Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can be a serious problem for most people. Experts estimate that about 75% of people who are overweight eat because of their emotions not because they are hungry. Because there are so many health risks associated with being overweight, such as high blood pressure, depression, and heart risks, what you think to be harmless “feel good food” can be leading to serious health problems.

Emotional eating can be caused by different things for different people. Some of the more common causes, or “triggers,” are depression, anger, stress, anxiety, boredom, relationship problems, and frustration. Emotional eating can be dealt with once you realize what emotional triggers cause you to crave food. This will also enable you to find better sources to deal with your emotional well-being.

Identifying what triggers your emotional eating can be difficult. Experts recommend keeping a food diary to track what you ate and how you felt when you ate. This can help you to identify destructive eating patterns.

The situations and emotions that trigger emotional eating can be broken down into five categories, social, emotional, situational, thoughts, and physiological. Social eating is when you eat when other people are around. You eat just because there is food in front of you and other people are eating around you, not because you are feeling hungry.

Emotional eating is usually in response to stress, anxiety, anger, and sadness. This is occurs when a person is trying to fill a void within themselves. Situational eating is eating because the opportunity to eat is there, this can happen along side of social eating, or can happen when you watch a movie at home and feel that you should be eating popcorn, for example. You feel that the specific situation you are in calls for you to eat food. Eating due to you own thoughts is due to negative self talk, such as putting yourself down or scolding yourself for lack of control. Physiological eating is eating in response to physical cues. This can be attributed to overeating due to skipping meals or to ease physical pain such as headaches. Try to identify what triggers your emotional eating so you can learn to be in control of yourself and your weight.

Once you identify what triggers your emotional eating you can begin to find better outlets or activities to help you avoid overeating. Try picking up a hobby, reading a book, riding your bike, going on a walk, taking a shower or bath, petting your dog, watching a movie, talking to a friend, or any other activity you find pleasurable. If distracting yourself until the phase passes isn’t enough, then try joining a group for support, attending counseling, or meditation. Techniques such as this will help you to address the underlying emotional problems that are causing you to overeat.

Once you learn some techniques to overcome your emotional eating, try not to fall back into your old habits. Some experts recommend rewarding yourself for a job well done. For example, you can set a goal to not fall into your emotional eating habits for a week, if you reach this goal go out and buy that shirt you have been wanting. Try not to reward yourself with food though. Rewarding yourself with food could add a new layer to your emotional eating.

Being in control of your own eating habits will allow you to be in control of your life. The key to success is identifying what areas of your emotional well-being you struggle with. “Get up each morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and see yourself not as someone who is overweight or out of shape, but as the someone you will become.” (Dr. Phil McGraw)

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