Weight Loss
How to combat emotional eating
Emotional Eating Scenario #1
After a long, stressful day at work, listening to your mother complain about her neighbors for 30 minutes, and learning your car needs $300 worth of repairs, you grab a bag of potato chips, a half-gallon of ice cream and turn on Netflix.
Right now, stress hormones are flooding your bloodstream, triggering the fight-or-flight instinct meant to protect us from danger. The main stress hormone, cortisol, regulates how your body depletes stores of proteins, fats and carbohydrates when you feel anxious. The more stressed out you feel, the more carbohydrates, fat, and sugar your body craves to remain alert, energized, and prepared for unexpected danger.
Emotional Eating Scenario #2
It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon. You call several friends to see what’s up, but they already have plans. You channel-surf through dozens of TV stations but nothing seems interesting. You wander into the kitchen, open the cupboard and grab the bag of chocolate kisses you keep just in case you’re craving something sweet. Before leaving the kitchen, you open the refrigerator, see a carton of chocolate milk and figure you might as well drink it now because it will expire soon.
Now that you’ve got something to do (eat, that is) you no longer feel as bored as you did minutes ago. You’ve got something to do for at least the next half hour.
Stress, Boredom and Emotional Eating—Matches Not Made in Heaven
Research studies have confirmed that calorie-dense comfort foods, i.e., foods high in fats, sugars and carbohydrates, promote accumulation of abdominal fat and eventual obesity. Specifically, mesenteric fact inhibits activity within your stress response system called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis.1
In other words, when you constantly emotional eat during times of stress or boredom, the addition of visceral fat suppresses your HPA axis response which, naturally, results in reduced cortisol levels. This is the scientific reason eating comfort foods makes you feel better.
Emotional Hunger vs. Physical Hunger—What’s the Difference?
Actual physical hunger is a survival instinct, a complex set of signals from your brain to specialized stomach cells that causes your stomach to growl and experience hunger “pangs”. While physical hunger develops gradually, emotional hunger is a sudden and irresistible craving for comfort food. Unless you satisfy emotional hunger signals, you keep feeling stress and anxious.2
When you feel physically hungry, you probably haven’t eaten for a long time and anything edible would sound good. Try not eating for 24 hours and then have somebody offer you a plateful of fresh carrots and apples. It’s a given you would not hesitate to start eating those apples and carrots.
Following an emotional eating episode, you’ll probably feel a little guilty and ashamed at the amount of fatty and/or sugary foods you consumed. When you are physically hungry and eat a meal, you don’t feel guilty or ashamed because you know you must eat to survive.3
How to Combat Emotional Eating—5 Emotional Eating Tips
- Instead of eating three big meals per day, try eating several small meals spaced evenly throughout your day. This helps regulate blood sugar and reduces cravings for sugary foods.
- Avoid eating white sugar, white rice or white bread. “White” foods spike insulin levels and give you a temporary rush of good feelings that quickly rise and fall. You’ll just crave more processed comfort foods after a fake “sugar” high. 4
- If you are feeling stress, bored or anxious, go for a walk. If it’s raining and you can’t go outside, start doing exercises. Physical activity reduces stress which decreases the amount of cortisol released into the bloodstream.
- Phone a family member or friend you trust and can confide in about what is stressing you. Numerous scientific studies show that social interaction may be the best, natural “antidepressant” available. Talking to someone about your problems floods your brain with “feel-good” neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and endorphins.5
- Identify people, places and events that cause emotional eating episodes and eliminate as many of them as possible from your life. If being around a certain person makes you feel anxious, why do you find yourself in their presence? Set a goal to start de-stressing your life–today!
Finally, keeping an “emotional eating journal” is a great way to determine if you are eating when stressed/bored or eating when you are genuinely hungry. Write down everything you eat daily for a week. Note where you eat, what time of day you eat and what you were thinking about when you ate. In particular, write down your mood at the time you ate. Use this journal to help you learn more about yourself while you combat emotional eating.
