Stress belly: What is it and how do you prevent and get rid of it?

A stress belly or cortisol belly is a term used to define local weight gain in the abdomen. Weight gain is stimulated by prolonged stress and high cortisol levels that can slow down your metabolism and make you gain visceral fat. If it remains untreated, this kind of fat can affect the work of your inner organs and lead to numerous health risks.

Luckily, there are several ways to get rid of or prevent the accumulation of stress belly fat:

• Use stress-management strategies
• Optimize your diet
• Increase physical activity
• Adjust daily habits, such as sleep, alcohol consumption, and smoking

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Prolonged or severe stress has a massive impact on your body. Apart from affecting mental health and causing emotional distress, anxiety, and even depression, it also affects you on a physical level by creating muscle tension, causing fatigue, and even stimulating weight gain.

The so-called stress belly is not a medical condition. Yet, it’s a common hormone-induced issue affecting people who experience prolonged stress. In this article, we’ll explore the link between stress and weight gain, clarify the risks of gaining a stress belly, and explore effective ways to prevent and get rid of it.

What Is a Stress Belly?

A stress or cortisol belly is a common term used to describe local weight gain around the abdominal area caused by excessive and ongoing stress. It’s one of the hormonal belly types, which can appear with no clear reasons, such as changes in your diet or physical activity, and be rather stubborn, making it hard to manage.

Understanding the Effects of Cortisol on Your Body

In order to understand the stress belly fat phenomenon, we need to dig deeper into what stress does to our bodies. When you experience stress, your adrenal glands release a hormone called cortisol. This hormone gives your body a surge of energy to prepare it for danger and manage your response to it.

Whenever cortisol levels increase, your body is set into a “fight or flight” mode. The primary feature of this mode is that all the other body functions that are unnecessary in dangerous situations slow down. This happens to help you focus all the energy on resolving the stressful situation. Normally, when danger has passed, cortisol levels drop and the body gets back to normal functioning. In this case, there shouldn’t be any cause for concern. However, if stress persists, cortisol may build up in your body, hindering its adequate functioning.

In particular, when cortisol levels are higher than normal, it can lead to a range of issues, such as:

• Anxiety
• Irritability
• Sleep disturbance
• Muscle weakness
• High blood pressure
• Increased blood sugar

In the long run, continuous stress can result in more serious health problems, such as weakened immunity, bone loss, reproductive problems, heart issues, and others.

The Link Between Stress and Body Weight

As you already know, stress and cortisol, in particular, slow down different body functions. Among them is your metabolism. When you are stressed for a long period of time, it can lead to metabolic syndrome – a condition that combines five health problems, including high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels, low good cholesterol levels, and excess abdominal fat storage. This condition can eventually lead to obesity and chronic issues, like type 2 diabetes. 

So, does stress cause belly fat? As you can see, there is a direct link between your body weight and cortisol levels. To put it simply, when you are in chronic stress, your metabolism doesn’t work as it’s supposed to, and the body starts accumulating more fat. In particular, it’s believed that cortisol leads to increased fat storage in the abdominal area. Hence, a stress belly is a real thing.

What Does Stress Belly Look Like?

Like any other hormonal tummy, a stress belly has one unique feature – it appears because of deeper, visceral fat accumulation around your inner organs rather than under-the-skin fat. Due to this peculiarity, it’s usually firmer compared to a usual soft tummy.

While there is no specific “look” as each tummy is different, often, the stressed belly shape is more pot-like. It also often looks similar to a bloated stomach.

Key Risks Facing Stress Belly Women

As we’ve already clarified, prolonged stress indeed can cause weight gain in the abdominal area. Often, stress belly fat is visceral, and there is a big difference between visceral and subcutaneous fat:

• Subcutaneous fat is located right under your skin. It’s a regular type of fat you can gain from consuming more calories than you expend. Although it can’t be called healthy when there is too much subcutaneous fat, it’s generally not dangerous. After all, subcutaneous fat plays a crucial role in producing some helpful hormones, such as leptin, which helps regulate energy balance and appetite. If leptin isn’t produced in sufficient amounts, you may feel hungry more often and don’t feel saturation from meals.
• Visceral fat, on the other hand, is not under your skin but inside your body. It builds up around your organs, including the intestines, liver, and others. This type of fat creates physical pressure on your inner organs, hindering their normal functioning. It also creates chronic, low-grade inflammation, lowering the defense of your body and potentially leading to significant health problems.

