Scientific research shows that stress causes women to gain extra pounds. Why and what can be done about it? Stress, as hormonal tests show, can provoke hormonal imbalance, which can give us a whole list of diseases.

Moreover, in women these negative changes occur much faster than in men. Especially for those women who have crossed the line of 35-40 years. For men, age does not affect them so much: hormonal changes in their bodies provoke excess weight much more slowly - it takes whole years.

What causes excess weight in women?

• Increased production of cortisol, the stress hormone
• Changes in appetite caused by hormonal imbalance
• Medication abuse
• Genetic predisposition
• Metabolic inhibition
• Lack of vitamins in the body
• Lack of calories in diets
• Stressful situations that are constantly repeated

The seven most common stressful situations

We will introduce you to situations in which a woman tends to gain excess weight when stressed.

Situation No. 1

We have a habit of eating stress. Thus, we violate our own diet, which provokes obesity. How can we avoid gaining extra pounds when we run to the refrigerator at night?

When we eat a lot and irregularly, the body produces in abundance the stress hormone cortisol and the substance insulin, which further aggravate fat deposits.

Situation No. 2

When we are worried, we eat junk food. These are potatoes, bread, pasta, noodles, sweet confectionery. Of course, during times of stress, we do not control the amount of food, and its excess is stored in the form of fat deposits.

Situation No. 3

Low carb and low calorie diets. A woman, torturing herself with such a menu, does not receive enough nutrients in the form of fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and proteins. Then the body begins to believe that hunger has set in and stores nutrients in the form of fat deposits.

In addition, in such a situation, the ovaries, which produce sex hormones, and the thyroid gland, which also produces hormones, begin to work much worse. Hormonal imbalance leads to obesity.

Situation No. 4

When we take tranquilizers or hormones without a doctor's advice, they can aggravate stress and lead to excess fat in the body. In particular, the hormones DHEA (used for tone) or the substance melatonin, used to relieve symptoms of insomnia, can play a disservice.

Both drugs tend to increase the feeling of hunger and lead to excess weight.

Situation No. 5

Herbal infusions that are advertised for weight loss can have the same effect. Isoflavone substances in soy and some herbal supplements inhibit the production of thyroid and ovarian hormones (estrogens), thereby promoting obesity.

Situation No. 6

Physical inactivity, or lack of movement, can cause obesity. In addition, lack of physical activity exacerbates the effects of stress, which means it increases the level of cortisol, the stress hormone, in the body. This hormone tends to inhibit the production of other hormones, causing obesity.

Situation No. 7

The relaxation substances we use block the functioning of sex hormones - testosterone, estradiol, as well as thyroid hormones - T3 and T4. This means that these hormones are not given the opportunity to do their job of activating metabolism. When metabolism slows down, we gain weight.

How does stress affect brain function?

What are stressors? These are circumstances that force a woman to react to them and adapt to them. What could be the stressors?

These are either external circumstances (you were rude in the store) or internal ones (you are unhappy with your appearance). The brain perceives this information and gives commands to the body: what and how much to eat, how much fat to accumulate, whether to slow down or speed up metabolism.

Stress is considered very important in order to survive. Whatever the stress - positive (your daughter graduated from college with honors) or negative (you were fired from your job), the chains of reactions in the brain are the same.

Brain commands pass through special chains - neurological transmitters. These are receptors that help regulate weight. They influence how quickly food passes through the gastrointestinal tract, what foods we want at this moment, which ones are unpleasant to even look at, how quickly this food is processed in the body and absorbed by it.

Whether we gain weight or lose weight depends on how quickly metabolic processes occur in our body.

If stress lasts for a long time

Stress can be different - for the body or for the soul. Doctors divide stress into psychological, physiological and spiritual. But you should know that with any of them, homeostasis - the hormonal balance of the body - is disrupted.

How does the body react to “quick” and sharp stress? The body begins to work in a very active, force majeure mode, the stress hormone adrenaline is actively released.

How does the body react to prolonged stress? The body intensively produces the stress hormone cortisol, which inhibits the production of other hormones and provokes obesity.

Both stress hormones, accumulating in the body, provoke the accumulation of fat deposits - instead of breaking down and removing fat, as happens during normal metabolism. Most fat deposits accumulate in the waist and abdomen areas.

