The simple answer is: yes! Anxiety can cause weight loss, often weight gain in some people, depending on how our body reacts to it.
But the majority of people don’t know the reason behind it: “Why am I losing weight?” To know this, you are at the right place. Today, in this guide, we find out the reasons why anxiety causes weight loss and share tips to improve your physical health. Let’s start!
Understand the Connection Between Anxiety & Weight Loss
First, understand that anxiety doesn’t have direct connections with weight loss. This is our body’s response to anxiety, which can either cause weight loss in some people and weight gain in others. Let’s understand it:
Anxiety disorder takes some people close to food. At the same time, some may feel uneasy, even when faced with the name of the food. In anxiety, some people grab a quick meal and eat more without any routine, resulting in weight gain. Anxiety can affect the digestive system in some individuals, leading to eating disorders and weight loss. So, yes! Anxiety can impact body weight. But how?
How Anxiety Impacts Weight? The Hidden Relation
Let’s understand the science behind weight loss and anxiety. Anxiety activates a fight-or-flight response, which is a self-defense mechanism.
In that situation, our body prioritizes immediate survival over long-term needs, which directly affects its metabolism. Actually, these metabolic processes are commonly activated when your body feels threatened and needs to survive, either by facing the danger or by remaining safe.
During that stage, the body needs energy for immediate actions, which is obtained by shifting energy storage toward expenditure. For this, the body uses glucose and fatty acids from the liver, increasing its calorie burn. Consider it like generating fuel to help the body act to tackle the situation. And ultimately, this slows digestion, and most people lose their appetite. This leads to weight loss.
This shows the relationship between anxiety and weight loss, which is not direct but deeply connected.
After seeing how all these mechanisms work simultaneously. Let us explain the causes through which you can lose weight. Stay tuned, further, we will also know how much weight you can lose with anxiety.
How Anxiety Leads to Weight Loss? Causes of Losing Weight
Weight loss with anxiety is the body’s natural response to it, and below are the listed factors you see are the causes of unintentional weight loss with anxiety. Mean, this is how your body reacts to anxiety if you lose weight.
- Loss of appetite
- Changes to eating habits
- Nervous Movement and Exercise
- Elevated metabolism
- Gastrointestinal issues
- Medication side effects
Let’s explain every cause in detail. Remember, it’s not going to be factors’ definitions, but real indications you can feel:
1. Loss of Appetite
Due to anxiety, you might feel less hungry or skip a meal. The reason is the same as what we have discussed while understanding the relationship between anxiety and weight loss.
As anxiety results in the fight or flight response activation, our body completely focuses on surviving the threat, which is caused by anxiety. In that situation, the body has to “slow down” or “completely shut down” unnecessary functions when it deems it necessary.
And during that, our digestive system is our body’s top-of-the-list priority. That’s why it can feel easy to survive without eating, and patients might feel less hungry, feel full, or be uninterested in being a foodie.
2. Changes to Eating Habits
A normal person eats 3-4 times a day, with a structure like breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes, it can be 5 to 6 times with some snacks, which is completely normal. But loss of appetite, which we can also call a loss of interest in food, negatively affects eating schedules.
Feeling nauseous, you skip the morning meal. Feeling tired or less hungry makes it difficult to cook, replacing healthy lunches with quick meals; little hunger, zero effort. Similarly, saying no to dinner when hunger is absent, and again finding a quick meal as your best friend during late nights when anxiety disrupts sleep, can lead to a significant reduction in body weight.
Despite odd eating times, some people experience social anxiety disorders, often “deipnophobia,” which makes them feel less uncomfortable eating during gatherings and in public.
3. Nervous Movements and Exercise
Anxiety makes people uneasy and feel discomfort. You probably noticed that when people feel anxious or high mental stress, they start doing small exercises. These include pacing, such as walking slowly in a small space, and often foot-tapping.
At first, these exercises seem normal, and even good, as they improve blood circulation and release tension. But seeing from another angle, these anxiety activities burn calories. And that’s what most people don’t even know. Likewise, eating less or completely cutting out food while doing little exercise can reduce weight.
For example, a normal calorie intake recommendation is 2000-2500 for men and 1600-2200 for women. Fidgeting, especially foot-tapping, can burn 20 to 50 extra calories per hour. Patients with a persistent foot-tapping habit can burn 350 calories each day, and consuming less due to anxiety can result in gradual but measurable weight loss.
4. Increased Metabolism Level
All of our body parts work simultaneously, and the indirect, unintentional reduction in body weight is a perfect example.
Anxiety activates the body’s fight or flight mode. This results in a basal metabolic rate and calorie burn. Ultimately, it can cause you to lose weight even if you’re eating your normal diet.
