It’s not just comfort eating that puts on pounds when you’re in grief. Because grief causes a stress response it can have the same effect as other stressors and that is weight gain.
Additionally, anything that upsets your normal routine in the way grief does makes it harder to stay on track with good choices.
But it’s not only weight gain to be aware of. Apparently grief is also bad for your heart and for your immune system.
Some grieving people write that they gained weight whether they ate more or not. On the site Grieving Parent, blogger Joe Mudd writes about his “grief gut,” chronicling how his struggle with weight began in college, but that he was able to successfully lose and keep the weight off until his son died, at which point, he says, his body began to “store weight like crazy” no matter what he did. Fellow grievers and weight gainers chime in with support in the comments, mentioning that whether they ate more or less, the weight piled on, and they can’t seem to shake it.
For my personal experience with grief and eating, check out the article Grief Chocolate.
Why Some People Gain Weight While Grieving | MEL Magazine
