Eating After Acute Psychosocial Stress in Healthy Men and Women: Sex Differences and Endocrine Mechanisms

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Abstract
Context Overweight and obesity have become a major health burden with a higher prevalence of obesity in women than in men. Mental stress has been discussed to play a role in this context. Objective We investigated endocrine mechanisms underlying eating after acute psychosocial stress and potential gender differences therein. Methods 32 male and 31 female healthy participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test before they tasted ice cream in a bogus taste test 15 min after stress. We repeatedly assessed the stress hormone cortisol and the satiety hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) in saliva as well as perceived hunger before and up to 1 hr after stress. Results Lower immediate total cortisol stress reactivity predicted higher hunger (p´s≤.004), but was not associated with food intake (p´s≥.90) or total CCK release (p´s≥.84). As compared to men, women ate less after stress (p´s<.001) and had consistently lower levels of hunger (p´s≤.024) and cortisol (p≤.008) as well as a lower immediate total cortisol stress reactivity (p´s=.002). Further, they differed in the kinetics of CCK over the total experimental procedure (p´s≤.011), in immediate reaction to stress (p´s≤.038) and after eating (p´s≤.072), with women´s CCK levels continously decreasing while men´s CCK levels were reactive. Conclusions We found evidence for lower immediate total cortisol stress reactivity relating to higher perceived hunger, with lower cortisol levels in women. Unlike men, CCK levels of women were not reactive to acute stress and eating and decreased continuously. Our results may suggest a higher risk for stress-induced eating in women.
Funding Information
  • German Research Foundation (INST 38/550-1)
  • Germany’s Excellence Strategy (EXC 2117-422037984)

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