Yoga, Stress and Weight Management

by Nina

Are you planning to relax over the holidays? Because if you’re not and you are worried about gaining weight, perhaps you should set aside some time for yoga.

You see, I’m helping Baxter with research for his upcoming workshop on Yoga for Healthy Eating at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference in January and I’ve learned exactly how stress can induce weight gain. Of course, we all know about so-called “stress eating,” but I wanted to know why that happens (I’m like that, you know, always wanting to the whys and hows as well as the whats). And I found that it’s due to the combination of hormones that are released in our bodies when we’re under stress.

These hormones include  adrenalin, which gives us instant energy, along with corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol. While high levels of adrenalin and CRH decrease your appetite at first—we usually don’t have much of an appetite during a crisis—the effects usually don’t last very long. That’s when the cortisol—whose job is to help you to replenish your body after the stress has passed—kicks in, increasing your appetite and driving you to eat more. And because most of us no longer expend extra calories while in the acute phase of stress (we’re no longer actually fighting or running when our “fight or flight” responses are triggered), we don’t really need to replenish our food stores. So the increased appetite results in, you guessed it, unwanted weight gain.

Chocolate-Almond Candy Heart Made and Photographed by Brad Gibson

In addition, while we’re under stress, we typically have an impulse to do something, to move. So unless you respond to your impulse to move with actual physical activity—yoga asana, anyone?—eating often becomes the activity that relieves the stress.

This is why both relaxation and exercise are recommended for reducing your appetite. When you use yoga or meditation to trigger the relaxation response (see Stress, Your Health, and Yoga), your parasympathetic nervous system reduces the levels stress hormones in your body. Exercise is also excellent for stress reduction as it, too, triggers the release of biochemicals that counter the negative effects of stress hormones. In addition, exercising will satisfy your impulse to move and hopefully prevent you from turning to food as a way to relieve your stress.

My prescription for preventing weight gain during the holidays? An active yoga practice followed by conscious relaxation (see The Relaxation Response and Yoga). And if you’re short on time, try even 10 or 15 minutes of conscious relaxation.