ADHD and Weight Control: An Interview with Barbara Luther

By Judy Brenis

Barbara Luther’s struggle with her weight began on the Missouri farm where she grew up, and where her mother baked a double batch of chocolate chip cookies and two cakes every day. “We were a big farm family,” Luther said. “We worked hard and ate robustly.”

In high school Luther’s father began to call her “fat,” and in college she didn’t notice the pounds pile on. “I wasn’t really paying attention to it,” Luther said. “I’m one of those ADD’ers who lives in her head, not paying much attention to my body.”

In fact, back then Luther didn’t even know that many of her struggles, weight-related and otherwise, were due to Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, not having been diagnosed with ADHD until age 45. Luther was also not aware, until recently, of the link between ADHD, obesity and eating disorders. “More than 60 percent of those seeking medical weight loss help also have ADHD,” said Luther, who became an ADHD coach in 1997. “The medical field is just beginning to understand this link.”

ADHD and Obesity

According to some recent studies, there is a possible link between the gene known to be associated with drug addiction and impulsivity, and ADHD, Luther explained These studies show a possible connection between ADHD symptoms and adults with obesity and binge eating. Should this be the case, treatments for weight loss would need to be different if the person has ADHD as opposed to just being obese.

“You can know quite a bit and still not really understand how it’s impacting you,” Luther said. “We may have thought we understood it, but we didn’t grasp the strong connection between the difficulty around impulsivity and weight loss. And yet, proper weight management relies on our ability to control our temptations,” Luther pointed out. “Lack of self-regulation, poor decision-making, sleep issues and depression… all these can adversely affect someone trying to lose weight.”

“Eating is self-soothing,” added Luther. “When the brain is tired or stressed, we don’t know what to do to give it support. So, we often get up and get something to eat.” We fall into a mindless unhealthy habit. It is the same reason there’s a strong correlation between ADHD and alcoholism or drug addiction – we impulsively try something new, soothing, or risky. We do it a few times because it is novel or fulfills a need, then we become caught in the addictive habit loop.

“Plus, the temptations are so numerous when it comes to food,” Luther points out emphatically. “You can’t drive a mile without seeing fast food signs, and for those with ADHD, self-regulation is very difficult. You may be able to ignore the first few signs, but by the time you see the 10th one, you pull in.”

Maintaining Mindfulness

According to Luther, mindfulness also plays a huge role in regulating eating habits and maintaining a healthy weight. “At least it did for me,” she said. “On my own personal journey, I had to address mindfulness first. I had to stop and look at what I was eating every day. I wrote down everything that went into my mouth and made sure I weighed myself.”

“That kind of structure is essential,” Luther insists. “It helped me learn what the signals were. Is that a physical hunger signal or an emotional one? Writing it down helped me remember. We resist recording our eating big time. We feel it’s a hassle, but it’s key that we do it. When I get away from writing down what I eat, thinking I know how to eat now, the weight comes back on,” Luther confesses. “If I’m not writing it down, I can’t remember through a day what I’ve eaten and then I’m off eating too much again.”

Luther, who lost 80 pounds before getting married at age 21, has yo-yoed up and down several times since then, always regaining what she lost and then some.

Planning is Essential

“Dieting takes so much focus on something that just doesn’t seem that important to us ADD’ers,” she said, pointing out how often those with ADD find themselves ravenous with nothing to eat in the house. “Food prep and planning menus is boring, and it’s no fun to figure out what to purchase if you even get yourself to the grocery store,” Luther said.

What did help Luther was learning how to keep certain things in the house for quick meals that she could throw together without a lot of hassle. “I had my five favorite breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and could turn to those in a pinch.”

About four years ago, when Luther once again lost a considerable amount of weight (over 100 pounds), she said she was tired of feeling awful and at first just started recording what she ate and eating a Mediterranean type diet. “I wanted to ease my way into it,” Luther said. “I didn’t want to diet; I wanted to find a plan that I could live with and lose the weight slowly. I never set a bigger goal than 10 pounds.”

Begin with Baby Steps

“I became really curious,” Luther said. “After losing the first 10 pounds, then the second, I just started feeling better and wanted to see if I could feel even better.”

