This Explains It

Now I know exactly why when I gain weight, the spare tire gets bigger and when I lose weight, my shoe size goes down:

When researchers put mice and monkeys in stressful situations and fed them a high-fat, high-sugar diet, they discovered that a hormone was released that promoted the growth of abdominal fat. In what was the true breakthrough, researchers showed they could then use this information to either decrease or increase the accumulation of fat in specific areas of the body.