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Fat people don't cope well with stress and it makes them stupid
Now this is what I call an experiment!
Sorry for the harsh headline, but that is me dumbing down the study below.
I've written about stress before and Dr Dan had a good post on the subject today too. Stress via increased cortisol can make you fat, but now this indicates that when you are fat you cope less well with stress. A nasty vicious circle.
Cortisol is elevated in individuals with both increased emotional stress and higher percentages of body fat. Cortisol is also known to affect cognitive performance, particularly spatial processing and working memory. We hypothesized that increased body fat might therefore be associated with decreased performance on a spatial processing task, in response to an acute real-world stressor.
Design:
We tested two separate samples of participants undergoing their first (tandem) skydive. In the first sample (N=78), participants were tested for salivary cortisol and state anxiety (Spielberger State Anxiety Scale) during the plane's 15-min ascent to altitude in immediate anticipation of the jump. In a second sample (N=20), participants were tested for salivary cortisol, as well as cardiac variables (heart rate, autonomic regulation through heart rate variability) and performance on a cognitive task of spatial processing, selective attention and working memory.
Results:
In response to the skydive, individuals with greater body fat percentages showed significantly increased reactivity for both cortisol (on both samples) and cognition, including decreased accuracy of our task of spatial processing, selective attention and working memory. These cognitive effects were restricted to the stress response and were not found under baseline conditions. There were no body fat interactions with cardiac changes in response to the stressor, suggesting that the cognitive effects were specifically hormone mediated rather than secondary to general activation of the autonomic nervous system.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that, under real-world stress, increased body fat may be associated with endocrine stress vulnerability, with consequences for deleterious cognitive performance.
Chris, A little off topic here. I clicked on what you are reading. The Greatest exercise machine of all. What do you think about the exercises and the article? I liked it. I do not have the mobility/felxibility to pull of a quality one legged pistol. But the others I did ok in. (no, I did not crank out 10 one armed pushups ;-))
For other readers - when it pops off the list - the article is here
Marc:
Hi there. I think that is a great article and agree with the points that Maxwell makes. He - as I've posted before - is an amazing and inspirational athlete.
One thing that can concern me about bodyweight exercises is the boredom of high reps and the wear and tear on the joints. However he chooses tough moves where you simply can't do that many reps.
I am no great athlete at these by the way - I can do a single pistol - there is a balance thing to them- a few one arm pushups and a maximum of about 6 chins. There is a good pistol tutorial here.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was taking part in "Dry January". I didn't make a big song and dance about it, but I decided to go for a calendar month or so with no alcohol. A few people have asked me about my experience, so here are a few points. Why take a break from drinking? Alcohol is an interesting topic. As a drug it is widely accepted in society, central to so much of our socialising and leisure. There seem to be lots of health benefits - so we are told - yet there are also a lot of problems in terms of health, relationships and lifestyle that come from drinking. Over a few years I'd begun to become aware and then concerned that I was drinking too much and too regularly. I am in a busy and stressful job and sometimes a glass of wine after work to relax is really helpful. But over time, one glass became two. Two glasses became ....I might as well finish the bottle. A habit got established....and was starting to get too e...
You will have noticed that this blog has been quiet for a while.... There are a few reasons for that, reasons that I thought I'd list here: WORK - my day job has been incredibly busy and stressful this year. Working 10-14 hour days the last thing on my mind when I got home was putting something on here. FACEBOOK/TWITTER - I suppose I've been using other channels to do some of what I used to do here. Quick fire posts pointing to interesting studies or news etc tend to get posted to Twitter (@chrishighcock) or to the Facebook Hillfit group http://www.facebook.com/groups/263083947097000/ REASSESSMENT - I've found myself less comfortable with some of the positions I've taken in the past. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by some of the things I've promoted. I'm not Paleo or low carb. I think Tabata and intervals are misunderstood and misapplied. I cannot really claim to be HIT. I find myselfunable honestly to post things on here and pretend that I am some sort o...
I've a couple of posts in draft that I will get up soon - an update / reflection on Dry January and some thoughts on the scheduling benefits of short workouts if your life is busy. Before that though, I am pointing to something else. However, I wanted to highlight something that is coming this weekend that I've been involved in. Amber Rogers (Gokaleo and author of Taking Up Space ) has been pulling together a bundle of books from various authors with a common theme, one that I've been pushing here recently. Keep it simple, avoid the hype, be patient, be consistent and flee the gurus. I've talked before about how we get obsessed with pushing for more and more, when enough is OK. I've given my view that so much of the health and fitness internet world is more like a gnostic religion than something that will benefit your life. There are other voices out there saying similar things and I'll be pointing to a bundle of books later this week ...
Comments
A little off topic here.
I clicked on what you are reading.
The Greatest exercise machine of all.
What do you think about the exercises and the article? I liked it. I do not have the mobility/felxibility to pull of a quality one legged pistol. But the others I did ok in. (no, I did not crank out 10 one armed pushups ;-))
Marc:
Hi there. I think that is a great article and agree with the points that Maxwell makes. He - as I've posted before - is an amazing and inspirational athlete.
One thing that can concern me about bodyweight exercises is the boredom of high reps and the wear and tear on the joints. However he chooses tough moves where you simply can't do that many reps.
I am no great athlete at these by the way - I can do a single pistol - there is a balance thing to them- a few one arm pushups and a maximum of about 6 chins. There is a good pistol tutorial here.
As ever, thanks for the comment
That was a great link!!
From tennis and soccer my ankles and hamstrings are tight.
Marc