How gaining weight can have a negative impact on your confidence

Everyone wants to look their best and, usually, weight gain  leaves you feeling not as confident about the way you look. While there are some women who don’t mind gaining weight because they get to enjoy having curves, for other individuals weight gain  is a real problem. Clearly, when you pile on the pounds it makes it difficult to fit into your old clothes and so you may have to buy new ones in a larger size, which is always rather distressing! You may tell yourself you intend to lose weight, but if you don’t bother to you are left feeling that you’re going to be ‘fat’ forever.

Of course, how much of a negative impact weight gain has on your confidence depends on how slim you were to begin with, how much weight you have put on, and how noticeable this weight gain is. If you put on a pound or two after a couple of weeks’ overindulgence at Christmas you won’t feel as bad as if you gain four pounds after a week of avoiding exercise and eating lots. The trouble is once you put on a few pounds it becomes all too easy to put on a few more pounds, as it’s easier not to have to worry about the consequences of eating large quantities of tasty food.

However, while you may enjoy eating whatever you want, the chances are you won’t enjoy the extra weight you end up having to carry, especially when other people start to notice. Most people you know will probably be considerate enough not to mention it, but there will always be one who feels the need to, which will leave you feeling even more conscious of your weight gain. You might go on a crash diet in a desperate attempt to lose weight, even though you generally end up regaining the weight as quickly as you lost it.

If you take this kind of approach to managing your weight, your confidence is likely to plummet further, as you feel elated when you step on the scales and have lost a few pounds, but the complete opposite when the weight makes a return. It is more important to eat healthily and exercise regularly than to lose any weight you’ve gained as fast as humanly possible, since this is a much more effective way to manage your weight.

It is more important to look after your health than to shed lots of weight quickly and will also help bolster your confidence, so that you don’t have to experience the emotional highs and lows of weight loss and gain