How do we eat when stressed?

In stressful situations or in situations where stress lasts for a long time, the brain reacts instantly. It reacts by instantly regulating food intake: whether we need to eat much or little now, and what exactly is dictated by the brain to the body.

When we find ourselves in the clutches of stress, whether immediate or long-term, the body produces a lot of the hormone cortisol (we know this). Cortisol can influence weight, causing it to increase, and other hormones help it by increasing our appetite and anxiety, causing us to eat even more.

Few people associate anxiety and increased anxiety with blood sugar levels. But that's true. If our blood glucose levels are lost, we may feel psychologically unwell. Remember that when we are in a bad mood, we are drawn to sweets? In this way, we try to replenish our blood sugar levels and thereby lift our mood.

Symptoms of acute stress

1. Brutal appetite
2. Strong desire to eat sweets
3. Craving for alcohol
4. Increased anxiety, irritability
5. Sleep disorders
6. Interruptions in heart function
7. Increased fatigue, weakness, mood swings
8. Swelling
9. Allergies to foods or smells
10. Tendency to infections and colds
11. Fungal diseases
12. Reduced attraction to the opposite sex

If you have identified these symptoms, consult an endocrinologist for a hormonal analysis

How does cortisol work in the body?

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. This hormone is produced during pre-stress conditions.

It has the ability to regulate metabolism, slowing down or activating it. Thus, weight increases or decreases. Mostly the former, of course.

Cortisol has a release time. It starts at 4 am. Most cortisol is produced starting at 8 am. This is done in order to set the body in a working mood.

Throughout the day, cortisol becomes less and less, and in the evening its level drops to a minimum. This is so that the body, calming down, prepares for sleep. This is normal mode. And when a person is stressed, the regime is disrupted, and then the production of cortisol is also disrupted.

That is, less cortisol may be produced in the morning, and the person feels lethargic and overwhelmed, and at night, more cortisol may be produced, and then the person is bothered by insomnia.

Such differences are especially typical for women after 35. Therefore, they especially need to monitor the hormonal balance in the body.

Brain and cortisol

Cortisol is produced under the control of two brain centers - the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus produces the hormone vasopressin, which stimulates the pituitary gland to produce the hormone ACTH. This hormone stimulates the adrenal glands to produce the hormone cortisol. This is what the chain looks like.

When cortisol travels through the blood to the brain, the hypothalamus and pituitary gland regions receive a signal about the production of cortisol and its amount.

Then the levels of other hormones may drop to their lowest levels. During stress, the production of all these hormones increases, the rhythm of a person’s life changes, which means that these processes have to be adjusted with the help of an endocrinologist.

What happens in the body when cortisol levels increase?

• Blood pressure increases or fluctuates – from low to high
• Bad cholesterol levels increase
• Increases glucose and insulin levels in the body
• Insulin resistance
• Vulnerability to infections
• Too dry skin
• Increased vulnerability of the skin (bruises and abrasions quickly form on it)
• Muscle weakness and muscle pain
• Bone fragility
• Interruptions in heart function
• Swelling of the face

Doctors call these symptoms Cushing's syndrome.

This means that there is much more cortisol in the body than normal. Moreover, cortisol can be obtained naturally (that is, produced by the body) or from pharmaceutical drugs to combat arthritis, asthma, and allergies.

Elevated levels of cortisol provoke the risk of increasing fat deposits on the sides, waist, breast area, and back (upper part).

What are the dangers of long-term stress?

If a stressful state lasts for a long time - months or even years - the adrenal glands adapt and stop producing the necessary hormones. They no longer respond to the stress hormone cortisol, and doctors may diagnose kidney failure, or in other words, kidney failure.

Symptoms of kidney failure

1. Reduced cortisol levels
2. Decreased sodium production
3. Very low sodium levels
4. Very high potassium levels

When kidney failure occurs due to other reasons other than stress, the condition is called Addison's disease. With this disease, a person can suddenly lose weight, have low blood pressure, increased fatigue, muscle weakness, muscle pain, and hair loss.

With these symptoms, it is imperative to examine the body for hormone levels so that the doctor can prescribe hormone replacement therapy and prescribe other treatment methods.

23 November 2015, 14:30

So, four problematic periods of completeness.

