Long-term dieting and calorie counting can create anxiety around food that triggers cortisol, a hormone that promotes fat storage and blocks weight loss. This mental stress creates a cycle where fear of overeating actually makes you gain weight. Confronting these anxieties directly is the way to break it.
Do you have a fear of food? Anxiety around food is a big problem for so many people. It may be that you've dieted, calorie counted, or been restricting your eating for years, and now you worry about overeating. Or you could have anxious thoughts about what the scales will say, yet you can't stop hopping on them. But we need to stop this because it's a vicious cycle. The stress will trigger the fat storage hormone cortisol, which can prevent weight loss, and it's been proven that anxiety increases appetite. So the battle is not just going on in your head, it's going on in your body too, and this can cause weight gain.
