Mental health affects your weight.
Your mental health affects your physical health. It’s a statement that’s been thrown around so much in recent years that it’s become cliché. For example, if you’re sad or stressed out, your body releases hormones that can make it harder to lose weight and easier to gain weight. In addition to affecting our bodies directly through the release of hormones and other chemicals, poor mental health can also lead us down unhealthy paths when it comes to eating and exercise habits.
Unexpected Weight Gain
An unhealthy mental state can lead to unhealthy eating habits. If you’re feeling stressed or upset, it’s easy to reach for food as a way of coping with the emotions that come with those feelings. This can lead to binging and weight gain. Grief, depression, and anxiety are all associated with increased appetite and cravings for unhealthy foods that provide little nutritional value–and these conditions are also linked with higher rates of obesity among adults.
In addition to these physical symptoms caused by mental illness (such as fatigue), people experiencing this stress may also experience changes in their appetite: Some people lose interest in eating altogether while others find themselves eating more than usual without realizing how much they’ve consumed until it’s too late.
You may be more likely to binge eat if you’re depressed. Binge eating is one of the unhealthiest ways people cope with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. It’s a major cause of health problems.
If you’re binge eating as a way to deal with your emotions, it’s important to know that this can lead to other problems in addition to weight gain–including low self-esteem, shame and guilt about your body image, relationship problems, dental problems and more.
Unexpected Weight Loss
You may be more likely to skip meals and snacks if you’re anxious. If you’re feeling anxious, it’s likely that your eating habits have changed. Anxiety can cause people to feel a loss of control and make them think they are unable to handle daily tasks. This can lead to skipping meals and snacks or consuming foods that aren’t good for their health. Additionally, some people with anxiety disorders find it hard to focus on the task at hand–such as eating regular meals–and may find themselves making bad decisions about what they eat when they do decide to eat something.
Inactive Lifestyle
You may have a harder time getting moving in the first place if you’re anxious or depressed. It’s no secret that exercise can be an effective way to manage stress, anxiety and depression. But if you’re struggling with a mental health issue you may find it harder than usual to get moving in the first place (or keep up with your routine).
There are many reasons why this might be true:
- You might not want to see other people outside because of your mood; You don’t want to have to fake a smile.
- Your energy levels may fluctuate throughout the day depending on whether or not you’ve eaten or taken medication yet.
- Even if there is nothing physically wrong – you might still feel like exercising isn’t worth it due to feeling anxious/depressed all day
Staying active is an important part of managing depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. Physical activity can help you stay focused and make it easier to manage your emotions. It may also help improve your mood by releasing endorphins that make you feel good about yourself and your life.
There are many ways to get physically active: walking or biking instead of driving when possible; taking breaks from sitting at work every hour or so; gardening instead of watching TV; doing chores around the house (cleaning windows, for example); playing sports with friends/family members.
Sleep Problems and Cravings
Stress can interfere with your ability to sleep well and induce cravings for comfort food that are hard to resist. When you’re stressed out, it’s more likely that you’ll eat more than what’s healthy, or even worse–eat unhealthy food.
Here are some ways to help manage stress eating and sleep:
- Eat small meals throughout the day instead of sitting down to a big dinner at night. This will help keep blood sugar levels stable, so they don’t crash late at night when hunger strikes while you’re trying to sleep.
- Try meditation or yoga as an alternative way of relaxing and releasing tension physically as well as mentally (and maybe even spiritually). This will help reduce cortisol levels in the body which helps lower anxiety related disorders such as insomnia!
Healthy Mind, Healthy Body
Making sure you’re mentally healthy helps your body as well as your mindMental health is just as important as physical health, and it can affect your weight loss in many ways. If you’re struggling with depression or anxiety, for example, it might be difficult for you to exercise regularly–which means that your body won’t be getting the physical activity it needs to stay healthy and lose weight. And if you’re feeling depressed or anxious about losing weight (or anything else), then those negative emotions could make it harder for you to stick with healthy eating habits or stick with an exercise routine long enough for them to become ingrained habits.
You may not think of yourself as someone who struggles with mental health issues like depression or anxiety; however, even if these issues don’t affect how often or how much food goes into your mouth each day (though they very well could), there’s still evidence that poor mental health can negatively impact success at losing weight–and vice versa: good mental health may help improve chances at achieving goals related to fitness goals such as losing weight!
With so many factors to consider, it’s important that you take a holistic approach to your weight loss efforts. If you’re struggling with depression or anxiety, don’t hesitate to seek help from a professional who can guide you through the process of managing these issues in order to achieve better health overall.
Treat yourself well and surround yourself with supportive people. A study showed that those with less support are more likely to drop out of weight loss programs: https://digitalcommons.pcom.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1237&contex…
Contact Advanced Medical Weight Loss for the one-on-on counseling to achieve your goals while taking your mental health into account.