Some People Also Experience Depression After Losing Weight
You could also notice something of an opposite effect feelings of depression after intentional weight loss.
Perhaps youve lost some weight, just not as much as you hoped. If your weight loss has plateaued, you may feel frustrated, hopeless, or discouraged. These feelings can negatively affect your mood and general outlook.
Messages from the media, advertisements, and loved ones often suggest thinness leads to happiness. A smaller size, then, might seem like the key to a new, improved you, so you might feel let down, even depressed, when the life changes you envisioned fail to become reality.
The truth is, any personal difficulties, relationship problems, or workplace challenges wont automatically disappear once you lose weight. These concerns, and anything else troubling you, will probably stick around until you address them.
Some evidence also suggests a potential link between malnutrition and depression. This link could help explain the fact that many people with eating disorders also have depression, though more research is needed.
When you skip meals or severely restrict calories whether due to an eating disorder or another reason, like food insecurity or lack of access to nutritious food your brain and body dont get enough energy to function properly, prompting symptoms like energy loss, fatigue, and low mood.
How To Stay Motivated To Exercise And Lose Weight With Depression
Now that we know more about depression and its relationship with weight gain, exercise, and weight loss its time to start discussing different ways to stay motivated. One of the hallmark signs of depression is a loss of interest and motivation in anything. Depressed individuals find it difficult to focus on work, get up in the morning, so it may be particularly difficult to tell them they should exercise more.
If you struggle with depression, you already know how complicated it is to stay motivated although you do want to do something about your weight and physical activity. Below, you can see different ways you can get motivated to slim down.
The Complex Link Between Depression And Weight
Food and mood often go together. You might reach for a comforting bag of chips when you feel down. Or feel so stressed that you canât even think about eating.
Itâs normal for difficult emotions to make you overeat or eat too little. But if you live with clinical depression, changes in eating can be long-term and lead to drastic weight gain or loss.
Recommended Reading: Can Eating Disorders Cause Acne
Role Of Physical Activity Weight Loss In Depression Management
Depression is a serious problem. Persons with depression sometimes struggle to get out of bed in the morning, they have no motivation or interest to do anything, and the feeling of sadness is severe to affect their everyday life. Although a severe problem depression is still manageable. Theres a lot of patients can do to feel better and manage the symptoms they experience. If youre depressed and also overweight or obese, you may want to start increasing activity levels and exercising. A growing body of evidence confirms that physical activity has a significant role in depression management. Regular exercise elevates your mood, improves sleep quality, and increases overall satisfaction . Not only does physical activity improve depression management but it also reduces the risk of depression at any age .
As youre already aware, physical activity and exercise are absolutely crucial for weight loss. One reason to get motivated to work out is that slimming down can also contribute to more effective depression management. Research confirms that weight loss is strongly associated with improvements in mood among depressed and obese adults . In other words, slimming down can aid depression management and make you feel a lot better mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Hashi Mashi Diet Sample Meal Plan
Drink a tall glass of water with lemon when you wake up.
Shoot for half your body weight in ounces every day.
The National Academy of Sports Medicine recommends that men drink three liters of water a day and women two liters.
You will hit the restroom often, but be happy about that because your body needs water to metabolize fat out of your body.
Also, upping your water game is excellent for your skin, mood, and not to mention your kidneys.
Begin the day with a breakfast dish fittingly called Hashi Mashi an omelet with onions, greens, tomato, pepper, and hummus, and avocado on the side, and top it off with olives.
Hashi Mashi Breakfast
Or have oatmeal, peanut butter, and grapes, blueberries or strawberries, or an Ezekiel sprouted grain muffin, almond butter, with slices of red pepper and cucumber.
Have some blueberries, an apple, or grapes for a snack with walnuts or cashews.
You can have an avocado, tuna, tofu, chicken, peanut butter, grapes, or a turkey sandwich on sprouted grain bread with lots of vegetables for lunch, like spinach, tomato, red pepper, and olives.
Or a sweet potato and roasted cauliflower with a lean protein to keep it simple.
An easy dinner is sauteed spinach and garlic with rice and salmon.
I lost 75 pounds in 6 months using the above five fundamental lifestyle changes and meal template suggested above, and you lose the weight you want to as well. Anything that anyone else can do is possible for you.
Read Also: How To Cope With Ptsd
How To Motivate Yourself To Workout When Depressed
Having the motivation to maintain a workout routine is not an easy task, especially when youre depressed. Exercising regularly can help reduce symptoms of depression, but sometimes its hard to find the motivation to get started. If youre struggling to workout because of your depression, here are a few tips that might help.
