Anxiety and Weight Loss

Losing weight is one of the most common goals for women all around the world. Despite what the cover of most magazines make us think - it isn’t an easy one! Between the number of fad diets and challenges and stressors in everyday life, there are plenty of obstacles to overcome when you are working to achieve your goals. 

One of the biggest obstacles to losing weight is overcoming anxiety. Even though over 40 million americans struggle with anxiety, myself included, it isn’t often talked about. Our levels of anxiety are higher than ever with new ways of life and routines and a fear of new illnesses we have never seen before. This anxiety impacts many of the systems in our body that contribute to the process of weight loss. 

Anxiety impacts our sleep, motivation, and mindset. All vital parts to reaching our goals.

Your Sleep

Anxiety often keeps us up late into the night, sleepless. Being anxious produces excess cortisol which adds more difficulty to losing weight, results in stomach fat and leaves us feeling ‘wired’ at night and then tired in the morning.  Losing sleep impacts your hunger hormones - leptin and ghrelin. This can create false hunger signals.

Your Motivation

The feelings of overwhelm that come with anxiety create difficulty in decision making. Your mood being lower creates lethargic feelings,  making getting to the gym or being active much harder. This also lowers our strength to stop and think about our food choices, which makes positive choices in nutrition less likely. 

Your Mindset

It takes so much strength to keep a positive mindset. When you are anxious this strength can often be lost. Your mindset directly impacts your physical body. What we feel on the inside, shows on the outside. 

So What Are Your Solutions?

There are ways that we can set ourselves up to avoid losing sleep, motivation and strength for a positive mindset when we become anxious.  Try preparing yourself with these five solutions: