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Stress-related cortisol response and laboratory eating behavior in obese women

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Abstract

Stress-related cortisol secretion has been linked to increased appetite and subsequent food intake in overweight individuals. The present study addresses this relationship in a repeated-measures randomized controlled laboratory experiment. Nineteen obese women were compared to 36 normal weight controls with respect to stress-induced salivary cortisol and laboratory eating behavior, measured by a universal eating monitor. The trier social stress test served as stressor. Stress-induced cortisol levels were significantly higher in the obese compared to the normal weight controls. Unexpectedly, a corresponding increase in laboratory food intake was not detected. The results are interpreted and discussed with regard to restrained eating, which was found to be present to a significant degree in the obese women.

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Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Physiological Psychology, University of Trier, 54286, Trier, Germany

    Fabian Lorig, Gundula Rebecca Raphaela Kießl & Reinhold Gustav Laessle

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  1. Fabian Lorig
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  2. Gundula Rebecca Raphaela Kießl
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  3. Reinhold Gustav Laessle
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Correspondence to Reinhold Gustav Laessle.

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Lorig, F., Kießl, G.R.R. & Laessle, R.G. Stress-related cortisol response and laboratory eating behavior in obese women. Eat Weight Disord 21, 237–243 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-015-0190-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-015-0190-3

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