Weight Gain Stress

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I am 4 months into my journey of desperately losing weight to save my heart. I gained 20 pounds over 9 months last year - All from stress and not eating.

I'm still not really eating. I have days that I can easily eat the 1200 calories but many others I do not. Now anyone who has dieted knows that NOT eating enough causes the body to scream "HEY HEY HEY" and start storing fat. Not cool....but I've become so accustomed to my daily routine that it becomes extremely stressful to just try and think of eating something healthy to add to the calories. I have a very boring meal plan but I'm happy with it.

The stress part is being helped with the doctor. But I still find myself in that worry state over nothing many times. People who stress out and don't understand why need to constantly remind themselves to follow a strict diet to NOT stop eating. I hear all the time how stress causes people to eat. I disagree, I feel stress promotes NON-eating which in turn switches the body into starvation mode and storing fat.

I writing this to hopefully sink this into my brain and maybe help someone else understand "you are not alone" "I am not alone" in this feeling. If you want to share or talk, respond and befriend me. I need more outlets myself to help others in order to help myself. I am not going to lose this battle to stress.

Replies

  • ncmedic201
    ncmedic201 Posts: 540 Member
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    When I started I was the same way. It was difficult to eat all my calories. I had been drinking my calories thru lots and lots of coffee drinks. My doctor advised to cut back on the coffee so that left me at a large deficit. I lost 10 lbs quickly after that but then stalled.

    The last two months I've been working diligently to increase my calories slowly. I still have off days but my average has definitely increased. I think one important factor is to increase slowly and your body will not only adapt to eating more but it will thank you.

    This weekend I'm working on increasing my calories to average 1800 a day.
  • Dudagarcia
    Dudagarcia Posts: 849 Member
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    Stress affects people in many ways. Some over eat and some don't eat. Hope you are able to manage your stress and really wish you well. Having supportive friends and being supportive to them is nice:)

    You may want to buy powdered whey protein and have a shake or two to bump up your calories :). I get mine at Sams Club, Simply Right is the brand, vanilla flavored.
  • MattTheWaterRat
    MattTheWaterRat Posts: 167 Member
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    I found that under stress I stop losing weight and can gain weight holding all else equal. I have also noticed that when I'm not under stress, I am much more hungry.
  • IjaLynn
    IjaLynn Posts: 8 Member
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    I agree I notice my cravings increase when i am under stress!