How to Stop Emotional Eating and Lose Weight

Who doesn't like comfort food? When I think of comfort food it conjures up wonderful tasty images of mac n' cheese, lasagna, chocolate cake and ice cream sodas. Many people often turn to these homey, childhood favorites when they crave a familiar taste during a challenging or chaotic time. Clearly, food can be closely tied to emotions, but for some people this link becomes unhealthy. It's known as emotional eating, and it can lead to weight gain, an unhealthy relationship with food and even eating disorders.

Recognizing Emotional Eating

Emotional eating is when a person turns to food in order to soothe or avoid negative feelings like loneliness, stress, boredom and sadness. Experts say that approximately 75% of overeating may have an emotional component. Most of my patients have used food to improve their moods at one time or another. It's understandable to eat ice cream while you're watching TV alone or grab a candy bar after a stressful work meeting.

Most people don't even realize they are using food as a pick-me-up. When this type of eating becomes habitual, however, you may be setting yourself up for unhealthy consequences like weight gain.

How do you recognize emotional eating versus simply indulging in the occasional treat?

Think about the last time you turned to your favorite comfort food. Were you hungry? If not, your emotions were dictating your behavior. Emotional eating tends to cause feelings of guilt or regret, which leads to more eating. Responding to genuine hunger does not make you feel bad. Emotional eaters also tend to keep eating even after they feel full. Also, if you are hungry, you are likely to be satisfied by a variety of foods. Most emotional eaters suddenly find themselves craving one particular thing-chocolate, cookies, salty chips for example-and won't be satisfied until they eat that item.

Many people go for years before they recognize the destructive pattern of emotional eating. Often, they will try a variety of weight loss plans without success because all the diets in the world won't break an emotional bond to food. If this sounds like you, rest assured that you can change your behavior and stop gaining weight for good.

How to Break the Cycle of Emotional Eating

The quickest way to stop emotional eating is to recognize genuine hunger. Many people fear hunger, but a stomach rumble is not the end of the world. It is unlikely that you will starve to death if you let yourself get hungry.

Try this: Instead of eating until you feel stuffed, eat until you are about three-quarters full. You should be satisfied but comfortable. Then don't eat again until you feel truly hungry (in general, 4 to 5 hours). This exercise will help you recognize your own physical sensation of hunger. Emotional eaters tend to eat so frequently that they can't remember what hunger feels like.

To get at the root of emotional eating, keep a food journal for two weeks. Not only should you record every bite you put in your mouth, but jot down why you're eating and how you feel before and after.

For example, "I ate a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread because it was my lunch break and I felt hungry. After, I only felt half full, so I ate an apple and felt satisfied and calm." If things aren't going so well, it's important to write it in your food journal. For example, "I ate a Snickers bar at 3:30. I was still full from lunch, but I was stressed out because the sales report is due tomorrow and I have to work late."

Look back after the two weeks and identify any patterns. Maybe you tend to eat candy in the afternoon when all the stress of workday starts to pile up. Maybe you will discover that you are most vulnerable late at night after the kids go to bed. If you know the situations that lead to emotional eating you can devise solutions to make them more manageable.

If emotional eating has led to weight gain, don't be too hard on yourself. Tackle the negative emotions and situations that caused you to turn to food in the first place. Keeping the food journal and listening to your hunger cues have been a tremendous help to my patients who struggle with this issue. When you start making food choices based on hunger, not emotions, you are likely to lose weight naturally. This will lead you to make healthier food choices on a regular basis. Remember that it is possible for anyone to recover from emotional eating and reach a healthy, happy weight.

Mark Rosenberg, M.D.
Institute For Healthy Aging

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My Battle With Emotional Eating on a Weight Loss Journey

I have more than one reason for sharing this today. First, I want it to be known that just because I am Beachbody Coach and a huge advocate for health and fitness, and practice the lifestyle I teach, I struggle too and want to be an open book. Second, I hope that if you are reading this and you also battle emotional eating, that it will inspire you that you can overcome it and still meet the goals of your weight loss journey. Lastly, if you are reading this because someone you love battles emotional eating, I hope that it can shed some light on what they may be feeling.

Looking back, I think that I have always battled emotional eating, but I wasn't aware of it until more recently. At the beginning of January, we decided to participate in a 21 Day Daniel Fast with our church that we attend. I knew I was struggling with my eating habits and had begun to fall off track, so I prayed that this partial fast would help me get my act together. My husband decided to join me and we are currently on day 18. If you have never heard of this before, it is a partial fast where you eliminate any leavened breads, sugar, coffee, animal products - basically you eliminate everything but fruits and vegetables. My senses have been heightened to my cravings since I cannot have my comfort foods, and I am recognizing more and more how much of a struggle I have with emotional eating.

