Stress-Related Weight Changes in Students: What Healthcare and Education Professionals Should Know

Transitions can be a great source of stress for many. For students in particular, this stress comes in the form of entering university, keeping up with academics, financial strain, and family and relationship troubles, which can contribute to stress individually or compounded.

If left unchecked, these stressors can contribute to behavioural changes, which may result in an increase or decrease in a person’s weight.

Student health is important to the health and pharma sector, as it can help indicate broader health trends to anticipate future healthcare needs and address marketing demands for related products or interventions.

Science of Stress and Weight Regulation

Many factors contribute to stress and weight changes that students experience.

Biological pathways

Cortisol: The hormone cortisol stimulates appetite and can increase cravings for calorie-dense and sugary foods.
Metabolism: Cortisol and insulin work in tandem to increase fat storage, and chronic stress can promote insulin resistance. Down the line, it can lead to developing diabetes.
Appetite: Ghrelin, the hunger hormone, increases in response to stress, stimulating hunger, resulting in increased food intake.

Behavioral Mechanisms

Habitual Eating: During periods of stress, students can develop habits like “comfort eating”, which runs the risk of weight gain. However, some students may lose their appetite due to stress or if they are prone to anxiety and depression.
Neurobiological Adaptation: Repeated stress can alter brain reward and control circuits, which increases the desire for foods, making it difficult to reduce how much of unhealthy food is consumed.
Sleep, Activity, Additional Behaviour: Stress leads to poorer sleep quality, lower physical activity, and an increase in alcohol intake. This can worsen metabolic health and weight outcomes.

The Role of Academic and Life Transitions

Major life-changing transitions that can lead to stress and subsequent weight changes. The transition often includes moving away from home, increased independence, academic competition, and lifestyle changes that can contribute to stress levels.

A Broader Scope of the Problem

Recently, the House of Commons Library reported that the mental health conditions of university students increased from under 1% to 5.8% in just a year.

In addition to this, stigma pertaining to weight changes is a hidden driver of stress and unhealthy outcomes. Weight bias and stigma can lead to poorer care for students and people who are obese, which can compound stress, worsen health outcomes, and reduce motivation for initiatives to manage weight healthily.

Risk Factors and Mechanisms

Stressors include high academic demands, such as intense curricula, exams, and pressure to perform can lead to behavioural changes. This includes:

Unhealthy dietary shifts under stress include an increased intake of processed foods, skipping meals, and late-night snacking.
Physical inactivity and increased sedentary behaviour are linked to a high academic workload.
Stress contributes to poor sleep, which exacerbates weight issues and emotional regulation.
While some people gain weight, others lose, or maintain weight, depending on individual coping mechanisms and baseline BMI.
Financial and physical health dissatisfaction are major barriers and a root cause of stress for students, particularly with socioeconomic issues.

Implications for Healthcare and Education Professionals

These issues bring about the need for holistic screening efforts for weight changes of students, especially during transitions and crisis periods.

Weight changes can signal broader issues that indicate students are experiencing physical and health concerns. If left unchecked, they can lead to long-term problems like obesity, metabolic changes, malnutrition, poor academic achievement, and the development of chronic disorders like diabetes and higher blood pressure.

By adopting holistic screening practices, it can provide routine and non-judgmental assessments to monitor weight, along with psychological and behavioural checks during student health visits. These assessments should explore stressors, eating patterns, sleep quality, physical activity and social or financial changes that students experience.

Changes in weight should be addressed in context and the ability to recognise a connection between academic stress, mental well-being, eating behaviours, and sleep.

Staff should be trained to discuss weight changes in a neutral manner, focusing on well-being rather than blame or passing judgment.

Actionable Strategies and Solutions

Institutional Strategies (systemic-level interventions)

Embed wellness and self-care modules into academic programs across disciplines. Modules should address nutrition, sleep, emotional regulation, physical activity, and stigma reduction.
Prioritise physical environment changes supporting activity and healthy eating, such as redesigning institutional spaces to promote affordable, nutritious food options in cafeterias as well as safe fitness and recreational spaces.
Develop a curriculum promoting resilience, self-compassion, and stigma reduction
Facilitate partnerships with healthcare providers and educational staff for a multidisciplinary team for coordinated prevention and intervention approaches.
Provide on-campus resources to include counselling, peer support, nutritional guidance, and stress relief workshops.

Recommendations for Clinical and Health Professionals

Screen for stress-related weight changes during routine health checks.. Make use of validated tools and questionnaires to identify disordered eating, emotional distress, and psychosocial factors.
Offer nutritional and psychological support instead of quick-fix diets or punitive measures.
Address co-existing issues and promote healthy lifestyles by encouraging regular physical activity as a critical component of stress management and weight regulation.
Address sleep hygiene through counselling on sleep routines and creating environments conducive to restorative rest, financial stress, and social isolation.
Students undergoing treatment for long-term chronic health issues, such as treatment for obesity by use of weight loss pens like Mounjaro, should be provided with suitable holistic strategies for sustainable outcomes.

Looking Forward – Research Gaps and Opportunities

There is a need for more longitudinal and diversified studies to clarify stress-weight relationships.
There is also an urgent call for interventions addressing weight stigma within professional training.
There are opportunities for cross-sector innovation by means of digital therapeutics, telehealth, and AI-driven risk screening.

Conclusion

Stress-related weight changes are multifactorial, with implications for both health and academic success. Healthcare and education professionals must collaborate to shed outdated approaches to managing weight changes in students to discern the root cause of the stress that contributes to stress. Providing programs and care can enable students to fulfil their academic goals without additional health-related worries.