Why Does Fibromyalgia Lead to Weight Gain?
Gaining Weight? Fibromyalgia patients are more prone to weight gain as compared to a healthy individual. Do you know the reasons behind fibromyalgia weight gain and how to prevent it?
Reasons behind fibromyalgia weight gain:
Pain and inactivity
The pain in fibromyalgia can be so severe that even the slightest movement can cause throbbing pain. Moreover, the tenderness and stiffness in your muscles makes it painful to move around. With all the pain involved during movement, exercise is totally unimaginable with fibromyalgia. The lack of activity and exercise is one reason why you are gaining weight because your body is not expending the energy from food intake hence causing weight gain.
Lack of sleep
Fibromyalgia is known to disrupt sleep due to pain or stress experienced from the chronic pain disorder. However, sleep is crucial to weight management. One study found that women who get less than six hours or more than nine hours of sleeping time a night were more inclined to putting on 11 pounds of weight compared with women who stick to a seven hours sleep. Lack of sleep affects hormones regulating our appetite such as cortisol, ghrelin and leptin causing us to eat more during the day.
Stress
Stress, be it due to the stress of the chronic pain or other factors, could be another reason of weight gain in fibromyalgia. Stress increases the production of the stress hormones, cortisol, which increases your appetite. As a result, you end up indulging in comfort food like sweet treats, soft drinks or junk foods to help you cope with the stress but often lead to weight gain.
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