Stressed-out and Gaining Weight? Find Out Why.

Filed in archive Obesity , Studies on July 29, 2009

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Do you ever find yourself wolfing down a bag of chips or a package of cookies after a bad day at the office? If so, here's some news that might interest you: Overweight men and women tend to pack on pounds from job stress and financial pressures, a study shows .

A recent study of more than 1,000 Americans showed that both men and women tended to pack on pounds due to job-related stress, difficulty paying their bills and mostly for women family related issues contributed as well.

Here are some of the findings reported at the American Journal of Epidemiology:

• Men who were already overweight or obese tended to pack on pounds over the years if they had job-related stress or difficulty paying their bills.


• Heavy women tended to gain from more types of stress including difficulty paying bills, job demands, strained family relationships and feeling a lack of control in their lives.

According to lead author Jason Block, a faculty member at Harvard Medical School:

"The stress effect didn't appear to impact normal-weight people, just those who are were overweight or obese from the beginning of the study.

This tells us that periods of stress, like we are experiencing right now with the economic decline, can lead to even more weight gain among those who already have a weight problem.

And weight-loss programs should incorporate stress-reduction techniques as part of their plans to help people lose weight more successfully."

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