Unhappy With Your Weight? Don’t Discount Mental Health and Motivation

In matters of weight loss, food and exercise are regular parts of the conversation. A new survey from Everyday Health suggests that another topic should be considered in that conversation: mental health.

The survey found that 40 percent of respondents listed mental health improvement as a leading reason to lose weight. Indeed, mental health and its connection to body weight and weight loss came up again and again.

For example, stress was listed as a leading obstacle to weight loss, and only 12 percent of respondents said they never ate when feeling stressed, nervous, or anxious. Meanwhile, people in the survey who tried but failed to lose weight were more likely to report mental health struggles, and more likely to report guilt or shame about eating, than those who lost weight.

The survey involved more than 3,000 American adults who had tried to lose weight in the preceding six months. In addition to attitudes around the new medications, go-to weight loss tactics, and common hurdles to weight loss, respondents answered questions about their emotions and mental health state as it related to their weight.

The key takeaways exemplify what researchers have long known: that these two factors are closely related.

“Research shows a bidirectional relationship between mental well-being and weight,” says Allison Young, MD, a psychiatrist in New York City, a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and Everyday Health’s Health Expert Network. “We don't fully understand this relationship yet, but there appears to be biological as well as psychological factors responsible for it.”

“It is not a coincidence that as rates of obesity and diabetes are skyrocketing, the rates of mental disorders are also skyrocketing,” says Christopher Palmer, MD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “They are interrelated because they are both disorders of mitochondrial dysfunction.”

Here are some of the key takeaways from the survey, along with expert insights that can help you apply these lessons to your own life.

“Mental health challenges often lead to unhealthy relationships with food and alcohol,” says Caroline Messer, MD, an endocrinologist and a metabolic health specialist with Northwell Health in New York City. “Eating and drinking may lead to quick dopamine hits” — hits that make you feel better temporarily, but that lead to feelings of disappointment and failure later on, she says.

So-called “emotional eating” isn’t always a bad thing. But if you’re responding to life’s challenges by eating (or drinking), that’s often a problem.

“If eating is a coping mechanism for stress, it’s great to understand that, and the next step is figuring out other things that can help you cope with that stress,” Dr. Young says.

If meditation isn’t your thing, Dr. Messer says exercise, such as yoga, can reduce stress (and stress eating). Messer says working with a therapist (if you are able to access one) can also help you identify strategies that support your mental health and limit your reliance on unhealthy foods or drinks.

About 1 in 4 survey respondents said that social media has a negative effect on their body image. Only 3 percent said social media had a positive effect. (The rest fell somewhere in between.) This has implications for your mental health and your weight loss efforts.

“It’s important to understand how social media, or interactions with certain people, impact you so you can be mindful of how you spend your time and how you respond to these influences,” Young says. “Develop your own definition of health and happiness. Make sure you are living authentically and not measuring yourself based on someone else's ruler.”

When asked about their motivations for dieting, the most common answers among survey respondents involved wanting to be healthier, to feel better, and to have more energy.

Yet respondents also said that losing motivation was the biggest obstacle they’d encountered.

To maintain motivation, it’s essential to keep things fresh, says Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, an obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. That means changing things up — trying new forms of exercise, for example, or new types of foods — when you feel your enthusiasm is starting to wane.

“When we’re trying to lose weight, we must allow ourselves the flexibility to change,” Dr. Stanford says.

Flexibility and self-compassion are also needed at those times when your motivation may flag. While some people take a rigid, perfectionist approach to weight loss, Stanford says we all have slip-ups and off days, and we can’t let these derail us.

“Sometimes patients and I make a 100-day plan, and then at the end, they say to me, ‘I missed a few days, so I failed,’” she says. “I ask them, ‘Did you fail?’ Because completing 80 or 90 days out of 100 is not failing.”

She says even the top athletes in the world take days (or weeks) off. “I say give yourself some grace,” she adds. In other words, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

There are all kinds of ways to find support during your weight loss journey — including through apps. We picked the best apps for weight loss, like diet plans tools, fitness trackers, and more.

Three out of 4 survey respondents said that their weight affects how they feel about themselves. An even greater proportion — 79 percent — believed that reaching their target weight would make them “happier.”

Experts say that, depending on how a person attempts to lose weight, these sorts of expectations may be unrealistic.

“There are healthy ways to lose weight and there are unhealthy ways to lose weight,” Young says. “If someone is losing weight but developing an increasingly unhealthy relationship to food and their own body in the process, weight loss is not likely to bring contentment or self-fulfillment.” She says feelings of guilt or shame can also increase when someone is on their weight loss journey.

Research supports Young’s take. Studies have found that if your weight loss plan is all about avoiding or restricting certain foods, this may increase the risk of both disordered eating and an increase in psychological distress.

While weight loss can be associated with improvements in mental health, that’s not always the case.

• Stress and negative emotions, like nervousness and anxiety, often lead to unhealthy eating habits and can be an obstacle to weight loss. It's essential to find healthier coping mechanisms such as mindfulness or exercise.
• Social media may have harmful effects on your mental health and weight loss efforts.
• Maintaining motivation during weight loss is dependent on self-compassion, flexibility, and trying new things.
• Weight loss can lead to a happier and healthier you, but much of it depends on your approach to weight loss and how you feel about your body in general.

Everyday Health's Weight Loss Reframed Survey queried 3,144 Americans nationwide ages 18 and older who have tried losing weight in the past six months. The study was fielded between July 10 and August 18, 2023, across demographic groups, genders, and health conditions. Survey recruitment took place via an online portal, in-app, and email. The margin of error for the sample size of 3,144 is +/-1.7 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.