Intense physical exercises increase stress levels in some obese people, a small study shows.
Researchers at the University of Stavanger in Norwegia recruited 17 people with sedentary lifestyles and 18 people with active lifestyles, the control group.
The participants in the inactive lifestyle were enrolled in a 22-week program tailored to modify their habits. It included exercises, diet and seminars. At the end of the program, the researchers found that the participants lost weight but not as much as the researchers expected.
Later, the researchers studied the participants' cortisol levels to measure stress. The findings revealed that the stress levels went up during the study as they lost weight. Cortisol levels were still high when the researchers measured them six months after the program.
Researchers stated that the increased stress levels might explain the reason why the participants did not lose the expected weight. The results showed that people with lowest levels of cortisol had highest weight loss.
The team said that the having an active lifestyle improves health overall.
"It's often said obese people should change their diet and exercise to lose weight. But they may also need to deal with stress," stated lead author of the study, Brynjar Foss, an associate professor in the Department of Health Studies at the University of Stavanger (UiS).
"If you're physically active, you can be in good health even if you're overweight," physiotherapist Martha Loland, who conducted the study for her MSc in health science at the UiS, said in a press release. "The chances of suffering cardio-vascular disease are smaller for obese people who exercise than for those who don't make any effort to keep fit."
The study, 'Exercise Can Alter Cortisol Responses in Obese Subjects,' was published in the Journal of Exercise Physiology.
