When we are stressed, we tend to crave food and eat a lot, especially sweets. This is also the reason why many people lose weight control, causing health problems if not resolved promptly. 

Based on the results of many studies, it is shown that whether you are in a state of acute or chronic stress, there is a risk of negative effects on your weight. The American Psychiatric Association conducted a survey and found that women are more at risk of stress than men due to their high stress levels.

Experts say that when a person experiences stressful and traumatic events such as losing a loved one, going bankrupt, or being unemployed, they are at a higher risk of becoming obese than normal. In addition, if a person tries to maintain an unhappy relationship, their waist circumference increases by more than 10%.

According to research, stress can be the cause of uncontrolled eating and drinking. People with this syndrome often use food as a tool to deal with stress and other negative emotions such as depression, anger, and sadness.

The cycle of cravings when stressed is as follows:

• When you are stressed or under pressure, you will crave food, eat excessively, and lack control.
• After eating too much, you start to worry about your weight, which increases your stress.

If you cannot escape this cycle, your stress level will increase, your weight will no longer be under control and there will be many risks of affecting your health and starting dangerous diseases. Stress cravings, if not well resolved, will cause many impacts on people’s mental and physical health.

People with prolonged stress will eat a lot, be lazy, think negatively, and abuse stimulants, so they easily face dangerous diseases like the heart, blood pressure, kidneys, and diabetes. Moreover, in some especially severe cases, stress cravings can also develop chronically into an eating disorder.

Why do you always crave food and eat a lot when you’re stressed?

Loss of control over eating is not the main cause of weight loss. Most of the main reasons lie deep inside our bodies. When stressed, the body’s hormones will be affected and changed, at which point each person’s survival instinct will be activated.

Shawn Talbot – PhD – Nutritional biochemist – exercise physiologist in Salt Lake City once shared that the human body has the ability to respond to all types of stress. In fact, when you just fall into a state of stress, you will lose your appetite for a short period of time.

At this time, the nervous system will begin to send messages to the adrenal gland to activate the system to pump more adrenaline hormone into the body. This hormone stimulates the body’s flight or fight response.

But when stress persists and develops into a chronic state, the adrenal glands will also increase the release of cortisol. This hormone has the ability to increase motivation, including the motivation to eat.

The unfortunate thing is that our brain will not be able to accurately recognize whether the body is burning any calories that have been consumed or not. Cortisol has the ability to stay in the body for many hours, leading to you feeling constantly hungry even after you’ve just eaten something.

Additionally, during times of stress, cortisol signals the body to store any unburned calories, such as excess calories. Therefore, stress is also considered the biggest enemy of weight, it makes you feel hungry constantly and causes your body shape to increase rapidly.

In a study on the difference between stress in men and women, it was found that while men tend to drink alcohol and smoke, women tend to crave food and binge eat when stressed. Scientists conducted a survey of over 5,000 people (both women and men) in Finland. The results found that obesity and overweight are closely related to cravings and overeating when stressed in women.

How to overcome cravings when stressed

There are many ways for you to overcome cravings when stressed and tired. According to the advice of experts, you can control your cravings with the following measures:

1. Identify and resolve the cause of stress

When you know that the reason why you always have cravings and overeating is due to stress, the first thing you need to do is solve the root of those problems. If work or family makes you too tired, you need to stop everything to consider and solve difficulties effectively.

Before things go beyond your control, you must stay calm to analyze and try to resolve all difficult problems. If you are someone who often faces difficulties and stress in life, practice the habit of writing a diary every day.

Recording your emotions, thoughts, and events during the day not only helps you control stress but also easily find necessary information. When you fall into a deadlock or stress, you can also find clues and find the root cause to solve it effectively.

2. Take deep breaths

Author of Body for life for women – Pam Peeke once shared: “Deep breathing calms the reflexes, releases feel-good hormones called endorphins and gives you time to reconsider how you react to the situation. situation”. Therefore, every time you feel stressed, stop and take deep, slow breaths.

Start inhaling air into your nasal cavity for about 5 seconds, then hold for 5 seconds and gently exhale through your mouth. Just repeat this movement 5 times and you will feel much more comfortable and relaxed. In addition, you can also combine it with meditation.

Meditation is considered an effective method of relaxation and mind balance that can be applied to all subjects. Just meditating for about 5 to 10 minutes every day will help you have a refreshing spirit and overcome cravings when stressed. At the same time, meditation also helps blood circulation, improving sleep quality.

3. Exercise and exercise

According to research by experts, when the body is exercised healthily, it will help improve physical and mental health. Not only does it help increase resistance but also balance psychological state and reduce stress. Outdoor exercises will be more beneficial for your spirit because you will be able to breathe fresh air and your mood will gradually improve effectively.

Every day you can spend about 15 to 30 minutes walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, playing badminton, playing basketball, etc. However, you should only choose activities that are appropriate and right for you. My hobby. Avoid forcing yourself to do something you don’t want, which will make you more uncomfortable and irritable.

4. Formulate and supplement beneficial foods

To overcome excessive appetite when stressed, the best way is to know how to build a healthy, scientific diet. Normally, people who are in a state of stress will always have a craving for sweets. However, if you add too much sweet and fatty foods, your weight will increase significantly and your risk of diabetes will increase.

Therefore, if you feel hungry, you should switch to low-fat and low-calorie dishes, such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, pasta, etc. At the same time, you should build a meal menu and Prioritize adding beneficial foods such as green vegetables, fruits, fish, whole grains, olive oil, fermented foods, etc.

Having a healthy diet will help keep blood sugar levels balanced and stable. At the same time, they also have high nutritional content that brings many health benefits. In addition, to limit the need to reach for cakes when you feel stressed, you can also bring vegetable snacks with you to eat when your mouth is bored.

5. Seek professional help

People who suffer from binge eating syndrome when stressed may also consider seeking help from psychologists, nutritionists or fitness trainers to improve performance.

Psychologists will help adjust your psychological state, help you balance and relieve stress-causing problems, thereby improving excessive appetite. If you don’t know how to build a reasonable diet, you should see a nutritionist to get useful advice.

In cases of excessive appetite when stressed, leading to obesity or overweight, you should have a suitable exercise regimen. You can also meet with fitness trainers to get specific information about a suitable exercise program to help you get back in shape.