According to a new study by the University Of Rochester School Of Medicine, a stressful job can cause people to gain weight.  Workers with more stressful jobs were bigger compared to employees with less stressful jobs.  The stressed employees had a body mass index that was about one unit heavier on average than that of their relaxed co-workers.

The subjects that were studied came from a downsized company where workers who were left behind often complained of more stress and more responsibilities.  The employees answered questions about their diets, job stress and leisure-time activities.  Short-term stress was estimated by measuring job insecurity, or the fear workers felt over the threat of more layoffs. Chronic stress was measured by the amount of control workers felt they had over their jobs and how heavy their responsibilities were.

Results showed that workers with more responsibilities and less control had BMIs one point higher than their co-workers with low responsibility and high control with other factors like age, race and income.

The findings suggest that stress at work makes people fall back on unhealthy behaviors at home including overeating and watching TV.