As women, we tend to be sensitive to our surroundings, people in our lives, situations, relationships and the problems and conflicts of everyday life. However with this god given gift to sense the problems (or perceived dangers) in life comes added stress. It’s now being shown that the way women deal with stress can have a huge impact on their weight in comparison to men.
This research done by Harvard Universty gives us one more reason to pay attention to how our emotions affect our eating patterns!
A new study reports that men and women gain weight very differently when they are exposed to stressful situations. Researchers found that women gained weight when subjected to a much wider variety of stressors than did men: poor finances, tense jobs, and strained family relationships, as well as the feeling of being limited by the circumstances of their lives.
In contrast to women, men gained weight mainly in response to just two types of stress, both of them centered on work: when they lacked authority to make decisions and when they were denied the opportunity to learn new skills. Men were less likely than women to gain weight when struggling with family relationships or when upset by their lives in general (source).
As if it wasn’t bad enough that we have higher body fat and get a monthly visitor! Being aware that stress causes weight gain could help us cue into how we deal with food and what role it could play in keeping us in a depressed state due to weight gain. The key to long term weight control is knowing your body. Before you reach for your next piece of triple fudge cake, ask yourself if you are eating for the right reasons.
Adria Ali
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