Most of us lead highly stressful lives these days and this has a direct or indirect correlation to our body weight. When we are stress out we tend to do one of two things if not both; panic and binge. This is common to women. Men lead to smoke and alcohol. What is worse is if you’re stressed out due to emotional issues you tend to lean towards binging on sweet foods like chocolates and cakes. You do not intentionally do so but these are foods that provide you a happy feeling and hence leads to indulgence. That is where they received their name – Comfort foods.

However true the above fact s may be dieticians the world over state that there is truth to the fact that stress leads to weigh gain. It is not however due to the eating but is due to the hormonal secretion of a hormone called cortisol. If your stress is related to emotions then the secretion of cortisol works over time hence leading to weight gain.

How can you help yourself?

The key to this is obviously to reduce stressors from your life; however that is easier said then done. If eliminating stress were hat easy there would be no anxiety that existed. What you can try and do is work around these stressful situations and channels your energy elsewhere rather than towards food.

You can try and take up a new hobby if you have sometime to spare. This will help to source your creativity towards different directions while keeping you busy; and away from foods. Since your mind is occupied with your new found interest it has little or no time to think about the stressful situation and hence the production of cortisol reduces automatically.

Try exercising to burn any calories that you may have already gained in the initial stages of your stressful situation. Yoga helps to relax your body mind and soul and keeps you at peace throughout your waking day.