For years, it has been reported that people on a diet have experienced depression for various reason and the condition hindering their progress. Depression is related to feeling sad, helpless, hopeless, and similar emotion and behaviors, and these signs can be used as indicator of its occurrence:

1. Disrupted sleep, sometimes with unpleasant dreams.

2. Lose the will to eat properly.

3. Waking up from sleep too early and cannot go back to sleep.

4. Cannot concentrate during working hour.

5. Anxious worrying.

6. Can’t control emotion; become upset for no reason.

7. Become short temper.

8. Weary when waking from sleep.

9. Can’t sleep well for long time.

Depression on a dieter can be occurring in two forms: the first one is being depressed because other reasons while on a diet, which can hinders the weight loss process itself; the second is being depressed because the expected result from the diet does not happen quickly enough.

Either of these problems will hinder your weight loss progress, so if you experienced these, you better solve it quickly. If the reasons are external factors such as family, job, or environment you need to look for the source and solve the problem; but sometimes you don’t realize that the problem is lie within your weight loss program itself:

1. Proper antioxidant intake can prevents depression to a certain degree; read your meal plans again and make sure it is already contain adequate number of foods rich in antioxidant such as apple, cinnamon, barley cereal, chili pepper, red cabbage, parsley, and kiwi.

2. Serotonin is the brain chemical used to regulate intestinal movements, control of appetite, mood, and anger. Research showed that eating a diet rich in whole grain carbohydrates and low protein will increase serotonin by secreting insulin, so if your diet restricts carbohydrates you must rethink about it. But remember not to increasing insulin for long period since it may cause insulin resistance.

3. Another study has shown that low selenium levels in the diet can lead to irritability and depression; the government is recommend daily intake of selenium by 75mcg for men and 60mcg for women, so you should include food source of selenium in your daily diet such as cereals (corn, wheat, rice), walnuts, beef, chicken, egg, cheese, and tuna.

4. Make sure your diet already contain a good portion of exercise since a study shown that it will reduce stress, anxiety, and depression; not only that, it also boost self esteem and improve sleep. The exercise included does not have to be a workout session or hours in gym; a simple regular jogging will enough.

If your diet already covered all that criteria, the next problem that might exists is your own concept regarding diet, the process, and the result. There are people on a diet that gets depressed quickly only by a glance of her body in the mirror or weeks of diet and the weight loss is not as much as her expectation; so before you judge your diet or your body, lets straight some facts first:

1. Do not put your hope into any commercials. Many weight loss programs are offer fast result for almost no effort; that may work in some cases, but it not necessarily work in your case. So basically you need to set your mind for long term goal, not the process speed; losing little weight constantly is better than losing lots at once and regain it back on the next week.

2. There are various diet methods available right now; when you choose one to do, do not expect that you can do it easily and gain result immediately. Sometimes your body still needs time to get used with the program and you may not gain result for weeks, when this happens just stay calm, rearrange your plan, motivate yourself, aim for a goal, and start it again.

3. Aiming for perfection is dangerous thing; while it is true that a bad day when you eat too much will damage your entire week progress, there are no use in keep dwelling on what have happened. You are a human and you bound to make mistakes, just forget it and start anew on the next day.

Depression and weight loss is a bad combination when you experienced it and you need to get out of it fast. Checking your diet’s meal plans should come in priority; make sure it already contain all food groups, that way you will not lose any important ingredients to suppress depression. A healthy exercise is also required, followed with setting the right concept about dieting before you start anything. This will help you go through the process and expect best result in the end.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 1:56 am and is filed under fat loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.