Among the two most important hormones in your body are cortisol and DHEA. Cortisol is associated with wrinkles, belly fat, and cognitive decline. It’s your main “aging” hormone.

DHEA is its exact opposite. It’s your “youthening” hormone, keeping your skin supple, your cells rejuvenated, and your organs healthy.
Your body builds both cortisol and DHEA out of the same 2 precursor molecules. When you lower your cortisol, you have more of those precursors available to build DHEA. When you’re stressed, your body dis-assembles DHEA molecules to free up the precursors so it can build cortisol. Stress deals you a double whammy, both destroying DHEA and increasing cortisol - which packs on belly fat and wrinkles your skin.

 

You’re having problems at work or at home. You’re stressed, and it’s beginning to show -- in more ways than one. You’ve noticed a bulge around your mid-section that wasn’t there before. Where are these extra pounds coming from?

Stress could be one of the culprits. It plays a role in weight gain. While it can make you have less of an appetite at first, long-term "chronic" stress actually boosts your hunger.

 

Fight and Flight

Most of us become overeaters when we're feeling a lot of pressure. This happens thanks to your fight-or-flight response, a.k.a. survival mode -- once your body reaches a certain stress level, it does what it feels it needs to. In most cases, that means overeat.

Why? Because your body thinks you’ve used calories to deal with your stress, even though you haven’t, says Pamela Peeke, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland. As a result, it thinks you need to replenish those calories, even though you don’t.

 

Cortisol and Comfort Foods

Levels of "the stress hormone," cortisol, rise during tension-filled times. This can turn your overeating into a habit. Because increased levels of the hormone also help cause higher insulin levels, your blood sugar drops and you crave sugary, fatty foods.

 

So instead of a salad or a banana, you’re more likely to reach for cookies or mac and cheese. That’s why they’re called “comfort foods.”

Jason Perry Block, MD, an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard, says eating can be a source of solace and can lower stress.

 

“This happens, in part, because the body releases chemicals in response to food that might have a direct calming effect.”

Fatty and sugary foods are usually the big culprits because lots of us have such a strong love for them.

 

The bottom line? “More stress = more cortisol = higher appetite for junk food = more belly fat,” says Shawn M. Talbott, PhD, a nutritional biochemist.