How is neuropeptide Y related to weight gain?

A study published in the prestigious journal Nature: Medicine looked at the effects of stress on weight gain in mice. The investigators reported that chronic emotional stress turns on a peptide (chemical messenger) called neuropeptide Y, which is found in body fat. This hormone increases appetite, especially for carbohydrate-rich foods. It also causes your body to convert these calories into belly fat, a double whammy.

What’s especially interesting is that chronic stress alone didn’t have much effect on weight gain in only two weeks, nor did a high-fat, high sugar diet. However, combining the two was especially toxic, and markedly increased abdominal fat deposits in only two weeks.

Over a longer period of time - three months - the high-fat, high-sugar diet caused obesity, but the amount of weight gain increased threefold when this same diet was given to mice that were also subjected to chronic stress. It also caused metabolic syndrome (glucose intolerance, which can lead to diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and inflammation).

When the researchers blocked the effects of neuropeptide Y, it reduced stress-induced visceral (belly) fat by 50 percent “without any discernible effect on food intake, which remained as increased as it was,” according to the investigators.

In other words, the mice ate the same amount of food and didn’t exercise more, but blocking the effects of neuropeptide Y decreased their belly fat by 50 percent. Amazing.

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