How your mental wellbeing can affect your weight

Published May 2025 | 5 min read
Expert contributors: Dr Terri-Lynne South, dietitian and GP, and Chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Obesity Management Specific Interest Group; Eleanor Thackrey, HCF Health and Wellbeing Consultant and accredited practising dietitian
Words by Carrie Hutchinson

Stress and anxiety can make weight management more challenging. Here’s how to positively align your mental wellbeing and eating habits.

If you think the past few years have been particularly stressful, you’re not alone. In the 2024 Health of the Nation survey, GPs said mental health-related issues were the most common health concerns they managed. Whether that’s because of cost-of-living pressures, global instability or your personal situation, it’s clear stress affects our mental wellbeing – and can impact our physical wellbeing, too, says Eleanor Thackrey, HCF Health and Wellbeing Consultant and accredited practising dietitian.

The mind–body connection on the scales

Emotions can greatly impact weight management. Stress or anxiety can trigger emotional eating, which usually involves eating unhealthy, comfort foods rather than healthier options. Emotions can also affect our physiology.

“When we’re stressed, our bodies release cortisol,” says Eleanor, explaining cortisol is a hormone that can influence metabolism and can affect appetite. This, in turn, can influence food choices and how your body stores fat.

“When you’re experiencing chronic stress, you’ll often have cravings for high-calorie or comfort foods, and you tend to store more abdominal fat,” she says.

Not only that, stress can also upset sleep patterns, meaning you’re more tired during the day.

“When you’re tired, your decision-making around nutritious food choices becomes more difficult, because you just want a quick, easy energy source,” explains Eleanor.

This can become a vicious cycle of eating to make yourself feel better, and then discovering it makes you feel worse. If you’re aiming for weight loss, managing stress is crucial, says Eleanor. And you need to change your ingrained thoughts around food, she adds.

“Create a relationship with food that removes the stress,” she says. “If there are already all those stressful things happening in your life, you don't want food to be an added one.”

Ways to boost your mental wellbeing

To avoid the food-mood cycle, we should focus on self-care, especially with exercise, says Dr Terri-Lynne South, Chair of the RACGP Obesity Management Specific Interest Group.

“Movement is medicine, and I think it’s very underrated,” she says. “Often, we have our own self-dialogue that is negative and punishing with regards to doing some sort of physical activity – it’s something we feel we have to do.”

Dr South suggests focusing on how good you’ll feel after exercising, rather than how much you don’t want to do it. In fact, finding an activity you like can be the best way to break the cycle. You could take a 20-minute walk at lunch or play your favourite music while dancing in the living room. Both, she says, offer varying benefits.

“If people can exercise outside, there's sunlight, fresh air and that connectedness with nature,” says Dr South. “With music, there’s the release of endorphins [hormones that improve mood and increase feelings of wellbeing]. If you add socialisation to that physical activity, it offers extra positives.”

Apart from exercise, Eleanor from HCF offers other ways to improve your mental health and manage conditions like stress. “Whether that’s meditation, spending time in nature or connecting socially, it’s really beneficial,” she says.

Speaking to a mental health professional can also help. Eligible members with extras cover can claim on consultations with a psychologist, an HCF-approved counsellor or an accredited mental health social worker. Plus, eligible members can access other mental health services, including the free HealthyMinds Check-in^* with a PSYCH2U psychologist, as well as a range of evidence-based online treatment programs through This Way Up^*.

Food choices that support mental health

Just like exercise, your food choices can have both positive and negative effects on your mental wellbeing. Research at Deakin University’s Food and Mood Centre found diets high in ultra-processed food increased the risk of depression.

Meanwhile, a study conducted at the University of South Australia showed a Mediterranean diet can reduce the symptoms of stress and anxiety, as well as lower the risk of bowel cancer, heart disease and dementia. More specifically, researchers found that eating more fruit, nuts and legumes and consuming fewer drinks with added sugar improved mood.

“It is very different from the typical Australian diet,” says Dr South. “In general, Australians eat far too much of what we would call discretionary foods – ultra-processed, added-sugar foods that are low in nutritional value – and are not meeting the recommended minimum for fruits and vegetables.”

To follow the principles of the Mediterranean diet, eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, legumes and olive oil. Add fish or seafood to meals twice a week, and enjoy small amounts of dairy and lean protein daily. 

Tips for mindful eating

Dr South believes changing eating habits is best achieved with the help of a professional, like a psychologist or a dietitian. They might take you through strategies like listening to your body, eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full, and eating mindfully without distractions.

“It’s almost the complete opposite of what we do as adults,” she says. “We tend to rush, we stand up or watch TV while eating, or we work through our lunch hour.”

Eleanor offers four tips for being mindful during meals.

1. Remove distractions: Sit down and be fully present with the meal.
2. Chew your food thoroughly: "This forces you to pay attention to what's in your mouth. Try to use your senses and notice the textures and temperatures, and try to put a word to the taste, like salty, sweet or spicy.”
3. Put your cutlery down between mouthfuls: Once you've swallowed, pick up your knife and fork again to have the next mouthful.
4. Plan your meals in advance: Have a back-up plan like a frozen meal option that’s nutritious. “This can be helpful if something doesn’t go to plan with your normal meal, like you end up working late one night,” she says.

Looking for support with your mental wellbeing and weight management goals? The HCF Healthful app makes managing your health feel doable – giving you access to a personalised Health Score, evidence-based health programs, real-time health and wellbeing tracking, goal setting and a 24/7 digital coach^{^}.

Need to get your health back on track?

We’re helping eligible members⁺ save on the evidence-based CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet. Created by Australia’s national science agency, the program combines a higher-protein, low-GI eating plan with proven weight management tools to help improve habits and create lifelong positive behaviours.