How much does depression contribute to... - Weight Loss Support
How much does depression contribute towards comfort eating and putting weight on. Do we have to treat depresson as a way of treating?
A good question. However I know enough people whose primary depressive illness is under control but who still have a problem with being out of control of what/when they eat to think that it won't be the main answer. Added to which, some of the drug therapies really work against the person who needs to lose weight. But the cognitive behaviour therapy, Compassionate Mind approaches, the exercise - those are going to help with depression and with weight loss.
Hi thank you or being the only person to take time to answer. I do feel depression plays a huge part in people developing eating disorder whether it is obesity or anorexia nervosa.Even when your depression is under control and medication you can have relapses which results in medication being changed or dose being increased. Lots psychologist believe that people comfort eat when they feel depression and that leads to a cycle. I do feel we have to treat the underlying cause of people who are over eating and the indirect way of treating weight loss should be treating there depression rather than go diet pills.
I'd turn this question around. How much does nutrition affect mood and can some forms of depression be put down to poor nutrition entirely?
A lot of people do put on weight when they are depressed. If they go on a low-fat diet the problem is usually compounded by the fact the brain is starved of the nutritious fats it needs to run at its best. Has anyone ever told you a low fat diet is bad for the brain? Well, if they hadn't, they have now. Try looking at the whole problem from a different angle. Think about what is best for your body and brain in nutritional terms and remove anything from your diet that isn't pulling its weight in terms of vitamins, fats, protein etc. I did this last month and my carb intake very naturally reduced further and further each day. The body doesn't actually need carbs. The digestive system quite likes grains for fibre but they aren't necessary as long as you are eating your veggies. You could try an elimination diet to see if there is any particular food that affects you mood. I ate chips for the first time in 5 weeks yesterday at lunchtime and was swearing at my husband before the day was up. I had a good reason, but the behaviour was unusual for me. I'm staying low-carbs!
I sometimes find my self comfort eating when I'm felling a bit low, as plain chocolate or a good hot pudding will lift my mood, trouble is when I jump on the scales the following day I instantly have put on weight which makes me feel a bit low again. Tricky cycle to get out of.
Hi run-buddy,
Whatever the precursor to an episode of comfort eating (or boredom eating), and many who experience these problems are not depressed, there are a number of approaches to dealing with them, such as:
Distraction - busy yourself with some other activity so you just don't get around to the comfort eating.
Substitution - instead of that jam and cream doughnut, have a banana or a handful of grapes instead.
Diversion - find an alternative source of comfort, perhaps a social activity (something that involves others), or exercise or energetic activity.
Prevention - you can't comfort eat, say, biscuits or cake if you don't have any biscuits or cake in the house to eat.
Reduction - Agree with yourself that you will comfort eat but only XX biscuits (or whatever) and no more - and slowly wean yourself off of your comfort eating sessions by reducing this number.
Postponement - O.K. I'm going to eat that bar of chocolate, but not now, I'll wait until after the end of Strictly / Coronation Street / whatever. You may find you have the urge under control.
Avoidance - if you always comfort eat in XYZ situation, avoid that situation, i.e. avoid the situational 'cues' that lead you to comfort eat.
Situational Management - e.g. if you comfort eat because you have nothing much to do on a Thursday evening, then find something interesting to do on Thursday evenings.
Good luck with your weight loss efforts.
Some really good discussion on the relationship between depression and overeating. I just dont believe the issue of comfort eating is discussed readily and GP do not onsider depression when someone is overweight. Its something that really needs to be talked about. People eat to make themselves feel better and it is a cycle to get out of. I really think by treating depression we can treat overeating and weight gain. If you feel happier in yourself your more like to have self control over what you eat. Depression is a real illness with real symptoms and one of those symptoms is overeating that gets over looked by health professionals. If you do suffere from comfort eating there is always an underlying cause.
It is most unfortunate that many people, doctors included, persist in blaming people who are overweight for causing it themselves, and show very little sympathy to the problems that may underlie it. Body biochemistry is complicated and what you eat can play a part in depression. The advice to "eat less" is not helpful for many people, and the dietary advice for the last 40 years to eat low fat has been a health disaster, as obesity rates have continued to rise.
There can be many causes of depression. Lustig's book has a good description of the interaction between food and our hormones, and how this can affect mood and weight.
If we are to tackle obesity in this country the government has got to put pressure on the food industry to make our foods more healthy.The amount of salt ,sugar ,hydrogenated fat, saturated fat not to mention, E numbers preservatives, colouring ,flavouring, and additives to make the food last longer on the shelf is shocking. Yes individuals have to play there part in what they eat but the food industry have been getting away with it for years. It is not regulated at all. When I was at school, I was given chips 5 days a week, I was only 11 year old what am I suppose to know about healthy food at that age thankfully its different now in schools today. I just feel the government needs to regulate our food industry to make sure we are eating health amount of nutrients. As for the Food standard agency a useless organisation who could not even stop the horse meat from entering our food chain. Just shows you what happens when you dont regulate the food industry and who know what is put into our food these days.
I agree with you, run-buddy. The food industry produced addictive unhealthy processed foods which are cheap to buy, it's no wonder that so many people are overweight. Our government doesn't seem very likely to regulate the food industry, considering it agreed to McD providing food at the Olympics. Interestingly, the government of Sweden recently advised its population to cut down on eating processed carbohydrates.
