How to Overcome Emotional Eating
Tips to Stop Overeating Due to Emotions
Emotional eating can be a dieter's worst nightmare. Learn how to identify and overcome emotional eating patterns with these easy strategies.
Emotional eating is the act of eating large amounts of food in response to emotions instead of true hunger. Feelings of boredom, stress, anger, sadness, anxiety, and even happiness are all emotions that can trigger emotional eating. In this way, food is used to either enhance the good feelings that come with being happy or soothe negative emotions. Most often, emotional eaters reach for "comfort foods," those foods that are high in salt, sugar, fat, and calories. Emotional eating can lead to overeating, hindering weight loss or even causing weight gain.
Symptoms of Emotional Eating
Some symptoms of emotional eating include:
- Craving specific foods such as ice cream, chocolate, pizza or chips
- Continuing to eat even after experiencing a sense of fullness
- Feelings of guilt after eating
- Hunger that comes on quickly as true physical hunger happens gradually
- Mindless eating
Stopping Emotional Eating
While the temptation to eat is strong when experiencing either positive or negative emotions, there are ways to prevent giving in.
Identify real hunger.If it is a regularly scheduled mealtime and you are experiencing physical signs of hunger such as a rumbling tummy, then you're probably experiencing real hunger. When the desire to eat strikes, take a moment to gauge if the feelings being experienced are emotional or true physical hunger.
Journal. Instead of reaching for food, grab a pen and a sheet of paper. Write down your feelings and thoughts, and what events, if any, led to the emotions being experienced. By keeping track of when and why you want to reach for food, you may identify patterns that will help you understand your emotional triggers.
Distract yourself. Instead of opening a bag of chips, find something to do until the cravings pass. Calling a friend, taking a walk, cleaning or listening to music are all great distractions.
Eat balanced meals.Sometimes when dieting, the body may not be taking in enough calories, which is why many dieters find it too difficult not to give in to emotional eating. Be sure to eat healthy and balanced meals as you're more likely to feel satisfied longer. Also include healthy snacks in daily meal plans.
Eat in moderation. Oftentimes, dieters find it difficult to leave their favorite foods behind, leading to feelings of deprivation. Feeling deprived can take an emotional toll on those with the best of intentions. Instead of completely eliminating all favorite foods, eat smaller portions. Having handy snack-sized baggies of your favorite snacks will make it easier to not overeat.
Exercise and Rest. Regular exercise and getting enough sleep are beneficial in decreasing stress and increasing a sense of well-being. Being at your best mentally will help fight the temptation to reach for food.
If you do find yourself eating out of emotion instead of hunger, don't be too hard on yourself. Acknowledge what happened, make plans for preventing it in the future, and move on with the thought of starting fresh.