Adolescence. During puberty, under the influence of hormones, the body becomes rounder. Estrogens are secreted by adipose tissue, and in order for menstruation to not be disrupted and ovulation to occur regularly, it is necessary to stock up on a certain amount of them.

But just at this time, teenagers, not really understanding what is happening to them, uncontrollably eat mountains of chips, sweets and rolls in order to somehow cheer themselves up. The result is obesity. At the same time, girls rush to zealously fight extra pounds, which leads to metabolic disorders. Result: either a voracious appetite, or its complete absence.

Pregnancy. During this period, a woman is capable of completely losing control over her diet. The stereotype that you need to eat for two only helps you gain kilograms that are completely unnecessary for either mother or child. .

The burdens of love. Another threat is periods of taking hormonal contraceptives. Excess hormones can change the metabolism of fat tissue and facilitate the deposition of fat reserves. Therefore, women prone to obesity should consult a doctor when choosing contraceptives.

After fifty. The onset of menopause also favors obesity. 60% of women gain weight during this period. As the activity of female sex hormones (estrogens) decreases, male hormones - testosterones - begin to play an increasingly important role, the concentration of which remains virtually unchanged in a woman’s body throughout her life.

Fullness of the “pear” type (hips-buttocks), characteristic of women, is replaced by male fullness, when fat is deposited in the abdominal area. This is the most dangerous obesity, as it entails a series of diseases, including cancer.

In addition, during this period, women “eat up” their troubles and try to “deliciously” compensate for the negative attitude. Food addiction occurs when you need to look into the refrigerator to survive the onset of sadness, depression, loneliness, anger, feeling of emptiness or boredom.

Nutritionists are confident that the only effective method of getting rid of unnecessary pounds is to reduce the amount of fat and calories consumed. At the same time, the diet must contain the required amount of proteins and vitamins.

Simultaneously with the diet, you need to increase physical activity so that the body's high need for energy remains and there is no loss of muscle mass.

In one hour of playing tennis or tending your own garden, you will lose about 350 kcal.

An hour of swimming will take 500 kcal.

Or playing badminton for 60 minutes will burn 450 kcal.

1. Bad Housewives

There are three times more women with extra pounds today than in the 80s of the last century. British scientists from Manchester and London (Manchester University and Royal Holloway, University of London) came to this conclusion after analyzing medical statistics. Naturally, they wanted to know what the reason was. And they found it by studying social surveys conducted over about 30 years.

The reason women are obese is that they have become bad housewives. Today's representatives of the fair sex “do housework” on average 20 percent less than their slimmer predecessors. And accordingly, they consume fewer calories, which leads to steady weight gain. And modern - very convenient - household appliances help with this. And as a rule, sedentary work.

For comparison: washing floors, a woman spends three times more calories than working on a computer. And before, they also washed in troughs, washed dishes by hand, went to work, and did not drive cars - at least, take a trolleybus. And we prepared lunches ourselves, rather than buying ready-made meals in supermarkets.

According to one of the study's authors, Melanie Luhrmann, even exercise, on which the average woman spends about 11 minutes a day, does not allow her to use up the energy surplus that was previously spent on housework. It’s one of two things: you either need to spend more time in the gym or at the stove and at the sink.

2. They have sex often, but half-heartedly.

A strong belief is that sex is akin to physical exercise. Like, one sexual intercourse replaces a half-hour run. And with an orgasm - as many as four such runs. Calories burn like coal in a locomotive furnace. Along with subcutaneous fat. What no diet can achieve. Therefore, by having sex joyfully and with pleasure, women lose weight.

This seemingly obvious advantage of intimate life was questioned by the Indian professor Ritesh Menezes, an expert in yoga and the Kama Sutra. He shared his nightmarish suspicions on the pages of the popular American magazine Medical Hypotheses. Like, in fact, sex does not get rid of excess weight. On the contrary, it promotes obesity. And this provoked a massive discussion already in the NewScientist magazine.

The professor emphasizes that sexual intercourse, especially followed by orgasm, sharply increases the concentration of the hormone prolactin in the blood. Its main purpose is to stimulate milk production in pregnant women. And in non-pregnant women, it promotes the accumulation of fat deposits. As evidence, the scientist cites the fact that obese women, as a rule, suffer from hyperprolactinemia - that is, their hormone levels are greatly increased.

