Depression leads to weight gain mainly because a person suffering from the condition is more likely to engage in comfort eating without in the necessary physical activity required to burn off the extra calories. Often people with depression crave for high-sugar diets, whose resulting surge in blood sugar makes them feel a temporary goodness about themselves. If the underlying emotional or psychological cause of depression is not dealt with, depression can lead to unhealthy weight gain and subsequently other diseases associated with unhealthy gaining of weight. To avoid the eventuality of unhealthy weight gain, observe the following;
- Stay away from highly processed foods. In most cases, this can be done by accepting one’s condition and realizing the need to adopt healthy eating. If you are at home, ensure that your fridge is only stocked with healthy food options. This means that every time you feel like munching something, you will have no choice but to eat a healthy snack.
- Avoid the fast foods. There is no better way of doing this than by resisting the urge to visit a fast food restaurant.
- Get into an exercise regime that could help alleviate your emotions. By taking your mind off a specific situation, you are most likely to discover that the situation is not as grim as it looked after all. Exercising helps you do this. In addition, you end up burning calories that could have accumulated in the body when you could not resist the temptation to eat.
Although gaining weight is healthy for underweight people, any weight gain coming from comfort eating is not healthy. As such, a person should seek alternative healthier ways of gaining weight.