[lunarsongbird]

This weekend I watched the last Biggest Loser episode. There appeared to be a couple people who had wonderful numbers on the scale that seemed to correlate with emotional breakthroughs.

Do you believe that emotional baggage can cause slow weight loss, even if you are doing everything to plan?



Are there some things that you need to break through emotionally? Is there any way that we can support you through it?

[lunarsongbird]

I believe the only thing that I'm really carrying around emotionally is financial stress... I still need to finish paying the photographer from our wedding and my husband is going to be taking over finances soon so he'll find out exactly everything that is going on with my financial situation- and it's not entirely pretty.

But could this be causing a slow scale? :: shrugs ::

[Doomkitty]

I definitely believe emotional distress can cause our weight loss to slow or even stop completely. It impacts how you eat, how you work out, how well you sleep, and probably a number of things I don't understand.

When I'm in an upbeat mood, I'm a lot more productive and I have fewer problems with working out and eating healthy. When I'm upset, I become frustrated too easily.

[Radiojane]

It's a loop- You usually have to get into semi good headspace to make the changes needed to lose weight, and as you lose and get control of your health, you feel better emotionally.

[April Snow]

Originally Posted by Radiojane

It's a loop- You usually have to get into semi good headspace to make the changes needed to lose weight, and as you lose and get control of your health, you feel better emotionally.

specifically on Biggest Loser, the people with the emotional breakthroughs were saying things like they hadn't been giving it 100% in the workouts. Since their losses depend on burning 1000s of calories a day, that's a critical element.

For the rest of us, I think it's more bigger picture the way Radiojane was describing and we have to be in the right headspace to stay on plan with food (the bigger piece for those of us without hours and hours and hours to exercise every day!) and with activity level too.

So I don't know if it's the emotions specifically but if you are stress eating, not sleeping well, not putting as much energy into exercise, etc., then all of that can be reflected on the scale.

[fattymcfatty]

I think getting into weird headspaces can hinder progress. When I started back in 2010, I had only seen 203-205lbs or so when I crash dieted in college and that was my low. I think back then (during the college starvation diet) I gave up, the way I was losing was too restrictive--so when that low number started to approach in 2010, I got nervous. "This is where I failed before, I won't get past this" -type mentality reared its' ugly head. I got on this board and it helped. Kept pluggin' along and guess what? I made it to 188 before we started trying for DD#2.

I think most of us hit these rough spots, but my best advice is to keep doing what you are doing. Stress is tough, try your best to work through it.