What is Relax?

Obesity and stress are highly comorbid and both increase risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Stress is associated with disinhibited eating, junk food consumption and low consumption of produce and whole grains. Both stress and stress-induced eating are not only associated with obesity but also predict worst outcomes in lifestyle interventions. Stress and stress-induced eating should be targeted in interventions to maximize weight loss; however, this makes for a very intensive intervention. Technology could be leveraged to reduce intervention burden. The purpose of this research is to develop and test the feasibility and proof-of-concept of a mobile application, called RELAX Application Suite (AS), that addresses stress. Our goal is to use RELAX-AS to create an intervention delivery model that reduces both weight and stress.