You are going through an underappreciated transformation in your life if you are going through a breakup right now. Grieving might be sparked by losing the presence of a loved one who was integral to both your daily routines and daily life. In that regard, your body enters “mourning mode” when you depart from someone who had a voice you were accustomed to listening to before bed and waking up to. There may be numerous physiological alterations as a result. One of them is the inability to eat after a breakup.

The pressure to get on with life is already gigantic, so most of us do not take a moment to see and absorb the changes that are occurring in our bodies and minds. Nevertheless, the “normal” of your life is altered after a split. Additionally, your body enters a stress-recovery phase. Like any other issue, facing this one head-on and accepting it as it is constitutes the first stage to solving it.

Can a broken heart make you lose your appetite? Without a doubt, it can. You are more likely than not to lose your appetite following a breakup. Let us try to comprehend why you have trouble eating when you are dealing with a broken heart, as well as what may be done to assist you cope with it.

We have learned through talking with many of our fellow colleagues that different people handle stress in different ways. Whereas some of us simply cannot eat after a breakup, others are inclined to overeat when worried. There are compelling arguments, according to eating psychology and the mind-body connection, against eating when your heart is crushed.

Here are the top seven factors, in our opinion, that make it so difficult for you to eat following a breakup:

After a breakup, you are in so much anguish and your life has come to an abrupt stop that you are unable to eat. Do you have the feeling that eating at this time is necessary? No, you do not!

Your body is attempting to flee and move forward. It needs to assist you to survive at this time and hold everything together because your heart has had a severe shock. It, therefore, calls for extra strength and energy in your hands and legs (which are escape organs). As a result, some other processes—especially digestion—are slowed down.

So, if you have been wondering why you have not been hungry after a split, this is the answer. Simply put, at this point, your body is unable to give digestion priority.

If you have a stomachache, chances are you will take drugs, natural remedies, etc. to “get rid of the pain”. Your body is biologically designed to “run away” from discomfort, by any means necessary. Rightfully so. If we had to endure such severe discomfort, we would not even notice the discomfort in the stomach, much less take any action to relieve it. But doing so would put our survival in danger.

Therefore, your body’s first response when you are experiencing a broken relationship along with deep grief and heartache is to try to make the “pain go away”. Therefore, when experiencing heartbreak, your body enters its “flight mode” instead of fight mode, which is the reason why you lose interest in food.

Having trouble eating following a breakup? This is also a means for your body, which is presently in a mourning state, to reject pleasures. The primary organ to accept the food you eat is your mouth. The mouth is home to taste buds that elicit emotions of joy and satisfaction in addition to the enzymes that initiate the digestive process.

Your palate is rejecting the entire act of eating to avoid this elevating experience, which is the reason why you lose your desire for food after a splitting from your partner. Therefore, if you have not been eating since a breakup, it is likely because both your body and your mind want to prevent you from experiencing the satisfaction that comes from eating.

Your body has more intelligence than you might realize, believe it or not. Every day of your life, it operates around the clock. Therefore, it is highly knowledgeable regarding what you ought to do as well as what to avoid doing to maintain you. The inability to eat is frequently a sign that your body’s “digesting mill” for processing food is shut, and you are dealing with red flags of a relationship and eventually a breakup.

It is evident that your digestive system has slowed down, and the remainder of your organism has noticed this right away. This simply makes you feel unneeded after a breakup, which further causes you to lose your appetite. Why then bother?

And you are not having fun at all. So, feeling guilty for indulging in culinary delights is frequently linked to the sensation that you cannot eat after a breakup. It nearly gives you the impression that you should stop enjoying your taste buds and instead pay attention to this “tragic” event that changed your life.

Your mind keeps bringing up the grief, which adds to the starving state and makes it harder for you to move on after a relationship ends.

After a heartbreak, your emotions and hormones are prevalent all around. So, the hormone control process uses all the extra energy that would have been used to relieve the pain. 

You may be sluggish and slow, but your body continues to try to calm and settle itself, which explains why you have not eaten since the split.

Sometimes after a breakup, you remain in this state for a lot longer than is reasonable and are unable to eat. Your body and mind start to feel more at ease. When you keep losing an unusually large amount of weight, you cross the unhealthy threshold. 

Be sure to spot this pattern and get in touch with a professional who can assist you in recreating your hunger and appetite signal.

Is there a certain dish that might help you recover from heartbreak? Unfortunately, no. But here are some things you can do in order to move on from a breakup and quit moping about. 

Here are 3 strategies to overcome this lack of appetite:

When your heart is broken and you cannot eat, turn to liquids. Because your body believes that you are not consuming solid things that are more difficult to digest, it will not reject liquids. 

So, make sure to eat plenty of soups, stews, herbal teas, and lemon-and-honey combinations to keep your energy levels high and your immune system healthy.

Does your appetite loss still follow a breakup? The importance of maintaining excellent gut health has just increased. 

Your recovery from this stage where you are unable to eat due to a shattered heart will be accelerated the happier your gut and the better controlled your feelings are.

How to regain your appetite following a breakup? Consume your preferred meals, even if they are foods that make you fat. We do not expect that you prepare them yourself so opt for ordering takeaway or choose some intermediate solution, which might actually be the best: meal delivery service. This way, you can order dishes in accordance with a pre-subscribed meal plan and with recipes from Dinnerly that are pared back and you resume intaking necessary vitamins, proteins, etc. 

However, right now, you are in need of all the happiness you can get, even if it comes from eating things you would not normally let yourself. We understand…

You can get the benefits of counseling, meaning talking to a professional for a different viewpoint; or you can watch your favorite movies, spend time with friends and family, and resume a hobby (or find a new one).

Do not give up, do not starve yourself, and reach out if your emotions are overpowering you.