WE can blame our jobs for many things: lack of free time, back pain, frustrating colleagues, tired eyes… but weight gain?
Yup, your work could well be the reason why your trousers are sitting a little too snugly these days.
But why? Well, it’s all down to stress…
The impact of stress
James Ellis, nutritionist, health coach and PT from Elevated Food For Life, says stress can have a huge impact on our weight.
He says: “One of our body’s natural mechanisms is the autonomous nervous system, which controls things that happen without us having to think about them, like breathing and our heart beating.
“The autonomous nervous system is split into two: the sympathetic nervous system which most people know as ‘fight or flight’ and the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls ‘rest and digest functions’.”
James says that in an ideal world we need to have a balance between the two and to be able to switch between them.
“Fight or flight was useful when we had to fend off a marauding sabre-tooth tiger, but modern life means it remains always switched on for many of us by low-level constant stress: work pressure, home life, lack of sleep, poor nutrition.
“It means that when we eat, we’re eating when we have low level stress and the body is producing stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol rather than focusing on digestion.
“We’re then less likely to get the best from our food.”
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According to James, our hunger signals via hormones like ghrelin, get messed up and the hormones that help us process and use glucose such as insulin and glucagon can also end up out of whack.
Because of this, we may overeat or grab comfort foods.
To top it all off, James says that too much of the stress hormone cortisol, for some of us, can lead to the body wanting to hold onto fat, and often this fat sits around the belly.
When stress can make you lose weight
We all know someone who has shed weight following a stressful period.
However, James says that stress-related weight loss “tends to happen when someone is acutely stressed”.
He says: “This includes divorce, the death of a loved one, moving house, ill-health, rather than the low-level stress.
“In these cases, those fight or flight mechanisms are ramped up to the max and in such cases your body prioritises survival, shutting down things like hunger cues and digestion.”
Other ways your job is making you fat…
1. You’re reaching for ‘quick’ foods
Stress can make us feel like we have zero time to actually sit down and eat.
Perhaps a deadline is looming or you simply have endless emails to trawl through.
James says: “We leave things too late when it comes to eating, we end up rushing a choice and just going for the thing that is going to quell the hunger quickly: chocolate, crisps, biscuits.”
These quick foods are often the exact type of foods that can make the pounds pile on.
“Not many people in a rush, hungry and stressed, turn up at the canteen and say: ‘Can I have the couscous salad with a side of grilled chicken please’,” says James.
2. You’re sitting down too much
Car commutes and desk jobs can often mean we’re sat for the majority of the day.
“Sitting down is just another way of saying, ‘I’m not moving’ and really if you want to manage your weight, you need a combination of good whole foods, not eating past hungry, getting good sleep, not being too stressed and some good movement that’s appropriate for your age and lifestyle,” reveals James.
The more you sit, the less likely you are to be moving.
However, your body doesn’t recognise if you’re doing a solid hour of exercise in the morning, or ten minutes every hour for six to eight hours a day.
“So if you can’t exercise, try ‘stealthercise’! Get up for ten minutes every hour and do a few squats or some pushups against a wall – it all counts,” says James.
If you’ve been out for lunch with work, then movement is even more important.
Tony Pemberton, a qualified geneticist, longevity expert and practitioner for Muhdo Health, adds: “Sitting down all day can cause blood glucose spikes – your muscles simply aren’t able to use energy from an indulgent lunch.
“Exercising before work is more beneficial than evening, as if it’s too close to bed it can affect your sleep, as well causing you to eat dinner later.”
3. You’re slouching
“From a physical perspective, one of the biggest things I see is in posture,” says James.
“Sitting at a desk all the time, your shoulders may round forwards.
“This tightens the chest muscles and makes your back muscles – the ones that pull your shoulders back – tighter.”
James says that poor posture such as rounded shoulders and stooping forward, can give the illusion of more weight around the belly, “even if it doesn’t affect weight or fat mass directly”.
4. You’re working indoors
Indoor working is the reality for most of us, and in the winter, it can seem as though we rarely see natural daylight.
“Our bodies work on ancient circadian rhythms that are governed by natural daylight,” says James.
“Working in artificial light, especially on screens at night, can disrupt those rhythms putting our sleep at risk.
“And people who sleep poorly have been shown to be more likely to gain weight – as sleep regulates our hunger hormones.”
He says the blue lights from screens are in fact a low level stressor, which just contributes to your stress even more.
Reversing the stress weight gain…
Tony says a good night’s sleep helps no end with sustained stress.
“A few easy hacks are not eating close to bedtime, reducing social media and wearing blue light glasses when looking at screens in the evening.
“A cold shower blast for one to three minutes has been shown to improve your stress response in the long-term,” adds Tony.
“We all experience stress, it’s how you deal with it that makes the difference; it’s a case of building your resilience by being out of your comfort zone.”
James adds that simply taking the time to stop and breathe is “all you need to do”.
“Studies have shown that we work much better in what are known as ‘pomodoros’, which are 50-minute batches of concentration, followed by a five to ten minute break.
“If you can’t do that, simply stop every so often during the day, close your eyes and take ten breaths in and ten breaths out.”
James also adds that, although hard, the key to it all is to avoid stressful eating.
“Get away from your computer, take a proper lunch break and put the phone away for 20 minutes.”