In the long run, a high percentage of visceral fat can cause significant damage to your body. To name a few, stress belly women can have increased risks of:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Asthma
• Dementia
• Cancer
• Colorectal cancer

How to Get Rid of Stress Belly

Having a stress belly can cause emotional distress and problems with self-confidence. Even more importantly, it can negatively impact your physical health in the long run. And that’s why it’s important to know how to treat this problem.

Unfortunately, visceral fat can be more stubborn than subcutaneous fat. Luckily, you still can do something about it. Here are a few practical tips on how to lose stress belly fat:

Focus on Stress Management

Since the primary cause of a stress belly is stress, getting rid of it requires reducing your cortisol levels. There are many ways to do this. Here are some of the most effective strategies to try:

• Plan regular me time with pleasant rituals. It can be anything that will boost your wellness, including reading, drinking soothing tea, taking a bath, doing beauty rituals, and so on.
• Practice stress-management practices. Journaling, meditation, mindfulness practices, and similar techniques have been shown to reduce cortisol levels and promote emotional wellness.
• Try natural remedies. Cortisol cocktails and different supplements, for example, ashwagandha, can also help you reduce daily stress.
• Spend time with family and friends. Generally, any form of socialization can help you create a strong support system and reduce stress.

Optimize Your Diet

A balanced diet can also help you battle a stress belly. First of all, a healthy calorie deficit (up to 500 calories per day) will stimulate your body to use up excess fat for energy. In the process, you will burn both subcutaneous and visceral fat, reducing the appearance of your belly.

On top of that, you can also lower your stress levels through the food you consume. In particular, foods that are rich in B vitamins have been shown to have a positive effect on cortisol. Thus, products like avocados, leafy greens, bananas, and others should be included in your diet.

Increase Your Physical Activity

Staying active, whether through regular daily activities like walking or sports, can have a massive impact on your health. Obviously, regular activity helps increase your energy expenditure and burn fat. Besides, choosing the right exercises will help you strengthen your core muscles and make your stomach flat.

Last but not least, physical activity triggers the release of dopamine – a hormone of good mood and happiness. Simply put, getting on the move can also help you combat stress.

Adjust Your Daily Habits

Finally, changing your everyday habits can also help you get rid of stress belly fat. In particular, there are three important tips to follow:

• Maintain proper sleep hygiene to give your body and brain enough time to rest and recharge. According to studies, people who sleep less than 6 hours or more than 9 hours are more likely to gain visceral fat.
• Decrease alcohol consumption to ease your stress and reduce calorie consumption.
• Quit smoking. Although smoking is known to speed up metabolism, it has also been shown to increase the likelihood of developing abdominal obesity.

FAQ

Does stress cause belly fat?

Yes, prolonged stress causes your body to produce too much hormone cortisol. This hormone slows down different body functions that are not necessary in a stressful situation, including your metabolism. As a result, high levels of cortisol can result in metabolic syndrome, make you gain weight (especially in your belly), and increase the risk of obesity. A stomach that grows because of cortisol is called a stress belly.

What does stress belly look like?

The most common stressed belly shape is pot-like. It usually looks like a large and firm belly that’s not as soft and pinchable as a regular soft belly. It often resembles a bloated stomach.

How to get rid of stress belly?

Since stress belly fat is developed around the inner organs, it’s more stubborn than the fat located under your skin. Thus, getting rid of it (or preventing its development) requires a very consistent and all-around approach that should involve stress management, proper nutrition, regular physical activity, and lifestyle adjustments.

Conclusion

Having a stress belly is not just unpleasant, but can actually be dangerous for your health. As you now know, prolonged stress can affect your body and brain in many ways, wearing down your systems and causing visceral fat development. Luckily, this doesn’t mean that you can’t handle this problem on your own.

With this article, you have a step-by-step instruction on how to prevent or reduce a stress belly. Start using these tips now to support your health.

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