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Oct 19, 2023 · Emotional eating is the impulse to eat in response to unpleasant emotions. Eating might seem like a harmless way to cope with unhappiness or stress. But emotional eating may cause you to eat...
- Nancy Lovering
- Overview
- What causes someone to eat because of their emotions?
- Emotional hunger vs. physical hunger
- How to stop emotional eating
- When to seek help
Do you race to the pantry when you feel down or otherwise upset? You’re not alone. It’s common for people to turn to food for comfort as a way to cope with big, difficult feelings.
When you eat in response to emotions, it’s called emotional eating. Everyone does it sometimes.
Our bodies need food to survive. It makes sense that eating lights up the reward system in the brain and makes you feel better.
When emotional eating happens often, and you don’t have other ways to cope, it can be a problem.
Although it may feel like a way to cope in those moments, eating doesn’t address the true issue. If you’re feeling stressed, anxious, bored, lonely, sad, or tired, food won’t fix those feelings.
For some people, this cycle of turning to food to cope creates guilt and shame — more tough feelings to navigate.
Almost anything can trigger a desire to eat. Common external reasons for emotional eating may include:
•work stress
•financial worries
•health issues
•relationship struggles
People who follow restrictive diets or have a history of dieting are more likely to emotionally eat.
Humans must eat to live. It’s natural to need food and to desire certain tastes or textures.
You may wonder how to tell the difference between emotional and physical hunger cues. It can be tricky. Sometimes, it’s a combination of both.
If you haven’t eaten for several hours, or generally don’t eat enough in a day, you are more likely to experience emotional eating.
Here are some clues to help you tell the difference.
Start an emotion diary
The more you understand your habits, the better. Eating in response to emotion can happen automatically. The more you understand how you feel when you do certain things, the better your chance at changing things. Try keeping a record of those times when you eat but are not physically hungry. Make a note of: •what was happening •how you were feeling •any emotions you noticed when you got the urge to eat You may also want to include a place to write what you did. Did you eat right away? Did you wait a few minutes? Did you do something to distract yourself? Try not to judge yourself on your findings. Try to be genuinely curious about what is happening when you eat in response to emotions. This takes a lot of practice. Be kind to yourself as you start to explore. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Find other ways to cope
Once you have more information about the emotions, situations, or thoughts that can trigger eating, you can start to make changes. If you notice that you always eat when you feel stressed, it’s the stress that needs attention. Think about some things you can do to better relieve your stress. If you notice you eat when you’re bored, consider ways to manage your boredom. What else could you do to fill your time? It takes time and practice to shift your mindset from reaching for food to engaging in other activities. Experiment with different things to find what works for you.
Move your body
Moving your body can be a powerful way to manage stress and anxiety. Activity helps to reduce levels of stress hormones in your body. It also releases endorphins to give your mood a boost. An exercise routine can help manage underlying emotional triggers for eating. It doesn’t have to be intense. If you’re not currently active, consider doing a five-minute walk or some gentle stretching. Notice how this makes you feel. There seems to be an extra benefit to mindfulness movements like yoga. People who routinely practice yoga report overall lower levels of stress and anxiety.
Change is hard work, but you deserve to feel better. Making changes to your emotional eating can be an opportunity to get more in touch with yourself and your feelings.
Emotional eating can be part of disordered eating. Disordered eating behaviors can lead to developing an eating disorder. You don’t need to have a diagnosed eating disorder to seek help.
If you are feeling uncomfortable with your eating, reach out for support. It’s brave to ask for help if you are struggling.
You can talk with your healthcare professional about your concerns. You can also connect with a mental health professional or a dietitian to help you address both the physical and mental sides of emotional eating.
- Get down to the root cause. A bad day at work or a fight with a friend are short-term issues. But emotional eating can stem from bigger issues, too. These include chronic stress, long-term anger, depression and other concerns.
- Ask why you’re eating. When you walk to the refrigerator, pantry or vending machine, pause and ask a simple question: “Am I really hungry?” Kippen suggests rating your hunger on a scale from 1 to 5, with one being you’re not hungry at all, and five being you’re so hungry that you would eat the food you hate most in the world.
- Swap out your worst snacks. If you don’t have a giant bag of greasy chips at your fingertips, you can’t eat the whole bag. That’s good, because overeating processed snacks can raise your levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
- Choose foods that fight stress. Have you ever wondered why people offer hot tea in emotional situations? It turns out there’s more to it than soothing steam.
Jul 29, 2024 · How To Prevent Emotional Eating. Emotional eating can be prevented through various techniques, including mindfulness, therapy, and adopting better habits. Recognize Emotional Eating Triggers. The first step in preventing emotional eating is awareness. To change habitual behavior, we need to recognize it as a problem and be aware of when we ...
3 days ago · Put a stop to emotional and stress eating by identifying triggers, fighting cravings, and finding more satisfying ways to feed your feelings.
Nov 12, 2021 · The technical definition of emotional eating is eating in order to escape, numb, change or amplify our feelings. An expert weighs in with tips on how to overcome this.
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May 4, 2023 · You can stop emotional eating by adjusting your eating habits and doing physical activity, as well as getting professional help from a therapist or counselor. Part 1. Identifying the Causes of Your Emotional Eating. 1. Differentiate between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