Also Check: How To Stop Ptsd Flashbacks
Or Spend Time With Loved Ones
Depression can tempt you to isolate yourself and withdraw from people you love and trust, but face-to-face time can help wash away those tendencies.
If youre unable to spend time together in person, phone calls or video chats can also be helpful.
Try to remind yourself these people care about you. Resist the temptation to feel like youre a burden. You need the interaction and they likely do, too.
Research has shown that keeping a journal can be a beneficial add-on method for managing mental health conditions.
Writing down your thoughts can help you express what youre feeling more clearly. It can also help you keep track of what symptoms youre having each day and identify what causes them.
You can make a goal to write for a few minutes each day or week. Most importantly, what you want to write about is completely up to you.
When you do the same thing day after day, you use the same parts of your brain.
Research shows doing new things can feel rewarding improve your overall well-being and strengthen your social relationships.
To reap these benefits, consider trying a new sport, taking a creative class, or learning a new cooking technique.
You May Like: How To Diagnose Bipolar Depression
Don’t Miss: What To Say When Calling In Sick With Anxiety
No More Diets Eat Real Food
Have you tried being a vegetarian, a vegan, a carnivore, fruit only, macrobiotics, round and round you go, weight watchers, no fat, low fat, and high-fat diets?
How many weight loss programs can you keep trying?
The answer is to give up dieting and start eating real food when you are hungry.
Some refer to eating real food as clean eating.
The term itself is not significant.
What is essential is that you focus on quality food like vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fruits, and some fish, poultry, and meat if you want for flavor.
You need to shake things up if you want to experience weight loss without suffering.
You cannot keep eating and living the same way if you expect to see different results, as Albert Einstein once said in his definition of insanity.
As soon as you change your eating habits, your body will start to respond.
Get out of your bodys way and let it heal.
Can Drinking Water Make Me Lose Weight
Yes, drinking water can help you lose weight. It will increase how many calories you burn when at rest. Studies even say that when you drink cold water your body spends more calories to turn the water warm.
Aside from that, drinking water can reduce your appetite because it will make you feel more satisfied, and when you start your meal, you will notice that you will eat a lot less.
So water is beneficial for losing weight but also for a healthy body. If you are considering dieting, get in touch with a nutritionist that can help you think about your diet and how your water intake might be beneficial to reaching your goals.
Recommended Reading: Is Binge Eating Disorder In The Dsm
Avoid Sleeping Too Much
Sleep is important we all know that. However, too much sleep is as bad as too little good nights rest. Getting too much sleep can, in fact, make your depression even worse. This also means it can aggravate symptoms associated with this common mental health problem. Although there comes the time when all you want to do is sleep, you should still strive to do something such as take a walk or go for a jog.
Exercise will also boost your energy, keep you alert, and help you focus more on your work, life, and you name it. As a result, youll feel more motivated at the same time. Its needless to mention sufficient sleep is important for weight management as well.
Depression Makes Losing Weight Much Harder
If you are trying to lose weight you might find it much harder if you have untreated depression, researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle report in General Hospital Psychiatry. They also found that an overweight individual has a significantly greater risk of having depression compared to people of normal weight for their age and height.
Gregory Simon, M.D. and team monitored 203 obese women for a period of twelve months. They all had symptoms of depression and were aged 40 to 60 years. They all had a BMI of over 30 average 38.3.
The women were placed in two groups:
- Weight loss group the participants focused only on losing weight.
- Weight loss plus depression group as well as focusing on losing weight, their depression was clinically treated
In both groups there were 26 group sessions over a period of one year. The women were assessed at the start of the study, at 6 months, 12 months and then 24 months. Assessment included measuring body weight, identifying depressive symptoms, and gathering self-reported data on physical activity. They were also given a food frequency questionnaire at each assessment session which estimated their calorific intake.
At six months the scientists found that 38% of the women who had an increase of at least half-a-point on the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist depression score had shed 5% of their body weight, versus only 21% of those whose depression had not improved at all.
The authors concluded:
Also Check: How To Get Tested For Bipolar
Stop Killing Yourself With Fast Food
You are a fast-food addict, and it is not your fault.
Food scientists are hard at work inventing the next great fast food, which will keep you coming back for more.
Have you struggled your whole adult life with eating habits that morphed into being husky, overweight, and finally obese? \
Did you grow up on frozen food and processed food?
Now you have a solid clue as to why you are overweight!
Eliminate the processed foods, and you will see the magic your miraculous body can perform in front of your eyes.
Why Do People Lose Weight When They Are Stressed
Stress can cause many emotional and physical effects in a persons life, even weight loss. This might happen for many reasons. It could be that the person under stress starts to develop many gastrointestinal problems, such as reflux, gas, bloating, nausea, or abdominal pain.
