Many people want to know how to lose weight with anxiety. Sometimes they think that weight gain can be caused by anxiety and yet the opposite is also true. If a person has anxiety sometimes they eat just to not focus on the issue. If they have severe anxiety sitting still long enough to have a meal is very stressful and therefore they just don’t.
Does anxiety burn calories? Anxiety is a state of mind and on its own does not. I have not found any research to support this idea. Instead, some anxious people move more and it is moving more that causes weight loss. Even being away from the source of food allows some weight to come off. I hope that as you read this that the idea of dropping a few pounds can be achieved by getting into highly stressful situations so that you can feel better about your body.
Here is the bottom line. If you have anxiety it will affect you. It comes out in all ways and differently for the individual. Just recently, as an example, I worked with a person who had a phobia surrounding the produce section of his grocery store. As we released layer after layer of concerns we released the anxiety that she did not understand how to cook. She was afraid to be ridiculed or mocked by others. As a result, she never cooked. She ate out often and as a result, gained weight. She then felt useless, and anxious around food. Unless instructions were on the wrapper, it was not real food in her mind. Here was the outcome. I taught her some tapping techniques. I wrote her a script and she went home and used it every day for about a week. When she came back some new issues came up but this time it was about other areas in her life where she did not feel good enough and felt ashamed and fear of ridicule. As we worked together, the weight started to come down. It did not take long. After 4 sessions, it became a call me “as needed”
If you experience anxiety, we can help but it is a process.