Psychological stress and glucose metabolism in obese and normal-weight subjects: a possible mechanism for differences in stress-induced eating

Acute psychological stress has been found to impair the handling of a glucose load in normal-weight individuals and to produce a delay in gastrointestinal transit time. The present study utilized the same paradigm to compare 10 obese and 10 normal-weight subjects. All subjects participated in two counterbalanced sessions (stress and nonstress). At each session, subjects were fed a carbohydrate load, and glucose was measured 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min after the load. On nonstress days, subjects relaxed after the drink; on stress days, subjects participated in 30 min of competitive tasks. The stressor significantly delayed the glucose response in the normal-weight subjects but did not affect the glucose response in obese subjects. This finding may have implications for differences between obese and normal-weight individuals in stress-induced eating, possibly explaining the decreased consumption of normal-weight individuals during stress.