How snooping makes you fat

Specialists say that the stress of being caught snooping or looking for yet undiscovered information can lead to piling on the pounds by emotional overeating.

The digital age in which we live has resulted in more snooping than ever before.

We Google people we’ve just met, check the text messages of partners and check out the friends of friends on Facebook.

Stress triggers the production of a hormone, named cortisol, which can interfere with the appetite-regulating hormone leptin, thus leading to an increase in appetite, msnbc.com reports.

Dawn Billings, a psychotherapist in Orange City, Florida, said: “If you’re a snooper, ask yourself <<What am I thinking about? And why I am snooping? What are my feelings about this?>>.”

Dawn Billings also said those feelings should be expressed with a one-to-one talk, not eaten.

“If you’re snooping because of distrust based on past experiences, discuss this openly,” she said.

Snooping can also affect your ability to get to sleep.

Obsessing about information keeps your ticking, making it that harder to wind down and get a good night’s sleep.

Lisa Brateman, a Manhattan-based psychotherapist, told msnbc.com: “Knowing the real reason or anxiety about the need to snoop can certainly help <<dial down>> the emotional reactions that propel someone to invade someone’s privacy and personal boundaries.”

She also suggests talking openly with the person you snoop on.

“We can deal with what we know about head-on,” Lisa Brateman said.