Changes of weight, stress level and stress-eating after 8 weeks
overweight, P., weight reduction
As described beforeChange of perceived stress and stress-related eating behaviour after 8 weeks in participants with normal weight and overweight of the intervention and control group.Significant values are in bold.Normal weight (BMI < 25 kg/mIn the intervention group, but not in the control group (p > 0.158), participants with a low stress level and who were overweight (n = 45) lost more weight (− 2.0 ± 2.1 kg) than those with a low stress level who were of normal-weight (n = 18; − 0.9 ± 1.1 kg; p = 0.016). There was no difference in weight reduction within the intervention group between participants with high and low stress levels (p > 0.202). Notably, the change of weight was neither associated with a change of perceived stress in all participants (IG: correlation coefficient [CC] = − 0.034; p = 0.765; CG: CC = − 0.178; p = 0.307) nor in subgroups of participants with overweight (IG: CC = 0.044; p = 0.742; CG: CC = − 1.112; p = 0.657) or normal-weight (IG: − 0.044; p = 0.853; CG: CC = − 0.207; p = 0.425).We did, however, observe a significant change of all scores of stress-related eating behaviour, i.e. a decrease of emotional and external eating and an increase of restrained eating in the intervention group (for all p < 0.001), but not in the control group, resulting in relevant between-group differences (p < 0.05; Fig. Change of stress-related eating behaviour in the intervention group (IG) and control group (CG); Changes of stress-eating scores: emotional eating: IG = − 3.5 ± 5.4 points (P); CG = − 0.05 ± 3.4 P; external eating: IG = − 2.0 ± 3.8 P; CG = − 0.6 ± 2.9 P; restrained eating: IG = 2.7 ± 5.0 P; CG = 1.0 ± 4.3 P. legend: **As correlation analyses revealed, the weight reduction in the intervention group was not associated with a change of emotional (p = 0.537) or restrained eating (p = 0.335). However, weight change was negatively correlated with external eating (RCorrelation of the change of external eating and weight change in participants of the intervention group (n = 78) after 8 weeks; Spearman correlation coefficient (CC) = 0.285; p = 0.014.