As she began to lose weight, she felt good about herself. “I was proud of myself,” Luther said, “and enjoyed my body for the first time since I was a teen. My knees didn’t hurt. My back didn’t hurt. I started working out after I dropped 50 pounds.”

“And I didn’t feel deprived. It’s true for every human being, every mammal that feels confined, restricted, or controlled – we’re going to lash out. That’s what diets do to us,” Luther said. “And if you start feeling deprived and don’t address that, you’re going to self-destruct.” Even when successful, Luther said she allowed herself a tiny bit of dark chocolate every day, which went a long way in keeping that deprived feeling at bay.

Luther also said that when her eating was under control, she could even go out with friends, eat and drink, and then the next day she wanted to go back to her healthier way of eating. Avoiding an all-or-nothing mindset was key to her success.

We Can All Use a Positive Spin

Unfortunately for Luther, in recent years that has proven more difficult. She was open in discussing her struggle to maintain her weight while dealing with a depression and hormone fluctuations that hit about two or three years ago. “I just couldn’t sustain things as well,” Luther said. I lost it through the holidays. The depression just dragged me down.”

Luther said she reached out for help, but nothing worked. “I couldn’t even get the doctors to hear me. I was scared of my own impulsivity and needed additional support.”

David Girwerc, founder of ADDCA (the ADD Coach Academy), believes that when something is out of harmony, people need to pay attention to that “disharmony” and the signals that manifest in one’s own body. He points out that for those with Inattentive Type, it is important to work hard at observing their patterns and tuning-in to their bodies. “It is all about the power of the pause,” he says. The key is pausing and learning how to identify the signals that are being sent to your brain before they expand into a dangerous situation that can compromise your physical and or mental health.

Girwerc explains how depression can create a barrier to the successful patterns already established, which is what happened to Luther. Even though she had experienced success before, having learned how to pause and consciously make the right choices and decisions that created consistent and positive results, the depression took her right back to her old days. “But if she was successful once before, she can do it again,” Girwerc said.

“Positive psychology is about savoring the success and taking those learning experiences into the next phase. It is the savoring and reappraisal that makes resilient people come back and take action in new and improved ways.”

Luther agrees, and in retrospect, she believes that perhaps she had to regain some of the weight to learn further lessons particularly around negative self-talk and being loving and compassionate toward herself, no matter what.

“There will be good days and bad days and if you make a mistake, beating yourself up is not going to help,” Luther points out. “Self-compassion is about awareness; it’s about being empathetic with one’s own self. It’s trying to find habits that you can enjoy and will pull you forward.”

Creating a Brighter Future

According to Dr. Russell Barkley, a leading ADHD expert, those with ADHD “struggle to have a memory of the future.” “What that means,” Luther explained, “is that it is very difficult for those with ADHD to see ourselves in the future. We can’t connect to our future selves on an emotional or intellectual level. We aren’t able to think of our future selves and act from what our future selves will really, really want. It’s very difficult for us to remember and act from how we want to feel and be a month from now, let alone years from now. We need multiple and constant reminders to help us manage our eating, especially when temptations arise and our willpower is worn down.”

That is exactly the reason Luther suggests finding someone to be your weight loss buddy, “Someone who also wants to lose weight and needs support.” Luther suggests setting short, attainable milestones like 5 or 10 pounds at a time. She also suggests building in non-food celebrations for when you reach those short goals. Get help to manage the negative self-talk. “Enlist structures that really will be supportive; get that partner to help you. It makes it more fun and helps tremendously.

“Don’t think of managing your weight as a war,” Luther said. “Learn to be mindful and self-compassionate.”

“I certainly don’t want to look back on my life and have it be all about my weight. Keep it in perspective. After all, the scale doesn’t tell us who we are as people!”

Judy Brenis is an ADHD coach based in Santa Cruz, California. ADHD has touched her life in the form of her 22-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with ADHD at age five, and Judy is passionate about helping those with ADHD create successful, happy, and healthy lives. Reach her at www.adhdcoachingjudy.com.