How Weight Loss Impacts Your Mental Health: The Good, The Bad & The Truth

Weight loss is more than just the physical state of being smaller, weighing less and being healthier. There are huge emotional and mental impacts, both positive and negative that one may encounter, and as these feelings are often new, it’s impossible to know what to expect.

Let’s start off light with some of the positives:

Mood – my mood is immensely better. I’m less irritable. I feel way more energetic throughout the day and less fatigue. My overall anxiety has improved from not eating sugar/carbs.

Self–esteem – I feel so much more confident in my ‘new’ body (mostly.) I never actually realized how much it used to bother me to go out in public, or rather, how cognisant I was that people may be looking at me or judging me. Now that I don’t feel that way all the time, I realize how much I used to think about it. The constant thoughts that would go through my head, regardless of the environment, if there were other people around – Do I look silly doing this? Do they notice my fat elbows below my sleeves? Are they looking at my large thighs? These are just a glimpse of the constant thoughts that used to circulate in my head everywhere I went.

Increased energy and motivation – these ones are huge for me. Looking back, I’ve always lived an energetic life so to speak, as in, I’m always on the go – driving my kids from one activity to the next, making plans, getting outdoors, helping people, volunteering etc. However, I didn’t feel energetic while doing it.

Fast forward to today, I have double if not triple the energy that I had when I was 135 lbs heavier, and everything just seems so effortless. I’m motivated to get out and do things. I’m excited to go to the park and play, or ride bikes, or have random dance parties in the middle of the week.

Great. That all sounds amazing, right? Everything above makes weight loss seem like it’s such an excellent, positive thing. But what about the negative impacts?

Why does nobody ever talk about the negative effects that come with significant weight loss? I’ve watched countless documentaries, I’ve read countless blogs, books, articles. Why did nobody warn me about what it is that I’m feeling now?

Well friends, I’m here to be that person.

Significant weight loss is not all sunshine and rainbows. Why is that? Oh right, because my BRAIN has not changed. It’s still the same ol’ brain. The brain is still wired the same. The brain that is addicted to food. The brain that fights with itself all day long to make healthy decisions. The brain that beats itself up, is hard on itself and struggles to forgive itself when it gives in and makes an unhealthy decision.

Let’s break down two of my most negative effects that I’ve noticed personally:

Mental Health & Addiction – I know that this isn’t a direct result of significant weight loss, but I wanted to call attention to the fact that an addiction does not go away. It’s a disease.

Now that I am in recovery, boy am I telling you, I understand drug addicts more today than I ever did. I understand why they choose to go back to the drug, because they’re constantly battling with their brain to make the right decisions but sometimes the brain wins.

That is food for me. Food is my drug. A constant mental battle in my head. Constant thoughts about food, and when/what my next meal will be. When I do give in, I feel immediate guilt and regret. It can be a slippery slope into a day long or weeklong binge, or worse.

I now understand why so many people gain the weight back. I can see how easy it could be to just fall back into old habits.

It’s exhausting. It’s overwhelming. It’s. All. Too. Much.

Body Dysmorphia – this one is an interesting one. Some days I struggle to see the difference. Some days I stand and look in the mirror and think that the same person, 135 lbs heavier is looking right back at me. Sure, I’m still me. My mind is still my mind. I’m still the same person. But I know that my body has changed, so why can’t I see it? This is a major mind trick that I really have to force myself out of some days. It’s not all days, only some. It’s not every time I look into the mirror. If I allow myself to get sucked into the hole of believing that it was all for nothing and I haven’t changed, then my mind starts going to the deepest and darkest places. I take a lot of pictures and create a lot of side-by-side comparisons which really help to pull me back into the light.

These are things that I never really expected or could have assumed that I would feel after losing a significant amount of weight. I had my eyes set on the prize. The benefits. The number on the scale. The non scale victories. I didn’t consider any of the negative effects to even be an option.

But now I’m understanding why they call it a journey. The journey doesn’t end after losing the weight. I knew that I would have to make lifelong changes to sustain the weight loss, but I never imagined that it would be a daily mental battle to not relapse or fall back into old habits. The journey will never be perfect. There will be tough times and hurdles along the way.

All I can do is hope that mentally I can remain strong enough to continue. I can allow myself to enjoy a treat here and there in moderation without beating myself up or falling into a binge or old habits. I can take each day, each moment, each mental battle as they come.

And I’ll leave you with this last piece of advice – stop judging the people. I am a true testament that you will never actually know the struggles that someone is going through until you’ve lived it yourself. You never know what mental battles they’re fighting in their head. You never know what is contributing to their situation.

It always seems so easy for those that are on the outside looking in. Simple really – stop eating the bad food. Start exercising. Being fat is a choice. Stop doing the drug. Doing drugs is a choice. Addiction is a choice.

If they only knew (they – the people who are judging) how damn hard it really is.

Don’t be that person.