This happens because stress affects the communication between the brain and gastrointestinal system. It might also cause inflammation of the body, this can happen because of stress and bad eating habits, which affect how the gut processes and metabolizes the food.
It can also trigger your bodys fight or flight system. This agitation the body will experience causes it to burn more calories, and it can also change how the body digests the food. When a person is stressed they also have a higher level of cortisol in their bodies, which can cause issues in a persons metabolism.
Read Also: What Is The Best Medication For Bipolar Disorder
Im Trying To Train Myself
- I want to do that. Depression and anxiety, despite this wish, will make this almost tricky.
- Some people who have problems like mine are socially nervous, and its harder to work in a gym or exercise than to weigh pounds.
- Its not something I can quickly go through. If you want to help, give me a chance to come along or let me speed up if I can find the strength to go.
Is It Normal To Lose Weight When Depressed
Yes, people can lose weight when depressed. Although depression affects the persons emotional condition, it can also have a great impact on the persons physical health.
Aside from the sadness, loss of hope, and feeling empty that depression brings, it can also make people more susceptible to pains and headaches. They also have a decrease in their energy levels, sometimes stomach problems, and trouble sleeping.
The eating patterns of a person with depression also changes. They can start to feel hungrier than usual, and might eat emotionally. People might eat as a way to comfort themselves, it may also be a way to not feel so sad or empty. In those cases, people usually tend to gain weight because of depression.
For other people, depression can decrease the amount of food they eat. Which can cause them to feel even less energetic, causing it harder to deal with depression. There might be some reasons as to why people start to eat less when depressed. Lets discuss why this happens.
Don’t Miss: How To Live With Someone With Bipolar
Im Overweight And Frustrated With Diet My Body And How I Feel About Myself
Do you feel this way? Lets jump right into what this article is not. This article is not about how to lose weight. Were not going to explore specific exercises or exercise programs for weight loss. No, were not going to cover diet dos and donts, weight loss supplements, or offer testimonials. This time we are sharing together right now is for you. Were about to get real.
It is my position that obesity is a consequence of many factors. However, the responsibility of transformational thinking belongs to each of us. Nobody is going to solve problems for us. We must choose to explore our challenges and search for solutions. Why can I not lose weight? It isnt because you are not exercising properly. It isnt because you are not dieting. If you are open to the idea that obesity isnt cured by exercise alone or dieting, please continue reading.
Summary Of The Main Findings
This systematic review summarizes the existing data on the effects of diet on depressive symptoms in overweight or obese patients. Findings from the included studies were mixed, with the majority of studies reporting significant improvements in depression scores after diet and weight loss, and the remaining studies reporting no differences between depression scores between pre- and postintervention . No studies reported deterioration of depressive symptoms aside from one that reported increased mood disturbance in participants on a high glycemic load diet . Importantly, the majority of authors reported high adherence to the intervention, whether those were hypocaloric diets or supplements. The trend of obese individuals experiencing an improvement in their depressive symptoms after diet and weight loss is in line with previous research. Dietary interventions using a calorie-restricted diet resulted in decreases in depressive symptoms. However, the results are less clear for dietary supplements . Overall, the dietary approaches were heterogenous in that the diets investigated were calorie reduced, traditional, high/low in protein, high/low in carbohydrates, with/or without pre-/probiotic, vitamins, or naturopathic supplements.
Don’t Miss: When Is Eating Disorder Awareness Month
Set A Goal For Yourself
The best tool which should be used to lose weight when depressed is the smart goal setting tool. SMART stands for
In simple words we can say that goals should be those that can be possible, have a way to be measured, as well as realistic enough that you can attain them. You should also specify the time limit on the goals, so you have the motivation to fulfill them. Setting up together a long-term as well as a short-term goal is ultimate. Just keep in mind that goals should be:
- Easily calculable, so you can track your progress in the direction of achieving them
- Rational so that you wont feel besieged by an impossible task
Improve Your Mental Health
On top of leaning out, achieving a healthy weight will help your mental health issues as well.
You can treat depression with or without antidepressants by changing your lifestyle, the type of food you eat, and how much exercise, even walking, you get daily.
Unlike obesity, while you might not be able to cure depression, you could find it easier to manage without antidepressants.
Giving up your reliance on antidepressants has multiple benefits:
- avoiding harmful side effects, such as obesity or the worst known side effect suicidal ideation
- less toxic drugs in your system
- spend the money on better quality food, a gym membership, and strength training equipment
Also Check: Is Weed Good For Schizophrenia
Read Also: What Does A Ptsd Attack Feel Like