Weight gain is a common concern, and for individuals with ADHD, it can be a particularly challenging issue. While it's easy to dismiss weight gain as a simple matter of willpower, certain symptoms of ADHD can indeed make it harder to lead a healthy lifestyle and lose weight. Research suggests a complex interplay of genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors contributing to the association between ADHD and weight issues. However, having ADHD doesn’t mean you can’t set and achieve your goals.
The Link Between ADHD and Weight
Studies have shown a significant association between ADHD and obesity. One study of adults seeking gastric bypass surgery found that a substantial percentage had undiagnosed ADHD. This suggests that ADHD may be a contributing factor to morbid obesity in some individuals.
Meta-Analytic Evidence
Meta-analytic evidence supports a significant association between ADHD and obesity, at least in adults. One meta-analysis found that adults with ADHD had a 70% increased pooled prevalence of obesity compared to those without ADHD. In children with ADHD, the increased prevalence was about 40%. The relationship between ADHD and obesity appears to be stronger in adults compared to children/adolescents.
Potential Explanations
The association between ADHD and obesity may seem counterintuitive at first. However, several factors can explain this link:
- Impulsivity: ADHD can make it challenging to make wise food choices in the moment. People with ADHD are more likely to binge eat, eat late at night, go for higher-calorie snacks, or overeat to remedy negative emotions.
- Executive Functioning Difficulties: Eating healthy requires a healthy level of executive functioning. Planning meals, ensuring ingredients are available, and preparing food in advance all require executive function skills that many with ADHD lack. Difficulty with being future-oriented around time can also contribute to poor meal planning.
- Emotional Regulation: Emotional factors can predispose anyone to overeating or binge eating. For those with ADHD, emotional eating can be a daily occurrence. Boredom, anxiety, stress, low self-esteem, and even happiness can trigger overeating. Food can become a quick and accessible remedy for difficult emotions.
- Sleep Problems: Research suggests that many with ADHD have an ADHD-related sleep problem called delayed sleep phase syndrome, meaning there are disruptions in a person’s internal clock or circadian rhythm. ADHD-related sleeping issues can also affect your metabolism in an undesirable way. Researchers found that this syndrome increases the risk of obesity.
- Neurotransmitter Imbalances: Serotonin and dopamine are two neurotransmitters in the brain that are implicated in ADHD. Both serotonin and dopamine levels rise when we eat high-carbohydrate and high-sugar foods. It is possible that those with ADHD are gravitating to overeating as a biological means to raise certain neurotransmitter levels.
Genetic and Environmental Factors
Research shows that the genes you inherit from your parents can increase the risk of both obesity and ADHD. Environmental factors may also have a part to play in weight gain. Some factors, like our genetic makeup or family environment, are out of our control.
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Strategies for Weight Loss with ADHD
For individuals with ADHD, regulating healthy weight requires engaging in strategies that also work with ADHD. Structuring their day and especially night is important to keep themselves stimulated and engaged in activities that prevent boredom.
Building Healthy Habits
Building healthy habits can be challenging at the start. But the good news is that they’ll become easier the more you do them, and we’re here to help.
- Meal Planning: Developing healthy meal plans takes time, effort, and focus. You can put notes on the fridge listing the meals you plan on eating and the groceries you’ll need or chop veggies and store them in containers to have healthy snacks at the ready.
- Mindful Eating: Mindful eating practices have been shown to be helpful in managing weight. Deep breathing for five minutes before beginning to eat can result in the person’s being a more accurate observer of food intake. Simple practices, such as putting their utensil down, out of their hand, until they have swallowed the food they have in their mouth can make an impact on their caloric intake in a day. Using smaller plates and bowls when eating can make a difference.
- Regular Sleep Schedule: Try to stick to a regular sleep schedule. Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet at night. Reserve your bedroom for sleep and sleep-related activities only.
- Consistent Meal Times: Setting alarms or reminders at meal times can alert them that it is time to eat. Preventing skipped meals goes a long way in achieving a healthy weight.
