If you're someone who struggles with anxiety or stress, you're not alone.

At DLCWellness, we’ve built a global community around mental health and healing and one thing we see again and again is how deeply our physical health impacts our emotional well-being.

Yet one area that often gets overlooked is the connection between anxiety, chronic stress, and weight.

This isn’t about shaming bodies. It’s about understanding them and giving people the tools to feel better in both their minds and bodies. And that’s exactly why I want to introduce you to a company that’s doing something truly different: Oak.

The Science Behind Stress and Weight

Let’s start with the facts.

Chronic stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, triggering the release of cortisol - your body's primary stress hormone. In small bursts, cortisol is helpful. It keeps you alert and focused. But when it’s constantly elevated due to anxiety, overthinking, or burnout, it starts to take a toll:

• It disrupts your sleep.

• It increases inflammation.

• It makes your body hold onto weight, especially around the stomach.

• It drives cravings for sugar and carbs.

• It can lead to fatigue, mood swings, and low motivation.

This creates a cycle: anxiety causes hormonal changes that affect your metabolism and energy, which leads to weight gain or physical discomfort - which then fuels more anxiety.

It’s not just mental. It’s chemical. It’s physical. And it’s real.

Why Weight Struggles Can Fuel Mental Health Struggles

Weight gain isn’t just a physical thing it can also hit your mental health hard. Many people in our community feel shame, frustration, and self-criticism around their bodies. Others are emotionally eating to soothe anxiety, then feeling worse after. Some are too exhausted to work out or plan meals, and the guilt sets in. It’s not laziness. It’s biology and burnout colliding.

Research shows people with higher levels of inflammation (common in those with excess weight or poor gut health) are more prone to depression and anxiety. Poor sleep from stress can also increase hunger hormones and decrease satiety cues, making it harder to regulate eating habits.

This is why “just eat better” or “work out more” advice often backfires - it ignores the root of the issue.

So What’s the Solution? Here’s Where Oak Comes In.

Oak isn’t a diet company. They’re a weight wellness company built for real people, people with anxiety, ADHD, emotional eating habits, and complex relationships with food. They offer a science-backed, emotionally intelligent approach that fits perfectly with the values we hold at DLCWellness.

Here’s why Oak stands out:

Mental Health First

Oak leads with compassion and emotional support. Their programs are designed with people who have anxiety, burnout, and stress in mind. You’re not punished for struggling - you’re supported with tools that actually work.

Science-Driven Coaching

Their approach is grounded in behavioral psychology and neuroscience. You’re not just told what to eat you're guided to understand your patterns, shift your mindset, and build new habits that stick.

Anti-Shame, Anti-Gimmick

No food tracking apps. No weigh-ins. No guilt. Oak helps you feel safe in your body and build routines that support your mental clarity, energy, and emotional resilience.

Built for Long-Term Wellness

This isn’t a quick fix. It’s about slowly, sustainably improving your health without overwhelming your nervous system -something I always teach in my own coaching sessions. It’s healing, not hustling.

Why It Matters to Our Community:

The DLCWellness community is full of people who’ve spent years navigating therapy, medication, nervous system regulation, intrusive thoughts, and burnout. We know that wellness has to be holistic. That means looking at how anxiety affects digestion, how weight affects sleep, how stress affects motivation and how healing one area can lead to momentum in every other area of your life.

That’s why Oak’s mission is so powerful. They’re not here to sell you six-pack abs. They’re here to help you feel good in your skin, move with ease, sleep more deeply, and approach your health with kindness, not pressure.

Their work is already helping thousands of people change their relationships with food, their body, and most importantly, their self-worth.

Final Thoughts

If anxiety has made it harder for you to look after your physical health… or if weight struggles have affected your mental health… you’re not broken. You’re human. And you deserve a way back to balance that doesn’t shame you for where you’re starting.

Oak is creating that path, and we’re proud to support their work at DLCWellness.

You can learn more about what they do at www.oaklovesyou.com, and if you’ve been looking for a more compassionate way to support your wellness, this might just be the sign you’ve been waiting for.