What to do if you still want it often and a lot? Fight the urge? Not at all, says Stuart Brodie from the University of the West of Scotland, who actually discovered the phenomenon of a sharp increase in prolactin levels during traditional sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. Masturbation, by the way, does not give such a surge.

The researcher advises having sex with maximum intensity - moving a lot in the process. Then - purely physically - it will be possible to burn more fat than it accumulates thanks to the hormone.

3. They eat a lot at home

Scientists have discovered that success in the struggle for a slim figure is directly related to both the place where you eat and the environment at lunch or dinner. It turns out that the number of calories a woman consumes greatly depends on where she consumes them - at home or in a restaurant, alone, with girlfriends or in the company of men.

According to an article by British nutritionist David Haslam published in the medical journal The Lancet, living together between a man and a woman leads to the latter overeating. A woman, thinking of something tasty to feed a man, buys more high-calorie foods. And she herself, for company, begins to eat like a man - large portions, and is fond of wine and fatty foods. Especially in the evenings.

When you go out to dinner with your partner, it's a social event, not just to satisfy your hunger, explains Haslam. - You eat more and perhaps more extravagant meals.

The doctor also notices the opposite effect. When a husband goes on a long business trip or goes to a resort alone, a bored wife usually loses weight. And David believes that this is a consequence of moderate nutrition. And not anything else.

Please note that the British man is talking about eating together at home. His Canadian colleague Meridith Young from McMaster University became concerned about feeding in public places - in restaurants and cafes. The researcher tracked what dishes almost 500 of her “sisters” consumed, noting with whom they did it. And it turned out: when having lunch or dinner in the company of a gentleman or gentlemen, the lady, as a rule, chose food with minimal calorie content. And sitting down at the table with her friends, she gave free rein to gluttony.

Meridith did not deeply understand the reasons for the discovered phenomenon. I just assumed that it was a matter of ostentatious female modesty. Like, I won’t scare a man with my excesses in food. Yes, and in a restaurant it is immoderation - more noticeable than at home: dishes must be ordered, and not served from a frying pan. In addition, they are portioned - you put as much as you put in - you don’t have to run to the kitchen for more.

And if a man also pays, which is at least not uncommon in Russia, then a truly modest lady will not overindulge in marbled meat, 30-centimeter pizza and two desserts instead of one.

The conclusion is obvious: women, if you want to lose weight in a delicious way, gather your gentlemen and go to a restaurant. The more the lady seats them at the table, the more dietary dishes she will choose, Meridith assures. At home, control yourself. And if you’ve already gone to dinner with your girlfriends, then hold it with a vengeance.

4. Women's brains are designed in such a way that they do not allow them to fight their appetite.

There are about a quarter fewer obese men than obese women. This is world statistics. Don't believe her? Look at the visitors to medical television programs. "Donuts" predominate overwhelmingly. They would be happy to lose excess weight. They report that they are trying to go on diets and go to the gym. But few people manage to achieve what they want - a slim figure.

The secret of defeating the fairer sex in the fight against obesity was recently revealed by Dr Gene-Jack Wang from the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, publishing the results of his research in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

According to the scientist, women often “break down” after torturing themselves with diets and spending calories on exercise because they have poor willpower. Much worse than men. And the reason for this is biology - more precisely the female brain. It is he who inevitably leads ladies into the temptation of eating well. Especially when there is something tasty in front of them - the ladies. Men are more resilient in this sense. And as a rule, they do not give in to temptation.

Dr. Wang discovered the phenomenon by comparing tomograms - pictures of brain activity in real time - of 13 women and 10 men. The scientist asked them to fast for 17 hours straight, while doing some kind of activity with breaks for physical education.

Then, having found out their preferences in advance, the volunteers were led to tables with their favorite dishes. We set the task of not eating them while thinking about something else. At this time, Wang watched how the brains “struggled” with temptation. Through positron emission tomography (PET).

So, the men managed to drown out thoughts about food. But for women - no. The areas of their brain associated with the desire to eat were literally on fire.

It is incredibly difficult to resist such activity,” says the scientist. - Perhaps this can explain the fact that women achieve less success when trying to lose weight through dieting and exercise compared to men.

What to do? Cultivate willpower.

