and minimal physical activity.
Right after finishing the professional degree, medical students are now required to do long hours of training, duties, and exams in order to get good jobs. This series of brutal training leaves them with almost no time to focus on their own health.
Possible Solutions
Practicing stress-reducing techniques like yoga, meditation, and mindfulness may help in reducing stress in the short term.
In order to lose weight and stay healthy in the longer run, an individual needs to adopt a healthy lifestyle, including exercise and healthy eating habits.
Last but not least, seeking professional help is always a great option in case of stress-related obesity, eating disorders, or depression.