In German, there is the word Kummerspeck, which literally translates to sorrow lard and means:

the fat gained from stress eating

Is there such a word in English? I never found any.

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    The word "comfort food" frequently calls that sort of idea to attention, but only frequently and not directly. For your interest, you might look at this entry... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfort_food here is an excerpt: Comfort food consumption has been seen as a response to emotional stress and, consequently, as a key contributor to the epidemic of obesity in the United States.[8] The provocation of specific hormonal responses leading selectively to increases in abdominal fat is seen as a form of self-medication.[9] – Tom22 Mar 27 '17 at 20:05
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    There's really nothing to keep us from coming up with our own word for this. For example: I've been going for long walks every day, trying to trim off some of my depression pounds. And if you want it to be one word, stick a hyphen in it and feel sort of German. Also: -- let's go for a walk to work off our stress fat. – aparente001 Mar 28 '17 at 1:18

No, it appears there is not an equivalent English term. Kummerspeck is among the Terms considered difficult or impossible to translate into English:

  • Excess weight gained as a result of stress-related eating, literally "sorrow-fat".

(Source: Wiktionary)

The Collins Dictionary offers the following translation:


A flab caused by overeating because of emotional problems:

  • sie hat ganz schön Kummerspeck angesetzt:

  • she's been putting on weight through comfort eating.

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German tends to create new words by combining existing words. English doesn't tend to do this as much so leaving a space between the words "comfort eating" would strike me as fairly close.

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    It seems to me that where the German language puts two or more concepts together to create one word, the English language leaves the words largely separate and relies on context to link the meaning. – SGR Mar 28 '17 at 9:50

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