References
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306453011001296
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137864/
- https://www.health.com/food/stop-food-guilt
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20047342
- https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/stress/physical-activity-reduces-st
Emotional Eating Scenario #1
After a long, stressful day at work, listening to your mother complain about her neighbors for 30 minutes and learning your car needs $300 worth of repairs, you grab a bag of potato chips, a half-gallon of ice cream and turn on Netflix.
Right now, stress hormones are flooding your bloodstream, triggering the fight-or-flight instinct meant to protect us from danger. The main stress hormone, cortisol, regulates how your body depletes stores of proteins, fats and carbohydrates when you feel anxious. The more stressed out you feel, the more carbohydrates, fat and sugar your body craves to remain alert, energized and prepared for unexpected danger.
Emotional Eating Scenario #2
It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon. You call several friends to see what’s up, but they already have plans. You channel-surf through dozens of TV stations but nothing seems interesting. You wander into the kitchen, open the cupboard and grab the bag of chocolate kisses you keep just in case you’re craving something sweet. Before leaving the kitchen, you open the refrigerator, see a carton of chocolate milk and figure you might as well drink it now because it will expire soon.
Now that you’ve got something to do (eat, that is) you no longer feel as bored as you did minutes ago. You’ve got something to do for at least the next half hour.
Stress, Boredom and Emotional Eating—Matches Not Made in Heaven
Research studies have confirmed that calorie-dense comfort foods, i.e., foods high in fats, sugars and carbohydrates, promote accumulation of abdominal fat and eventual obesity. Specifically, mesenteric fact inhibits activity within your stress response system called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis.1
In other words, when you constantly emotional eat during times of stress or boredom, the addition of visceral fat suppresses your HPA axis response which, naturally, results in reduced cortisol levels. This is the scientific reason eating comfort foods makes you feel better.
Emotional Hunger vs. Physical Hunger—What’s the Difference?
Actual physical hunger is a survival instinct, a complex set of signals from your brain to specialized stomach cells that causes your stomach to growl and experience hunger “pangs”. While physical hunger develops gradually, emotional hunger is a sudden and irresistible craving for comfort food. Unless you satisfy emotional hunger signals, you keep feeling stress and anxious.2
When you feel physically hungry, you probably haven’t eaten for a long time and anything edible would sound good. Try not eating for 24 hours and then have somebody offer you a plateful of fresh carrots and apples. It’s a given you would not hesitate to start eating those apples and carrots.
Following an emotional eating episode, you’ll probably feel a little guilty and ashamed at the amount of fatty and/or sugary foods you consumed. When you are physically hungry and eat a meal, you don’t feel guilty or ashamed because you know you must eat to survive.3
How to Combat Emotional Eating—5 Emotional Eating Tips
- Instead of eating three big meals per day, try eating several small meals spaced evenly throughout your day. This helps regulate blood sugar and reduces cravings for sugary foods.
- Avoid eating white sugar, white rice or white bread. “White” foods spike insulin levels and give you a temporary rush of good feelings that quickly rise and fall. You’ll just crave more processed comfort foods after a fake “sugar” high. 4
- If you are feeling stress, bored or anxious, go for a walk. If it’s raining and you can’t go outside, start doing exercises. Physical activity reduces stress which decreases the amount of cortisol released into the bloodstream.
- Phone a family member or friend you trust and can confide in about what is stressing you. Numerous scientific studies show that social interaction may be the best, natural “antidepressant” available. Talking to someone about your problems floods your brain with “feel-good” neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and endorphins.5
- Identify people, places and events that cause emotional eating episodes and eliminate as many of them as possible from your life. If being around a certain person makes you feel anxious, why do you find yourself in their presence? Set a goal to start de-stressing your life–today!
Finally, keeping an “emotional eating journal” is a great way to determine if you are eating when stressed/bored or eating when you are genuinely hungry. Write down everything you eat daily for a week. Note where you eat, what time of day you eat and what you were thinking about when you ate. In particular, write down your mood at the time you ate. Use this journal to help you learn more about yourself while you combat emotional eating.
References
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306453011001296
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137864/
- https://www.health.com/food/stop-food-guilt
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss/art-20047342
- https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/stress/physical-activity-reduces-st
