Stress Fattens You Up

The most direct route is the food-in-mouth syndrome: Stressful circumstances (your bank account, your boss) spark cravings for carbohydrate-rich snack foods, which in turn calm stress hormones. (When researchers in one study took away high-carb food from stressed mice, their stress hormones surged.)

Stress hormones also ramp up fat storage. For our prehistoric ancestors, stress meant drought or approaching tigers, and a rapid-storage process made sense; we needed the extra energy to survive food shortages or do battle. Today we take our stress sitting down˜and the unused calories accumulate in our midsection.

To whittle yourself back down to size, in addition to your usual workout routine, make time for stress relief˜whether it’s a yoga class or quality time with family.

From www.readersdigest.com from an article written by Joanne Chen.