Life’s many disruptions, from injury to festive events, may account for most people’s yearly weight gain. In a new peer-reviewed perspective article, researchers argue this may be a key missing factor behind the persistent rise in global obesity.
“‘Lifestyle instability’ may be an underappreciated risk factor for excessive body fat gain which has fundamental implications for obesity prevention strategies and public health,” write Loughborough University exercise scientist Arthur Daw and colleagues.
The team describes accumulating evidence that weight increase happens in bursts related to life events, rather than in a steady increase over time.
Calculations based on annual weighings led to the idea that our weight accumulates gradually from eating a few grapes worth more energy than we use daily. This notion has fueled often problematic dietary fads.
But while what we eat certainly plays a massive role in our health, more detailed data collected by recent new technologies like the Fitbit is revealing our weight accumulation may be more sporadic than previously thought.
Anything with the potential to change eating and movement patterns can contribute to excess weight gain, the researchers argue, including study stress, relationship challenges, illness, parenthood, and use of different medications. As these disruptions stack up, so can our weight.
A recent study suggests even just five days of junk food can trigger obesogenic processes in your body. Changing the climate you’re exposed to can also influence your metabolism.
While such destabilizing events include enjoyable activities too, like stuffing ourselves silly during Christmas celebrations, this theory also tracks with an already established link between stress and weight gain.
Stress-induced increases in cortisol can suppress biological functions not needed for immediate survival, like your metabolism. This frees up your blood and energy for immediate action.
In turn, spikes in cortisol can have an impact on insulin levels, making your blood sugar drop, triggering sugary food cravings.
This may have been useful when we needed to flee from bears, but not for the types of ongoing stress we’re more likely to experience today, like financial stress from the rising cost of living.
Daw and colleagues suggest new technologies, including artificial intelligence, may be able to help us mitigate the risks during life’s many disruptions.
But it’s also important to remember that many factors contribute to our weight, including some that are out of our control. Because of this, focusing on eating and moving as healthily as possible, rather than on the weight itself, may increase your chances of a healthier outcome.
“If lifestyle disruptors are the main driver of annual fat gain, prevention strategies should focus on these events,” Daw and team conclude. “If fat gain occurs in short episodes, effective interventions may only require infrequent temporary behavioral changes.”
The perspective article was published in the International Journal of Obesity.