5. They give birth little

Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University, highlighted data from a large-scale study conducted in the US state of Massachusetts. It began back in 1948 - spanning three generations and several tens of thousands of representatives of the fairer sex. The information collected included information about the beginning and end of the reproductive period, height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart condition and, most importantly, the number of children.

And it turned out: short and well-fed women, as a rule, had more children than tall and thin women. Height, weight and other genetic characteristics were regularly passed on to subsequent generations - very similar daughters were born - plump, who, in turn, also sought to have more children.

Stearns believes that thin people are losing out in an evolutionary competition with chubby people. So the latter ones multiplied.

Slender! Give birth more actively.

AND AT THIS TIME

Scientists have discovered that fat promotes brain development

Some of the chubby ones look surprisingly attractive. Especially those with large breasts, relatively thin waists and wide hips. They literally attract men's gaze.

Previously, it was believed that men subconsciously react to pronounced forms, because their owners are better able to bear children. But as it turned out recently, it’s not just that. Scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Pittsburgh, having examined and tested 16 thousand volunteers, came to the conclusion: the intellectual abilities of curvy women are much higher than those of thin women. Moreover, their children are born smarter.

Women's thighs contain omega-3 fatty acids, which contribute to the development of first the mother's brain and then the child's, says one of the researchers, Steven Galin. - Men respond because it is important for reproduction.

However, scientists emphasize that fat on the thighs contributes to increased intelligence. And the one at the waist contains a lot of omega-6 fatty acids. And it doesn’t make you smarter. And men don’t react either.

Reading time: 8 minutes. Published 06/01/2016

75% of women commit actions that cause them to gain excess weight. These are the reasons why women get fat or cannot lose weight!

Scientists have discovered that success in the struggle for a slim figure is directly related to both the place where you eat and the environment at lunch or dinner. It turns out that the number of calories a woman consumes greatly depends on where she consumes them - at home or in a restaurant, alone, with girlfriends or in the company of men.

According to an article by British nutritionist David Haslam published in the medical journal The Lancet, living together between a man and a woman leads to the latter overeating. A woman, thinking of something tasty to feed a man, buys more high-calorie foods. And she herself, for company, begins to eat like a man - large portions, and is addicted to wine and fatty foods. Especially in the evenings.
“When you have dinner with your partner, it's a social event, not just satisfying your hunger,” Haslam explains. — You eat more and perhaps more extravagant meals.
The doctor also notices the opposite effect. When a husband goes on a long business trip or goes to a resort alone, a bored wife usually loses weight. And David believes that this is a consequence of moderate nutrition. And not anything else.
Please note that the British man is talking about eating together at home. His Canadian colleague Meridith Young from McMaster University was concerned about feeding in public places - in restaurants and cafes. The researcher tracked what dishes almost 500 of her “sisters” consumed, noting with whom they did it. And it turned out: when having lunch or dinner in the company of a gentleman or gentlemen, the lady, as a rule, chose food with minimal calorie content. And sitting down at the table with her friends, she gave free rein to gluttony.
Meridith did not deeply understand the reasons for the discovered phenomenon. I just assumed that it was a matter of ostentatious female modesty. Like, I won’t scare a man with my excesses in food. Yes, and in a restaurant it is immoderation - more noticeable than at home: dishes must be ordered, and not served from a frying pan. In addition, they are portioned - you put as much as you put in - you don’t have to run to the kitchen for more.
And if a man also pays, which is at least not uncommon in Russia, then a truly modest lady will not overindulge in marbled meat, 30-centimeter pizza and two desserts instead of one.
The conclusion is obvious: women, if you want to lose weight in a delicious way, gather your gentlemen and go to a restaurant. The more the lady seats them at the table, the more she will choose, Meridith assures. At home, control yourself. And if you’ve already gone to dinner with your girlfriends, then hold it with a vengeance.

