Stress and Obesity

The article Stress and Obesity by A. Janet Tomiyama, in the Annual Review of Psychology looks at the pathways that connect obesity and stress and gives a summary in the abstract of there 3 main areas

• stress interferes with cognitive processes 1. executive function 2. self-regulation
• stress can affect behavior by 1. inducing overeating 2. decreasing physical activity 3. shortening sleep.
• stress triggers physiological changes 1. in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis 2. reward processing in the brain 3. possibly the gut microbiome 4. stress can stimulate production of biochemical hormones and peptides such as leptin, ghrelin, and neuropeptide Y.

Obesity itself can be a stressful state due to the high prevalence of weight stigma. This article therefore traces the contribution of weight stigma to stress and obesogenic processes, ultimately describing a vicious cycle of stress to obesity to stigma to stress. Current obesity prevention efforts focus solely on eating and exercise; the evidence reviewed in this article points to stress as an important but currently overlooked public policy target.

Stress and Obesity by A. Janet Tomiyama, in the Annual Review of Psychology

Some thoughts

• Learning to cope with stress in healthy ways is an important skill
• It may be worth examining sources of stress. Managing stress levels and sources of stress may be an important solution to combating obesity.

Consider: which of the above stress/food mechanisms are most significant for me and which of them I can at the present time do something about ie cognitive process changes, behaviour changes and physiological changes.