5. Gastrointestinal Issues
Our brain and gut are closely connected. The brain affects the gut, while the gut sends signals to the brain. For example, having a stomach problem can make you feel bad and cause a rapid mood shift, like anxiety and depression. This is all because of the interconnection between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system, often called the “gut-brain axis”.
The same goes for anxiety and loss of weight. Anxiety causes nausea, stomach “butterflies”, diarrhea, or many other gastrointestinal symptoms. All of these negatively affect your digestive system and disturb your stomach. Results in loss of healthy eating habits and, correspondingly, loss of body weight.
6. Medication Side Effects
Consuming anxiety medication, including SSRIs and SNRIs, to stop weight loss from anxiety can sometimes increase weight or cause a loss. First, understand that anxiety meds increase “serotonin level”.
As a “stop signal” for eating, serotonin plays an important role in our food intake. Meeting energy needs helps reduce the drive to consume food.
When serotonin levels are high, they directly suppress appetite and reduce food cravings, leading to a gradual reduction in appetite and weight loss.
How to Manage Unintentional Weight Loss Caused By Anxiety?
Losing weight with anxiety makes sense, but overthinking it makes one feel overwhelmed and also causes the situation to worsen. Not every weight loss is caused by anxiety, but it plays a vital role. However, creating complexities by overwhelming the situation, people experience anxiety after weight loss. Relax! Take a deep breath, and see the expert’s guidance for effective unintentional weight loss management:
Seek an Expert’s Guidance
Losing weight is not something you feel okay with. It makes you tired all the time and has a bad impact on your overall physical health, which you can’t afford, along with psychological illness.
The best thing you can do, and we recommend, is to seek immediate expert guidance. A professional helps you understand your condition, address symptoms and provide you with valuable guidance. Also, a certified psychiatrist or psychologist can help you in returning to a life with a happy mind and a healthier body.
The mental health professional offers you effective treatment of anxiety disorder, such as Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and other best possible approaches.
Eat Balanced Nutritional Meals
It’s hard to eat when you are mentally and emotionally disturbed, but it’s okay to have a little plate of vegetables, fats, fruits and proteins. Start with a small portion of a mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats and over time, you will return to your normal eating habits. This keeps you healthy and energized all day.
Maintain A Regular Eating Plan
You can combine this with a balanced, nutritious meal. As consistency is key, try food after each short interval. This signals appetite and built-in daily eating habits, helping you maintain an appropriate, healthy body weight.
Engage in Physical Activities
Engaging in physical activities like exercise and yoga, and following other mindfulness strategies, can be helpful for you in the dual. It helps improve your mental well-being by reducing stress and maintaining a healthy body weight.
Remember, all the self-approaches we have just discussed are interconnected and work simultaneously. Skipping any of them can’t lead to imagined results.
Here is the example:
Eating a healthy meal regularly and exercising daily shifts your mind, burns calories, builds muscle and keeps you mentally and physically fit. Even when you lack the discipline to stick to a schedule, exercise leaves you feeling tired afterward. So, it’s important to commit to and stick to these practices.
How Much Weight Loss Can Be Caused by Anxiety? When to Worry
The question is, experiencing anxiety symptoms, how much weight can be lost due to anxiety? It’s hard to ignore losing 5% of your total weight within a few months. This means that the heavier you are, the more weight you lose.
However, losing an average of 5% of body weight, or 10–20 lbs (4.5–9 kg), in a short time is uncommon. And there might be high chances that it can be caused by anxiety and chronic stress.
At that point, you should get an expert’s guidance to help keep you mentally healthy and physically strong.
How Renewed Mental Health Group Can Help!
Renewed Mental Health Group can be your hope if you are experiencing a mental health condition and weight loss concerns. With a team of psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners, certified therapists, and clinical social workers. We help you find the root cause of anxiety and weight loss. Also, ensure that we provide effective, personalized psychiatric treatment plans.
With 13+ years of expertise and unparalleled knowledge, we have helped thousands of patients with mental health conditions achieve impressive results. If you or anyone you love is experiencing any mental health disorder, you can trust us. We care for you and those you love as much as you do. Also, guaranteeing that we will honor the trust you have in us. Call us or fill the form, we are here to hear from you!
Conclusion!
Does anxiety lead to weight loss? Yes, it can cause weight loss in some people and weight gain in others. It fully depends on our body’s reaction to anxiety; some get close to eating more, while many almost lose interest.
Anxiety doesn’t cause instant weight loss; it’s a steady process, resulting in anxiety’s impact on appetite, metabolism, or gastrointestinal functions. But with the right treatment approach and the effective self-practices we discussed above, you can improve psychologically and physically.
Find it helpful? Share it with others. Have questions? We are here to help 24/7. Call us today and talk with mental health professionals!