how exactly does stress make somebody gain weight?

Question

Isn’t gaining weight just a matter of not burning the calories you take in? Where does being over stressed link into this?

In: 50

Answer 1

Cortisol, the chemical your body releases when subject to stress (not fight or flight, that would be adrenalin, which is short term) causes a massive spike in hunger to replace resources it believes you’re using to overcome the stressful event. Basically, your body is saying, I need all available resources to sustain life – go get ’em. You might think you can win a fight like that with willpower, but it’s unlikely over the long term given how deeply wired that response is and how strongly it was conserved via evolution.