Wedding nerves and weight - the link
I have just been listening to a bride-to-be talking about her struggle, both with wedding nerves and weight gain. She was saying that she has been suffering quite badly from pre-wedding nerves and fears. When I asked her what her symptoms were she said that was having panic attacks, feelings of nervousness which include jumbly feelings in her stomach, increased heart rate, an increase in blushing, feeling unwell and sleeplessness.
Whilst we were talking she also said that she was also battling to loose weight but was finding she was gaining weight, not losing it.
People suffering from wedding nerves often find either that they lose a lot of weight quite easily or like this bride-to-be, gain weight or at least struggle to lose weight. So why do some people lose weight with wedding nerves and others gain weight?
Fear is usually an appetite suppressant. What this means is that when we get scared the body loses interest in eating so we tend not to eat as much. Additionally the bodies reaction to fear is to ready the body for action as part of the flight or fight response, this normally increases the metabolic rate, or the rate at which the body burns off our food. Both of these things usually results in weight loss.
So why do some people gain weight or at least find it extremely difficult to lose weight when suffering from wedding nerves? For two main reasons. The first is because of a habit they developed to deal with fear; comfort eating. Many people have developed comfort eating as a habit during times of stress, particularly a habit of eating things with high number of calories and processed sugars in them like chocolate, cakes, breads etc. The second main reason is the sleeplessness brought on by the wedding nerves. This tends to slow down our metabolic rate, which means that we do not burn off the food we consume as fast as we normally would.
Getting your wedding nerves under control is a really important factor in stabilising and controlling your weight as is breaking the habit or association between fear and comfort eating. Our wedding guides show you how to deal with your wedding nerves, start sleeping and stop comfort eating.
