Sugar supplies your body with quick energy, so it is often the first thing you reach for when you are stressed. When you’re stressed and reach for that quick fix, you end up with excess sugar (which as been converted into glucose) in your blood stream and all that glucose in your system needs to go somewhere (unless you used it to escape being hit by the bus). Consequently, it get stored.
Firstly it is stored in you muscles and kidney as glycogen ready for the next emergency.
Secondly, when the muscles and liver are at capacity, glucose is stored in your fat cells, and it’s mainly stored in abdominal fat.
And so the vicious cycle starts: get stressed, release cortisol, gain weight, crave more sugar, eat more sugar, gain more weight.