Does losing fat release emotions?

[empyblessing]

That's the question I wanted to ask the forums. I did a quick internet search for the answer but couldn't find anything conclusive. From my experience, I've found that whenever I experience some fat loss, it seems to trigger painful emotions, depression and anger mostly. 

[Mick Bynes]

You may be right.  However, everyone has a different body.  Based on my experience, I feel way much better about myself and the emotions are not painful or anything you said.  Thanx for reminding, I need to lose some weight, I gained 10+ pounds over the holiday season.

[courtneycm]

It makes sense to me that there would be a link. I don't know the science of it and if there's a chemical link between the two, but I have personal experience with the psychological side effects of gaining and losing fat and believe firmly those two go hand in hand.

For me, gaining an extreme amount of weight and fat in college was an incredibly comforting shield. Even though I hated the way I looked and would fret about it, I absolutely loved the way it helped me be overlooked, not taken seriously, not approached sexually. That shield that kept me from being noticed also kept me from having to deal with my history and the fact that MAN I was sad because my parents taught me from a very young age that the real me wasn't worth much.  

Some major life changes helped me to get my confidence up enough to start losing the weight about a year after I graduated, and the more weight that came off the more my journal pages filled up. I would be gleeful and excited on the outside but felt very exposed and very scared on the inside. The more my protective covering melted away the more I felt the pain that led to me to gain the weight in the first place. I actually had my first experience with a panic attack around this time, not long after hitting 10% of my weight loss goal. I am incredibly glad that I had enough good sense to journal my way through it to be able to at least be aware of the emotional changes it was bringing. (It was quite a while later before I could actually process them.) 

I would say that if you are experiencing big emotional triggers in response to fat loss, it's well worth exploring your history with weight and body image by yourself or with a therapist. I've had huge success understanding my issues in this area through IFS work.

[Stephen C]

It could be worth considering if there is anything the depression would say if the depression could speak. The same goes for the anger. 

[Dave Bockman]

In his conversation with Stef a few years ago, Dr. Vince Felitti had some fascinating and poignant information about the catastrophic emotional breaks his patients would often experience after massive (but controlled) weigh loss. I highly recommend giving this a listen:

[edit:] If you would be interested in having a Skype conversation about your experiences I would find it of great value, I too have experienced what you're describing. I lost about 100 lbs a couple years ago and at my lightest had some stuff come up that was really unpleasant (but ultimately extremely valuable for my self-knowledge and healing.

Dave

 

That's the question I wanted to ask the forums. I did a quick internet search for the answer but couldn't find anything conclusive. From my experience, I've found that whenever I experience some fat loss, it seems to trigger painful emotions, depression and anger mostly. 

 

 

 

[empyblessing]

http://www.naturalnews.com/035204_weight_gain_mind-body_medicine_stress.html

 

This is a link to an article about the mind/body connection between weight loss.