Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can really destroy your weight-loss efforts, so you need to understand it and know how to stop emotional eating.

Sometimes the strongest longings for food happen when you are at your weakest point emotionally. Many people turn to food for comfort – consciously or unconsciously – when they are facing a difficult problem or looking to keep themselves occupied. But emotional eating – eating as a way to suppress or soothe negative emotions, such as stress, anger, anxiety, boredom, sadness and loneliness – can sabotage your weight-loss efforts.

Often, emotional eating leads to eating too much food, especially high-calorie, sweet, salty and fatty foods. The good news is that if you are prone to emotional eating, you can take steps to regain control of your eating habits and get back on track with your weight-loss goals.

Major life events – such as unemployment, health problems and divorce – and daily life hassles – such as a stressful work commute, bad weather and changes in your normal routine – can trigger emotions that lead to overeating.

But why do negative emotions lead to overeating? Some foods may have seemingly addictive qualities. For example, when you eat enticing foods, such as chocolate, your body releases trace amount of mood – and satisfaction – elevating hormones. That “reward” may reinforce for specific feelings. Related to this is the simple fact that the pleasure of eating offsets negative emotions. Food can also be a distraction. If you are worried about an upcoming event or rethinking an earlier conflict, eating comfort foods may distract you. But the distraction is only temporary. While you are eating, your thoughts focus on the pleasant taste of your comfort food. Unfortunately, when you done overeating, your attention returns to your worries, and you may now bear the additional burden of guilt about overeating.

Next post, we will discuss a couple tips and suggestion to help stop emotional eating.