Your Personality Can Affect Your Weight!

Losing weight may seem simple, you would have to balance your diet and burn more than what you eat by exercising! Yet it’s not as easy as it seems. Research is finding links between personality traits, emotions and eating behaviors. This holds true because the same brain regions that control everything related to your emotions and stress deal with appetite and hunger feelings as well!

A study conducted last year associated 5 personality traits with different, specific eating habits – mostly, leading us to gain weight! So find below each personality trait, what happens and what you can do about it!

Personality Trait	What Happens	What We Can Do
The Night Owl	- Sleep deprived at night and  tends to sleep through breakfast time and snack late at night   > This drives down levels of leptin, the hormone that signals fullness, while driving ghrelin up, the hormone that increases appetite especially for high carbohydrates, sweets and high calorie food!	- Start by decreasing your caffeine intake in the afternoon and night - Decrease TV/PC-time in the evening - Close the kitchen doors by 8-9 pm at night - Wake up early and boost up your energy with breakfast
The Stress Junkie	- Competes in everything and works better under pressure > This internal force to constantly compete is powered by both cortisol and adrenaline – the stress hormones. Stress hormones also boost  neuropeptide Y, a neurochemical that increase: - Carbs cravings - Insulin secretion - Fat accumulation	- Exercise helps in burning off excess cortisol - Plan your work ahead of time, to decrease any stressful events - Adopt a hobby/ relaxing/ breathing techniques. - Don’t go gulping sugary and fatty foods when you’re upset, angry or sad just to comfort your anxiety. Think before you eat!
The Mindless Multi-tasker	- Drives, talks, reads, watches TV, BBMs and even knits altogether while eating! > Most don’t overeat because they’re super hungry. Eating has become a mindless habit with no focus on what we are actually eating.	Yes, multitasking is a plus, if you’re applying for a new job but not when you are eating. - Give your food your full attention. Sit down at a dining table, chew your food well and eat slowly. Savor every bite and stop when you’re full.
The Giver	- Puts everyone’s needs before his or her own and may fear disappointing others > This leads to void or guilt feelings, where you’ll end up stuffing your face with sweet sweeeet food!	It is quite righteous to be generous and caring, but you’d have to put you and your health first as well. Also, know what is bothering you. Let out any negative emotions in a healthier way - run, jog, swim, sing, write, draw, anything but eating.
The Perfectionist	- Puts unreachable goals, whether in life, school, work or fitness goals > Perfectionists tend to set impossible weight goals leading them to disappointment and emotional eating when they relapse.	- If you wait till all circumstances are perfect, you won’t start at all! So ditch the ‘all or nothing’ mentality and start with what you have right now.   - Break your ultimate goal into many small, realistic and reachable steps and strive to reach each goal at your own pace.

Work to identify what is causing you to emotionally eat and work to break these triggers. I definitely don’t mean that you must change your whole personality, but knowing what pushes you to overeat could be the key!

References: The Wall Street Journal, Image Source