- Healthy Food Choices: Avoid simple carbohydrates and anything sweetened with corn syrup. Replace these with fruit and high-protein food rich in omega-3 fatty acids, like tuna and olive oil. The more protein you eat, the more sustained you will feel. It’s OK to eat healthy fat because it will help you feel full for longer.
- Portion Control: Eating three meals a day, plus healthy snacks, is essential for appetite control. Waiting until your stomach is growling to eat often means consuming extra calories.
- Eliminate Distractions: Don’t sit in front of the TV with a full bag of chips. Think about how many times you chew your food. Are you taking deep breaths before and while you eat? Do you put your fork down in between bites? Your brain needs time to send word that your stomach is full. Eat as if you’ll need to describe each part of the meal to someone else when you’re finished.
Exercise and Physical Activity
ADHD might make it more challenging to commit to an exercise routine. You don’t need the perfect exercise routine to lose weight. Instead of trying to get to the gym a few times a week, make 20 to 30 minutes of physical activity part of your daily routine. Plan to walk to work, or get off the bus a stop early to walk the rest of the way. It’s not willpower; it’s being strategic. Or, make working out easy and fun by choosing sports you enjoy, and team up with a buddy who can help keep you on track.
Managing Setbacks
Also, remember not to throw away your chance of making good choices because you feel bad for making an unhealthy one. Maybe you missed a workout session or went over your calorie limit with a sugary snack. Instead of feeling discouraged, let it go.
Seeking Professional Help
ADHD therapy and medications are shown to be effective in controlling symptoms of ADHD in adults. Stimulant medication has been found to be effective in aiding people with ADHD with regulating their eating and weight. A longitudinal study assessed the effects of medications on weight change in obese patients over 466 days (Levy et al., 2009). There was a significant difference between the medication and nonmedication groups. Members of the groups that received the medication lost 12.36 percent of their initial weight, whereas those in the nonmedication group actually gained 2.78 percent of their initial weight. Additionally, a therapist can help you notice how you react when you’ve eaten badly - do you condemn yourself? Do you consider yourself a complete failure? - and instead be compassionate with yourself. Cognitive behavioral therapy can also help you use ADHD-specific strategies to achieve your weight loss goals. If you want to learn more about managing ADHD, check out ADDA+.
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Overweight Adults with ADHD: Coping Strategies for Healthy Behaviors and Weight Management
Another study examined coping strategies adopted by overweight adults with ADHD to promote healthy behaviors and weight-control management. The study yielded two main themes: struggling with disappointments and negative feelings in the past, and the reciprocity between weight management and coping skills strategies. The second theme includes cognitive strategies, behavioral strategies, and emotional strategies.
Cognitive Strategies
- Self-Compassion: In this process, they expressed self-compassion, curiosity, and a desire to learn about their abilities and how they will work better for them. This change involved using proactive language based on choices, emphasizing self-efficacy, growth, and hope.
- Critical Reflection: Some interviewees reported they had adopted a mindset of examining their eating behaviors through critical reflection, or like a researcher studying phenomena in the world, looking at the processes.
Behavioral Strategies
- Scheduling Nutritious Meals: Interviewees applied strategies such as scheduling nutritious meals (i.e., fruit and vegetables, water, little fat, sugar, and carbohydrates), eating at regular intervals, decreasing unhealthy foods, and documenting and monitoring eating habits in a daily journal.
- Learning Management Skills: Like creating a list of necessary ingredients. Thus, I’ve experienced a meaningful improvement in my organizational skills. From organizing material for an exam to organizing documents connected to my household affairs.
Emotional Strategies
- Turning to Pleasurable Activities: Nowadays, when I think about the urge to eat, I turn to activities that please me, such as drawing mandalas.
- Seeking Support: In the support group, I received encouragement and compliments from the other participants. They strengthened my self-efficacy and my self-belief and made me feel very good about myself.
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