People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to be over eaters. Indeed, obesity is five times more prevalent among people with ADHD than those who don't have this condition. "Many factors play a role as to why," said Roberto Olivardia, PhD, a clinical psychologist and clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston. One reason is that people with ADHD tend to be impulsive. "And food is one of the many things they can be impulsive with," Olivardia said.
Another reason is that to eat healthy and in moderation, you need to pay attention to your hunger and satiety cues. Often people with adult ADHD misunderstand what their bodies are telling them. They mistake feelings of boredom or worry for hunger, and so they overeat. When you do so — especially if you choose the wrong foods — it's easy to put on weight, said Jessica Crandall, RD, CDE, program director for Sodexo Wellness and Nutrition Services and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.
Still another reason that obesity is a problem among people with ADHD symptoms is that their brains have a glitch in the executive functioning area required to plan and prepare healthy meals, Olivardia said. "Thus, eating prepared meals or fast food becomes the norm, and they end up eating more fat and calories than they need, which leads to weight gain," he said.
Strategies to Avoid Weight Gain
If you have adult ADHD, it doesn't mean you're destined to gain weight. Here are nine tips you can use to fight obesity:
- Plan ahead. "Take an hour or so on a Sunday night and try, to the best of your ability, to plan your meals for the week," Olivardia suggested. "This may feel laborious to someone with ADHD — or to anyone for that matter — but it's definitely worth it." Once your workweek begins, it becomes much harder. When meal planning, you can enlist the help of a nutritionist or dietitian if you need to, Crandall added.
- Don't shop when you're hungry. Go to the supermarket after breakfast or lunch, not right before. If you're starving when you walk into the store and see all the tempting items on display, it's much harder to control your impulse buying, Olivardia said. Instead, those not-good-for-you foods high in fat and sugar will likely find their way into your cart.
- Avoid junk food "bargains." Yes, that package of 50 butter cookies for $4 is a bargain — especially when compared with 50 cents for a single kiwi or $3.50 for a pint of blueberries. "But when you consider you are also buying more pounds on your body, the bigger package isn't always the better value," Olivardia said. Don't delude yourself, he said. If you buy it, you will eat it.
- Know your trigger foods. If you know you can't resist peanut butter cookies, don't keep them in the house. You can indulge once in a while, but if you have several packages sitting on your pantry shelves, it will be harder to say no when you are looking for something to eat. Try to avoid buying foods high in sodium, saturated fat, and sugar, Olivardia said, and stock up instead on healthy staples such as egg whites, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, and nuts like unsalted almonds.
- Eat breakfast. "Mom was right: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," Olivardia said. "It sets your metabolism for the day." People with ADHD, in particular, need to avoid sugar highs and lows. And Crandall noted that if you include protein and high-fiber foods in your breakfast, you'll feel fuller longer and won't be ravenous before lunch.
- Get plenty of sleep. This may seem like an odd diet tip, Olivardia said, but people with ADHD commonly have insomnia or other sleep disorders. "Sleep deprivation and obesity go hand-in-hand," he said. "The less we sleep, the less our bodies want to burn fat. It's Mother Nature's way of conserving energy. Also, our bodies are actually designed to crave fat and sugars when we are sleep deprived, as well as to not feel as full when we should be."
- Eat throughout the day. This tip, too, may seem incongruous, Olivardia said. "But studies show that eating four to five small meals or snacks in a day is better for energy, attention, and metabolism than eating three square meals." To stay on track, you may need to schedule your meals and set a timer so you know when it's time to eat.
- Be kind to yourself. If you do binge eat, don't beat yourself up. If you overeat and feel hopeless about it, it will be harder to change. "You will just feel more hopeless," Olivardia said. "You can make a difference the moment you recognize the pattern that led you to overeat in the first place."
- Divert your energy. People with ADHD tend to have lots of energy. So put that energy to good use. Rather than sitting in front of the TV and snacking on peanuts or ice cream, call a friend and go for a brisk walk around the neighborhood. Enlisting a friend or exercise buddy will make you more likely to get up off the couch. The more you move, the more calories you burn. And the more calories you burn, the less weight you gain.
ADHD and Obesity
It's easy to pack on the pounds as you get older and more sedentary — and even more so for those with adult ADHD because you have a tendency to be impulsive, which can lead to your overeating of unhealthy foods. You don't need to constantly diet, Olivardia said. "Throw that word out of your vocabulary," he said. Instead, make these simple lifestyle adjustments, and you'll find you can control your eating and your weight.