If you are among the 68 percent of overweight Americans, dieting may seem like your gateway to happiness. The media touts headlines about the population's perpetual weight gain and associated risks. Perhaps your doctor gives you knowing looks or a heart-to-heart each time you step on the scale. And don't forget the billboards, movies and magazines that praise the latest diet techniques particular A-list celebrities credit for their slender thighs or washboard abs.
"Yes," you may think to yourself, "if I just shed the pounds, health, happiness and all of my dreams will be achieved."
But not only are most diets ineffective, according to the National Eating Disorders Association, they often cause anxiety, chronic depressive moods, increased stress and low self-esteem.
Lose Weight, Gain Depression?
In a study published in "Psychosomatic Medicine" in 2010, 121 females consumed a restricted-calorie diet or nonrestrictive diet for three weeks. Researchers found that participants who consumed a diet restricted to no more than 1,200 calories per day produced significantly more cortisol -- a hormone associated with abdominal weight gain that the body releases in response to stress.
Another study, published in "Obesity" in 2009, showed increased suicidal tendencies and depressive symptoms among 194 obese participants who followed a weight-loss program, with or without medications, for one year.
Fortunately, much can be done to avoid and reduce the "blahs" associated with dieting, according to Judith J. Wurtman, co-author of "The Serotonin Power Diet," a research-based approach to help people lose weight while taking antidepressants.
Learning where these emotional symptoms derive, and why they occur, may guide you toward making better, wiser lifestyle decisions.
So How and Why?
Like the rest of your body, your brain depends on food for fuel, proper functioning and energy. Knowing this, it should perhaps come as no surprise that depressive symptoms linked with dieting may start there.
"Diet-associated depression, anxiety, insomnia and anger are caused by the decrease in [the brain chemical] serotonin following several weeks of avoiding carbohydrates or eating carbohydrates only in combination with protein," according to Wurtman. "Since serotonin can be made only when carbohydrates, except fructose, are eaten with little or no protein, even a diet like Weight Watchers can cause serotonin depletion."
Furthermore, dieters who seek rapid weight-loss results or "quick-fix" solutions may opt for severe calorie restriction, which affects, among other functions, your blood sugar.
"When your blood sugar levels drop, you put your mind in a fatigued state because the brain uses glucose as a source of food," said Sondra Kronberg, a registered dietitian, nutritional director of the Eating Disorder Treatment Collaborative, and National Eating Disorders Association spokesperson. "You then have a dysregulated brain. We then see symptoms like fatigue, anxiety or depression."
Something else to consider is the fact that consuming fewer calories than your body requires for normal functioning puts your body into survival mode, which is the onset of starvation.
"When people starve themselves," Kronberg explained, "they become very anxious, very fatigued, very depressed."
Survival mode reduces your metabolism, too, making way for weight gain and resultant mood problems. You may also experience stress and anxiety regarding social or work events that involve food or in response to food cravings or increased hunger that your diet prohibits you from fulfilling. And you may miss the foods you normally turn to for emotional gratification.
"Most people who diet cut out a lot of their comfort foods," said Kronberg, which are often carbohydrate-based. "They tend to be more mood dysregulated when they don't have foods that make them feel emotionally or behaviorally better."
It is true, however, that dieting can instill a sense of control and proactivity when other aspects of your life have gone awry.
"Maybe they're getting divorced, [having] trouble with kids or finances are not great," said Kronberg. "You feel like you have some meaning and some purpose [in a diet]. And that's not necessarily untrue, but it's not a cure-all."
Staying Afloat
Dieting and making healthy dietary changes are not one and the same. In fact, they are often polar opposites.
"Many people feel better about themselves and about their sense of self when they eat healthy," said David Klow, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Skokie, Illinois, and an affiliate psychotherapist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. "The way we treat our bodies can have an impact on how we feel about ourselves. Are we listening to what our body needs? Are we treating ourselves with kindness and compassion, or are we being punitive and harsh on ourselves?"
He added, "Severe restrictive dieting can have an adverse effect. If one is punishing their body in an attempt to feel better about themselves, it can lead to dissociation and depressive feelings."
So what can you do? First, set realistic goals. Your personal desired weight may not be your physically and emotionally healthiest. Next, aim for a balanced diet that allows for flexibility of food choices -- meaning no foods or nutrient groups are completely off-limits -- and increased exercise.
Steer clear of diets that impose rigid rules or promise miraculous, rapid results. Such diets are difficult to follow and stick to long term, and they can trigger potentially serious side effects and complications, according to the Weight-control Information Network -- including those that disrupt your moods.
"Life and food should be about flexibility and being balanced," said Kronberg. "We have some basic guidelines -- whole [foods] if possible, as un-chemical as possible -- but within that there should be flexibility. If someone tells me they're depressed, I say, 'Are you getting enough protein?' I recommend it almost like an antidepressant and first course of action."
Kronberg also suggests eating in a timely fashion, or every two-and-a-half to three hours, and incorporating enough carbohydrates to avoid depressive moods. If you are overweight and an emotional eater, becoming aware of what motivates your eating behaviors is important.
"You should be listening to your hunger, not eating beyond your hunger," Kronberg said, "and [recognizing] whether you're eating because everyone else is or because you're bored or sad. Ask yourself, am I hungry? If I'm not hungry, what can I do instead? If I'm stressed, what can I do to relieve that?"
Learn to listen to your body and what it's saying. Start by asking questions, which can prompt answers. Eventually, Kronberg assures, you'll get better and better at knowing your body and what it needs and be better able to respond to it.
"Sometimes I want a hot-fudge sundae," she acknowledged. Allowing for that sundae is the flexible part.
To diminish depression, stress and anxiety while managing your weight, Wurtman recommends healthy carbohydrate sources in measured quantities for increased serotonin levels.
In addition to boosting feel-good brain chemicals, healthy carbohydrate sources -- such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables -- are rich in fiber, which increases fullness and blood sugar balance between meals. Because they contain more nutrients than refined grains like white flour, whole grains may also help prevent nutrient deficiencies.
A healthy, balanced dietary lifestyle paired with exercise may not seem as exciting, fast paced or miraculous as the latest diet splashed on magazine covers, but it can provide the most emotional fulfillment and weight-management success long term, while saving you from much of the opposite.
Perhaps the old adage, "Eat, drink and be merry," bodes well for weight-loss seekers. And making it your personal mantra, with the addition of emphasizing whole foods and exercise, may help minimize your weight-control blues.
By: August McLaughlin
