Diet Rehab: 28 Days to Finally Stop Craving the Foods That Make You Fat (6 page)

How Stress Can Make You Fat

 

When you feel stressed, your adrenal glands produce a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is intended for those times when you have to jump into action, as part of the “fight or flight” response. Cortisol raises your blood pressure, so you’ll be alert enough to face impending danger. It also instructs your cells to store fat in your midsection, since your body thinks this impending danger means you’ll need a storehouse of fat reserves if you’re forced to hibernate in a cave for a week with limited food.

Combine the rush of cortisol with the sugary, starchy foods you might crave under stress, and you have a recipe for insulin resistance, a condition in which your body stops efficiently metabolizing your blood sugar. As a result, more of your calories are stored as fat. You’ll have trouble losing weight and you’re likely to start gaining.

Initially, cortisol and the other elements of your adrenaline rush speed up your metabolism and suppress your appetite, so you’re focused on the danger at hand. But then when the rush wears off, you’re super-hungry. That’s because your body expected you to burn off all that extra blood sugar and fat running from a charging mammoth or fighting off an invader, so it creates some hunger to compensate for this supposed activity.

But if your emergency was a pressing deadline, a fight with a friend, or a crying baby, your efforts have likely been emotional, not physical. And further, if you’ve created additional stress through “pitfall” thoughts or attitudes (see page 53), your stress—and your subsequent hunger—will increase. Now you’re eating food that your body doesn’t really need—although your biochemical reaction is insisting that you’re hungry.

Cortisol also suppresses your immune system and depletes your serotonin and dopamine levels, sending you into a state of anxiety and, eventually, nudging you toward depression. Again, cortisol creates biochemical conditions in which you’re more likely to turn to food.

Finally, the fat cells around your belly are particularly sensitive to cortisol and to high insulin levels. This area of the body is also very effective at storing energy. That’s why excess stress often leads to weight gain on our bellies.

A fascinating study conducted at Yale University found that women with belly fat felt more overwhelmed by stressful tasks and produced more cortisol than women whose fat was stored primarily around their hips. So if you’d like a flatter belly, think about reducing the stress in your life. I’m the first one to agree that that isn’t easy—if just saying “reduce stress” were enough, none of us would be stressed! However, I can offer you something more helpful than empty advice: The activities suggested throughout this book to boost your brain chemistry are just the anti-stress tools you need! Boosting your serotonin levels will make you feel calmer and less stressed while giving you more emotional resources to cope with the stress you can’t avoid.

Are You “Naturally” Fat? The Truth About Genetics

 

Can you be “naturally” fat? The answer is both “yes” and “no.”

Yes, up to one-third of the factors that determine body weight can be attributed to our family inheritance. Studies of twins and adopted children have revealed that biological relatives tend to be a similar body weight, even if they grew up in completely different households. First-degree relatives of moderately obese people (fifty to sixty pounds overweight) are three to four times more likely to become obese than people from a different type of family. First-degree relatives of severely obese people (ninety to one hundred or more pounds overweight) are five times more likely to develop obesity. At least some of this correlation seems to be genetic rather than having to do with family eating habits and emotional patterns.

But no, regardless of what anyone else in your family looks like, you don’t
have
to be obese—and you don’t have to starve yourself to stay thin, either. What you eat, how you exercise, and how you nourish your brain chemistry through both food and activities all play an enormous role in determining your metabolism and your weight.

In 2010, genetic researchers in the United Kingdom studied more than 20,000 people aged between thirty-nine and seventy-nine years. Their conclusion: Thirty minutes of moderate exercise per day can reduce any genetic tendency toward obesity by 40 percent. Other studies have come to similar conclusions.

So here’s the bottom line: Regardless of who’s in your family, if you undergo Diet Rehab and learn how to feed your brain chemistry, you’re well on your way toward achieving your healthy weight, especially if you build in thirty minutes of moderate exercise a day. And guess what? The right kinds of moderate exercise will also feed your brain chemistry, boosting your levels of both serotonin and dopamine. Now that’s what I call a win-win!

Gastric Bypass and Lap-Bands: Are They the Answer?

 

Lap-Bands and gastric bypass surgeries work by physically altering the stomach’s capacity. You become unable to eat more than a tiny amount at any sitting—perhaps as little as a small carton of yogurt. If the only problem with out-of-control eating were your capacity to fill your stomach, a gastric bypass or Lap-Band would work well.

The problem is that just restricting your access to food doesn’t change the reasons that you were eating excessively in the first place. If your brain chemistry remains unbalanced—if your brain is still jonesing for dopamine and serotonin—keeping yourself from eating too much at one time will not change the dynamic.

Certainly, these surgeries help save lives. Many morbidly obese people have benefited from them. But in my professional opinion, surgery alone is not enough. If you’re considering this procedure, it’s vital for you to receive psychotherapy for at least six months to help you deal with your emotional connection to food.

In fact, most patients are noncompliant with at least one of the behavioral changes recommended within one year of having bariatric surgery. Many do not adhere to the recommended changes in either diet or exercise. I have treated a number of patients who have had these surgeries and have regained all the weight they initially lost. When this is true, they are putting themselves at risk for complications and can stretch their surgically modified stomachs.

If you’re considering either of these procedures, start your psychological preparation before you go. Attend some free 12-step Overeaters Anonymous meetings, commit to a weight-loss group for a year, or go see a therapist for at least six months to figure out whether you can avoid surgery or, failing that, how to prepare yourself emotionally. Don’t fall into polarized thinking, where you see only a single “either/or” choice. My own recommendation is to keep the surgery option open while committing to a year of Overeaters Anonymous and individual psychotherapy—that would really be setting yourself up for success.

Bear in mind that after surgery, you’re going to be getting less serotonin and dopamine from food than you did previously. That makes it all the more important to follow the diet and lifestyle suggestions in this book, and that you make sure to get more of your feel-good chemicals from booster activities so that you are relying not only on food to keep your brain chemistry balanced.