Dealing with Losing Weight Depression

MrZoro
MrZoro Posts: 2 Member
edited December 20 in Motivation and Support
Good day,

Like most of you I've been trying for years to lose weight, my health wasn't the best and I have problems with high Blood Pressure. So last year I decided to enroll on a gym and take better care of my diet, everything went great, I lose like 45 lbs and everything looked great, but there was something in the fine print that I didn't knew.

In the last 2 months I started to feel a little depressed... What was happening? Exercising and getting fit is one of the recommended methods to deal with depression, so maybe something else in my life was messing with me... I couldn't find it, and things got worse and worse, my head is a mess, my feelings are a mess, I wake up several times in the middle of the night (but don't have sleep deprivation), working is a pain, I don't enjoy things that I normally do... That's when I found some studies about depression and losing weight, about how can losing weight lead you to depression, the hormonal conflict and all that things...

I don't want to stop, I won't lose all my effort, I just want to know if somebody else deal in the past with this? Will it stop? Any help is very appreciated.

Thanks.

Replies

  • bobthecoolsmileyface
    bobthecoolsmileyface Posts: 12 Member
    I'm sorry to hear that, but hey: you're doing so well!
    Because everyone is different and I'm not a psychologist I'm not sure how much thus comment helps but I'll try my best.
    1. Maybe you aren't getting enough of something in your diet and that may be leading to your lack of sleep and motivation? I recommend going to a dietician or getting in touch with one anyways and having them take a look at it. 2. You may just need a break. Take this either the 'treat yourself to a chocolate bar or some other junk' or 'actually go on a holiday.' Way since both can help with your mental state. I recommend going to somewhere warm because then the dieting will come much easier since you won't have as big of an appetite than if you're in a cold place.
    3. Maybe look into yoga or mindfulness. I'm not sure if it works for everyone but sometimes just sitting and focusing on your breathing calms you down and helps a lot. Also yoga is good exercise.

    Hope this helped
  • Pickle107
    Pickle107 Posts: 153 Member
    As someone with chronic depression, do please go and speak to your doctor. That's what they're there for.

    If you want to try some self-care (alongside seeing a doctor), aerobic exercise, eating nutritiously, ample quality sleep and trying not to judge yourself harshly/berate yourself might help. Depression can hit anyone regardless of age, race, income, education, physical fitness.

    Maybe just reduce your work out intensity a little, too. You could be over training which has some similar symptoms to depression.
  • MrZoro
    MrZoro Posts: 2 Member
    bobthecoolsmileyface wrote: »
    I'm sorry to hear that, but hey: you're doing so well!
    Because everyone is different and I'm not a psychologist I'm not sure how much thus comment helps but I'll try my best.
    1. Maybe you aren't getting enough of something in your diet and that may be leading to your lack of sleep and motivation? I recommend going to a dietician or getting in touch with one anyways and having them take a look at it. 2. You may just need a break. Take this either the 'treat yourself to a chocolate bar or some other junk' or 'actually go on a holiday.' Way since both can help with your mental state. I recommend going to somewhere warm because then the dieting will come much easier since you won't have as big of an appetite than if you're in a cold place.
    3. Maybe look into yoga or mindfulness. I'm not sure if it works for everyone but sometimes just sitting and focusing on your breathing calms you down and helps a lot. Also yoga is good exercise.

    Hope this helped

    Thanks for your answer. Yeah, I've been trying some external things like meditation and read some books of self-help. I've been looking into doing yoga too but couldn't find a good place to do it.
    Pickle107 wrote: »
    As someone with chronic depression, do please go and speak to your doctor. That's what they're there for.

    If you want to try some self-care (alongside seeing a doctor), aerobic exercise, eating nutritiously, ample quality sleep and trying not to judge yourself harshly/berate yourself might help. Depression can hit anyone regardless of age, race, income, education, physical fitness.

    Maybe just reduce your work out intensity a little, too. You could be over training which has some similar symptoms to depression.

    Sorry to ask, but your depression is because of losing weight or are you exercising to deal with depression?

    Sadly my experience with doctors isn't that good... They don't believe in the connection between losing weight and depression...
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    I do think exploring therapy/counseling options would be the ideal thing to do.

    If that is not in the cards. Take a diet break for a couple of weeks. Eat at maintenance and include your exercise cals.

    How is your nutrition? Are you getting enough protein and fat. Treat MFP’s goals as a minimum.

    You may also want to look at taking a step back from your workout routine. If you are doing 5-6 days a week you may be a little burnt out.
    Cut back to 3-4 for a short period, then build back up.

    Also, look at your rate of loss. You don’t give your stats, so just generally eat 250cals more a day. That will adjust your loss by 0.5 lbs a week.

    Are you eating back your exercise calories? If you aren’t start doing so, it is the way MFP is set up.

    I haven’t had clinical depression so I can’t really talk to that, but I have burnt out.

    I was underfuelled and overexercised. This left me feeling exhausted, uninterested in my general day to day life, and quite short tempered. Basically I wasn’t my jolly little self.

    Some of the suggestions may be worth you reviewing, but a trip to the docs would be best. Look at getting bloodwork done for any deficiencies, as well as a counselling referral.

    Cheers, h.
  • Pickle107
    Pickle107 Posts: 153 Member
    MrZoro wrote: »

    Sorry to ask, but your depression is because of losing weight or are you exercising to deal with depression?

    Sadly my experience with doctors isn't that good... They don't believe in the connection between losing weight and depression...

    My own is depression first, trying to exercise to improve it second. But depression can have many triggers. Some are situational such as after a bereavement. Sometimes it's chemical like my own. It might not necessarily be your weight loss. Although, after initial excitement you might have hit a slump. Or, it could just be, as someone who's not medically trained, that your lack of motivation, fatigue and mood may just have happened to coincide with your weight loss.

    As others have said above, do go see your doc. Both for your mood and also to get your bloods done. There's lots of physical possibilities to rule out such as anaemia, thyroid etc before you can say it is actually depression on its own.

    Lastly, as @middlehaitch says, it could also be over-training. Their recommendations are good.

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