Stress and Weight Gain

While we have heard that stress is not good for our health including weight gain, researchers are just beginning to understand why. Information that may help explain why stress may impact weight gain was published yesterday (click here to read about it). This study is important because it can help researchers find solutions to our obesity epidemic. Although the research findings are exciting, it is worth mentioning that we are not mice. So, a study such as this is mainly used for researchers to design better human studies versus making recommendations for humans.

In another experiment, the researchers found that stressed-out mice tend to gain twice as much weight in the belly area than expected given the calories they consumed. The results show that it was not just stress but the combination of stress and high-fat, sugary foods that led to weight gain. Even though this was shown in mice, who can argue with decreasing stress, high-fat and sugary foods? We will keep an eye out for the human version of these studies.