Low mood/anxiety whilst in a calorie defecit

rosssneil

Looking for some advice and support while I'm currently going through one of the biggest hurdles in my weight loss journey

Age: 28 / Height: 5ft 6"

In February this year I started at 174lbs and over the course of 5 months or so I lost ~23lbs and weighed in around 151lbs. I was looking a lot thinner and my body fat was decreasing. Keeping up with my nutrition and training weren't particularly difficult and I wanted to carry on going. I took around 2 months off over the summer to enjoy seeing friends and go on weekends away to enjoy myself. During this time, I didn't take things as seriously as I had previously but still logged and trained and didn't really put on much weight (maybe a 1lb or 2)

However, I wanted to work with a personal trainer for 12 weeks to take things to the next level and hopefully lose a lot of my excess body fat. It's worth mentioning that my goal has been to reach a point where I look lean, nothing excessive, just fit, happy and healthy and maybe some ab definition.

The first 4-6 weeks with my coach were great, I was in a deficit and training 2-3 times a week in the gym and doing martial arts training on the side along with a couple of light runs. The weight continued to come off and I was excited by the thought of reaching my goal. Then between the 4-6 week point things started to change, most notably with my mood and hunger as my weight began to stall around 143lbs.

It was around this point that my coach told me that we would reach a point where we would factor in a re-feed and explained the benefits. I mentioned I was starting to crave certain foods that I would class as cheat meals when I was training on my own (pizza, takeaway etc), as well as experiencing lots of hunger and spending a lot of time thinking about food. I held off on a re-feed for as long as possible but at the 8 week point I needed to take a break as I was physiologically fatigued with dieting. However, the day I started the re-feed it was clear to me that I needed to pull the plug on dieting/re-feeds etc and just eat whatever I wanted as I was worried about my obsessive thoughts of food and the stress it was putting me under. It's a difficult line to tread as I knew that I didn't want to throw in the towel with my nutrition but there comes to a point where you realise that the process of losing weight isn't life or death and it's going to do you the world of good to just take a few days off being so strict and particular with tracking every single calorie.

Anyway, I rang my coach close to tears and explained that I'd decided what I needed to do was just have whatever I want and he said that was the right thing to do as we were both worried about my mental health. I spent the weekend not tracking, eating what I wanted and trying not to care. Monday came around and I was straight back on the horse, back into a calorie deficit (8lbs heavier than I was 3 days before) and back in the gym. But something's just not right. My mood is really low and the last time I can think that I was feeling good was about 3-4 weeks ago. Since then, it's felt really challenging and I just want to feel myself again and I want to know, is this normal when you're dieting/losing fat or whatever you want to call it?

I've still got some fat to lose, in my head it's another 14lbs or so (I think around 125-130lbs is a good target weight for my height and stature). I think I've been so tunnel visioned and looking towards to end goal so much that because the end isn't in sight, it's thrown me off and I don't know if I can take being so strict for the time it will take to reach my target weight). Main thing is this: I'm worried about my mood and want to know what the best course of action is and to hear if anyone has experienced anything similar. Me and my coach had a heart to heart and we've agreed that it would be best to increase my calories to maintenance for a while (2400) and to see how I feel in a week or so and then once I'm feeling better, start moving towards my target weight again...

Any advice/support?

x

joanna_82

It sounds like you need a break from the strict control that you have put yourself under to get to your target weight.
Remember, this isn’t about one number. This is about living a healthy life at a healthy weight so you do need to figure out a way of eating that you can take forward long term.
It shouldn’t be this stressful! It’s about changing habits and eating to have energy and to feel satisfied and enjoy the ‘treats’ you like within that lifestyle.
It sounds to me that you need a bit of a break, so eating at maintenance for a week or so sounds like a great idea. then maybe a rethink about your rate of weight loss going forward, how you will achieve balance with your diet and your mental health.

NovusDies

Sounds familiar. I am not having obsessive thoughts about food but I am definitely fatigued. Some of mine is brought on by this time of year. SAD does not affect me in a big way but you add in a long prolonged deficit and a significant increase in activity and I am fairly exhausted. As far as I know I have 15ish pounds left to lose but it may be slightly more. I will know when I get there.

My tolerance for a deficit is almost non-existent now. I was losing one pound a week but it became too much. Now even a half pound a week is too much.

I am in no particular hurry to finish so I have decided to take at least a 90 day break. In the past a 2 week break was enough to get me back in the green. I have tried 2 different breaks and they did bump me back to yellow but not to green. I need a much longer break.

I can lose the rest. I am not really worried about it. I am worried about what happens if I keep trying to lose it now. I am clearly swimming upstream against a tough current. I am confident that with an extended break I will go back to floating downstream again.

The obsessive thoughts you are having may be a result of losing too fast or being too strict. Your goals sound like the goals of an ordinary person, so try to eat at least some of the time in an ordinary way. At the stage you are in you should not be losing more than a half pound a week when you resume losing again. About every 6 weeks you should take a 2 week break.