Depression, Anxiety, and Weight Loss

This is serious and sorry this is happening to you.

Take up exercise. At least some relaxing walks with a good play list. Music is such a mood booster. Walking will help burn calories and relax you.

Take baths. Experiment with herbal teas. Participate in a hobby.

Something where you are not eating.

If you seek counseling and get on meds. Most of those meds make you gain weight. Beware of Celexa.

I also have anxiety and depression. Within two weeks of starting mfp, my symptoms had lessened. I was focused on staying in a calorie deficit and it worked.

Are you still eating foods you love? If not, you'll feel deprived and more likely to binge.

You can enjoy your favorite foods here as long as they fit into your calorie allotment.

How can we help?

I have anxiety. It hasn't been that bad in some years now, but I did have a pretty bad panic attack last week relating to my weightloss journey. I found that when my anixety started to get high, it was best I go walk it off or jog it off at the gym. If you don't have a gym membership, then try putting on a YouTube video to help you get through an exercise. Changing your eating habits is hard for everyone & it takes time for something to become a habit. You just got to keep at it.

You've already taken the first step in becoming a better you. You know there's a problem & are here seeking out help, so just remember it's a slow progress, but take it one day at a time. You got this!

I would greatly urge you to find a therapist to help you talk about these things. I know you might feel like you can't, but your feelings aren't unique or bizarre or impossible to understand either. Also a good therapist can help you navigate the anxiety that comes with the undertaking of using a system like MFP (such as "black and white/ all or nothing" thinking, or how to handle plateaus, setbacks, etc.)

Also feel free to post here. We aren't therapists but a lot of us have anxiety and depression, and of course we are all doing the MFP program.

One of my big take-aways on MFP (I lost 40+ lbs!) is that you actually do NOT have to do extreme, sweaty, high impact exercise programs to lose weight. My typical workout is a pleasant walk and maybe some yoga.

I have depression/anxiety issues too, and as much as I don't have the energy/motivation, I'm attempting to get back into logging and might throw in some small exercise here or there if I feel like it on a OK/good day. Still pretty low, but the health problems are starting to pile on, so I need to at least do a little something.

I'm not sure if it'll help at all, as we're all different, but the conclusion I've come to is that I need to allow myself to eat the types of foods I feel like eating, though at least aiming for a few general goals, such as "eat at least x grams of protein in a day" and "eat at least x servings of fibrous vegetables".

Also, while I need to lose weight over the long term, I have come to the conclusion that I need to allow it to be OK to eat maintenance calories any day I feel the need to, and if I'm feeling like I can manage, I'll leave a gap. For example, if I were to have a current maintenance of 2,500 calories, I could go for something like 2,000 or 1,500, but have the 2,500 as a backup and allow myself to know that it is OK to go there. I'm committing to this in steps of 500, since there's 7 days in a week, and approximately 3,500 short is what's needed for a pound.

Honestly, I'm going to go over on my really, really bad days, but starting out lower and having as many small victories as possible (days I've succeeded in eating at a deficit) should at least keep me at a stall, and I have accepted that I need to start there and just go with losses when I can manage. I can put down 4,000+ calories on a bad day where I binge, but my hope is that this time around, by having the allowance to go to maintenance built in, as well as allowing myself to have what I view as comfort foods, I'll be less likely to go there. This is the beginning of this new attempt for me, so I don't have much feedback on it yet. It seems to work for many people out there, though, so felt it worth a try.

I'm also going to try the idea of taking real "diet breaks" on schedule this time around, where I'll eat 100% maintenance for two full weeks before resuming weight loss. From what I understand, this helps to reset and regulate hormones, and those are a big part of my issue, and I believe were a major contributor to my prior failure to maintain my lost weight and continue my journey.

Another principle I've read about being successful and am therefore adding to my plan is an indulgence 1-2x/week for psychological benefits. The way I remember it told to me was if I want fries, I eat a decent meal, but include a reasonable portion of fries (no all-you-can-eat). I think I'm personally already covering that with my idea of allowing myself to eat to maintenance if I need to (and not restricting myself completely from any foods), but I'm also going to stop and consider how my week has gone each weekend to figure out if I really did give myself a fair allowance in this way, and if not, make sure to give myself something special that I want before the end of the weekend.

On another note, I'm sure you already know that weight loss isn't linear, but I thought this worth a mention: I'm using weightgrapher for trend tracking and recommend it or something like it if you don't already have something to track trends -- I found this extremely helpful in reducing the anxiety that came with waiting for losses.

And finally, something else that I'm doing to ease anxiety this time around is to approximate my logging. I might weigh some foods, especially if I get back into strength training (I want to assure I'm supporting myself with enough protein), but I'm going to purposely avoid getting too detailed in this way, as it was not only really time-consuming, but it also really pushed up the anxiety I felt. I feel compelled to be more exact, as I'm a very numbers-driven person, but I need to let it go and think I'm starting to do that. Again a bit early to tell, but yeah...

Sorry for the novel, but I figured that maybe something I've found and/or done might be of assistance to you. I'm hoping this might help you avoid a major setback. I do recommend counseling, and even psych services depending on your needs.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough, if you need to get on meds, see if there's any way you can get genetic compatibility testing done. It avoids some of the issues with side effects, and could help you find a good match without months (possibly years) of trial and error. It isn't perfect and a complete solution, but side effect issues are a real pain, and meds may take as much as 8-12 weeks to come to level.

I think it can help reduce the kind of locked in vicious cycle to realize it isn't inherently wrong to comfort eat sometimes. Yes, repeatedly overeating will prevent achieving goals, but no one is ever going to be a robot about their food intake - anyone that tells you food has truly become only fuel is lying, possibly to their self even.
Food ultimately keeps us alive, it would be weird if that was true but food wasn't actually desirable and enjoyable.

I think keep that in mind can help avoid the guilt once one has had a day or meal with too much and prevent the fixation that leads to use food again as a comfort - avoiding a cycle.

It is different for everyone, but I think a lot of people do find losing weight helps some with mental health. That can definitely make weight loss all the more desirable a goal. Again, I'm not saying it works that way for everyone, but I'm grateful that between exercise and nutrition I feel I have much more manageable dysthmia, and my dysthmia has a different feel to it.

Welcome @Michelle_Rox58 and thank you for starting this thread!!

I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was a teen. I’ve been on all different kinds of meds, trying for years to find the right “concoction” but have only recently (in the last year or so) made positive changes to help myself in other ways, after having an anxiety attack at work.
I decided to take a stress leave, and went to my doctor, who referred me to a free group program at the local hospital, that focused on Cognitive/Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Meditation & Mindfulness, and Peer Support. It was such an amazing experience and I got to meet a ton of great people, all different age ranges and backgrounds!!
Anyway, sorry, I’m rambling.

I have similar struggles as you right now. I tend to binge eat when I want to distract myself from ugly or bad thoughts. My energy is reeeally low and the thought of getting on the elliptical or going for a walk is sometimes daunting and anxiety-inducing. One of the best pieces of advice I received during the program, aside from self-compassion, is learning to PACE myself. I’m in the process of applying that in my life, and I would encourage you to do the same. The way I see it, ANY exercise is better than NO exercise. Even just stand up and stretch or walk around the block. Take it slow, otherwise you’ll burn yourself out, and those ugly, unhelpful thoughts will creep back in.

Don’t ever feel like you’re alone or have no one to talk to.
I’d be happy to be a motivational support if you need one. You’ll find lots of that here 😊🙌