Stress Related Eating and Weight Management with Mindfulness Eating

This project examines how weight gain is affected by stress and the bidirectional relationship between mind and body in stress, metabolism, comfort food eating, cortisol changes and insulin sensitivity. Partly lab based and partly clinical, we will investigate not just mechanism of weight gain from stress but treatment options with pharmacotherapy and mindfuless based stress reduction in tackling hedonic eating and weight loss. Are there biomarkers that can help identify individuals trying to lose weight who are susceptible to this phenomenon of stress related eating? Does mindfulness enhance pharmacotherapy? Let us find out in this project where you will deepen your understanding of how the mind and body integrate external stressors and how uncoupling stress to weight gain is possible.