A strong belief is that sex is akin to physical exercise. Like, one sexual intercourse replaces a half-hour run. And with an orgasm - as many as four such runs. Calories burn like coal in a locomotive furnace. Along with subcutaneous fat. What no diet can achieve. Therefore, by having sex joyfully and with pleasure, women lose weight.
This seemingly obvious advantage of intimate life was questioned by the Indian professor Ritesh Menezes, an expert in yoga and the Kama Sutra. He shared his nightmarish suspicions on the pages of the popular American magazine Medical Hypotheses. Like, in fact, sex does not get rid of excess weight. On the contrary, it promotes obesity. And this provoked a massive discussion already in the NewScientist magazine.
The professor emphasizes that sexual intercourse, especially followed by orgasm, sharply increases the concentration of the hormone prolactin in the blood. Its main purpose is to stimulate milk production in pregnant women. And in non-pregnant women, it promotes the accumulation of fat deposits. As evidence, the scientist cites the fact that obese women, as a rule, suffer from hyperprolactinemia - that is, their hormone levels are greatly increased.
What to do if you still want it often and a lot? Fight the urge? Not at all, says Stuart Brodie from the University of the West of Scotland, who actually discovered the phenomenon of a sharp increase in prolactin levels during traditional sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. Masturbation, by the way, does not give such a surge.
The researcher advises having sex with maximum intensity - moving a lot in the process. Then - purely physically - it will be possible to burn more fat than it accumulates thanks to the hormone.

3.

There are three times more women with extra pounds today than in the 80s of the last century. British scientists from Manchester and London (Manchester University and Royal Holloway, University of London) came to this conclusion after analyzing medical statistics. Naturally, they wanted to know what the reason was. And they found it by studying social surveys conducted over about 30 years.
The reason women are obese is that they have become bad housewives. Today's representatives of the fair sex “do housework” on average 20 percent less than their slimmer predecessors. And accordingly, they consume fewer calories, which leads to steady weight gain. And modern - very convenient - household appliances help with this. And, as a rule, sedentary work. For comparison: washing the floors, a woman spends three times more calories than working at a computer. And before, they also washed in troughs, washed dishes by hand, went to work, and did not drive cars - at least, take a trolleybus. And we prepared lunches ourselves, rather than buying ready-made meals in supermarkets.
According to one of the study's authors, Melanie Luhrmann, even exercise, on which the average woman spends about 11 minutes a day, does not allow her to use up the energy surplus that was previously spent on housework. It’s one of two things: you either need to spend more time in the gym or at the stove and at the sink.

4. Women's brains are designed in such a way that they do not allow them to fight their appetite.

There are about a quarter fewer obese men than obese women. This is world statistics. Don't believe her? Look at the visitors to medical television programs. “Donuts” predominate overwhelmingly. They would be happy to lose excess weight. They report that they are trying to go on diets and go to the gym. But few people manage to achieve what they want - a slim figure.
The secret of defeating the fairer sex in the fight against obesity was recently revealed by Dr Gene-Jack Wang from the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, publishing the results of his research in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the scientist, women often “break down” after torturing themselves with diets and spending calories on exercise because they have poor willpower. Much worse than men. And the reason for this is biology—more precisely, the female brain. It is he who inevitably leads ladies into the temptation of eating well. Especially when there is something tasty in front of them - the ladies. Men are more resilient in this sense. And as a rule, they do not give in to temptation.
Dr. Wang discovered the phenomenon by comparing tomograms—pictures of brain activity in real time—of 13 women and 10 men. The scientist asked them to fast for 17 hours straight, while doing some kind of activity with breaks for physical education.
Then, having found out their preferences in advance, the volunteers were led to tables with their favorite dishes. We set the task of not eating them while thinking about something else. At this time, Wang watched how the brains “struggled” with temptation. Through positron emission tomography (PET).
So, the men managed to drown out thoughts about food. But women don’t. The areas of their brain associated with the desire to eat were literally on fire.
“It is incredibly difficult to resist such activity,” says the scientist. “Perhaps this may explain the fact that women are less successful when trying to lose weight through dieting and exercise compared to men.”
What to do? Cultivate willpower.

Stephen Stearns, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University, highlighted data from a large-scale study conducted in the US state of Massachusetts. It began back in 1948 - spanning three generations and several tens of thousands of representatives of the fairer sex. The information collected included information about the beginning and end of the reproductive period, height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart condition and, most importantly, the number of children.
And it turned out: short and well-fed women, as a rule, had more children than tall and thin women. Height, weight and other genetic characteristics were regularly passed on to subsequent generations - very similar daughters were born - plump, who, in turn, also sought to have more children.
Stearns believes that slim people are losing out in an evolutionary competition with chubby people. So the latter ones multiplied.
Slender! Give birth more actively.

Consultation with a nutritionist