Things I have realized:

· I am addicted to certain foods/drinks because of how they make me FEEL. Example: my decaf coffee makes me feel cozy and relaxed (emotional eating red flag #1)

· I find myself eating mindlessly when I am BORED. Especially at night when I sometimes find myself wanting to eat everything in sight. (emotional eating red flag #2)

· I frequently find myself feeling guilty after mindlessly eating, because I have recognized that I really wasn't hungry to begin with. (emotional eating red flag #3)

· I have certain "trigger" foods (CARBS), that I have a terrible time putting down even when I am full. These trigger foods are all foods that I am addicted to for feelings of comfort. Example: chips or bread at a restaurant (emotional eating red flag #4)

According to WebMD, a way to help determine if you are physically hungry or emotionally hungry is if you are focused on one particular food. For example, after a really stressful day at the office, I CRAVE carbs - typically things like chips, bread, pizza and fried foods - things that I don't eat very often. And what happens if I cannot get one of these comfort foods when I am having this feeling? I get UPSET. Hello? That is not good.

Also according to WebMD, what you reach for to satisfy an emotion depends on the emotion. For me personally, I crave carbs and sugar when I am having any type of emotional eating episode. But in this article I read, it says happy people tend to be drawn more towards pizza or steak, while someone in a sad mood might reach for ice cream and cookies. I rarely want ice cream or cookies, so I guess that means I am happy.:D

If you have been following me very long, you know that I have my own weight loss story that I share. In the past year, I lost a little over 30 pounds. You might be asking yourself, "How did she do so well if she battles emotional eating, and how can I do it too?" Well, first I will tell you that my results could have been much better. I cleaned up my eating dramatically, but I still could have done better sticking with the meal plans, so I could have had better results. However, in my opinion I did wonderfully and I am so much happier now. I want to share with you a few ways that I still lost weight while battling emotional eating.

· I got in an accountability group. I host these on Facebook if you ever want to hop into one. Having others also being conscious of what I was doing really helped me, and still does!

· I started exercising at home and replacing one meal a day with Shakeology. This just kept me more consistent and getting my workouts in 5-6 days a week was obviously a big reason for my weight loss. Shakeology helps with my cravings.

· While I still battle nighttime episodes where I want to eat every carb in sight, I began reaching for healthier options. I shouldn't eat after dinner at all, but hey, it was an improvement.

· I did not let one episode of emotional eating derail me - I kept going the next meal with what I knew I needed to be doing to continue losing weight.

· I made sure that I ALWAYS have snacks on hand. Every single day I go to work with breakfast, 2 snacks and lunch. This way, the constant array of fatty treats that come into the office don't tempt me as much. Example: the other day, someone brought in some amazing looking donuts. My need for comfort kicked in, but I kicked it back by eating my snack of strawberries instead.

I'd love to hear from you - do you have your own battle with emotional eating? How are you overcoming it? Or, do you need help overcoming it? Comment below and we will chat!

Whitney DeLong is a certified personal trainer and online fitness coach specializing in helping women become happy in their own skin, confident with how they look in the mirror, and empowered to help others do the same. Whitney hosts online fitness groups and one-on-one coaching for weight loss. Contact Whitney and view services at http://www.whitneydelong.com.

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Is Emotional Eating Impacting Your Weight Loss Program?

Oddly enough, most people have some level of awareness on what foods are good for them and what are not. If losing weight was simply a matter of awareness and knowledge about the right foods to eat, then we would not have an obesity epidemic. Unfortunately, no matter how much we know about proper eating, nutrition and exercise, it is not enough to keep us on track in achieving our target weight and other health goals. One of the major contributes that impact our ability to achieve a healthy weight is emotional eating. In order to understand whether this is a factor, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you eat more when you are at work and have stresses or deadlines placed on you?
• Do you eat when you are bored?
• Do you eat when you just want something that "tastes good"?
• Do you eat while working, watching TV, or doing other tasks?
• Do you eat when you are sad or depressed?

If the answer to any of these questions are yes, then you are likely an "emotional eater" and should consider tactics to offset these behaviors. Below are a few tips that could help:

1. Try relaxation methods to reduce stress While we cannot always change our life situation, there are several techniques for reducing stress. Yoga or simple breathing control techniques are probably the easiest and less expensive option. You may also consider taking food supplements that target stress reduction. Supplements like 5-HTP, GABA, and some propriety blends can usually be helpful. As always, be sure to do your homework and/or consult a physician when considering the best food supplements for your situation.


2. Eat food only when at the dinner table. Often we eat unconsciously while doing other tasks. By eating only at the dinner table (with TV off), you are more aware of what you are eating and in tune with body knowing when you should stop eating. Try also to slow down when eating as it often can take up to 20 minutes for your body to get the signal that your are no longer hungry.


3. If bored, seek out physical activity. Physical activity not only burns calories but if it is something you enjoy, will reduce your boredom or depression. It doesn't have to be strenuous. Just get up and move. Even a few short walks each day can both improve your emotional disposition including boredom.


4. Enjoy Life! It is OK to "occasionally" eat something just because it "tastes good". The trick here is to manage portion control. Make sure you take a reasonable serving size then move away from the food source before eating. Going back for seconds is OK for foods with low caloric density high bulk, however should not be a tactic for foods such as ice cream or other high calorie density low bulk foods (usually highly processed)

Finally, understand that you will likely periodically have lapses in judgement. The best thing here is to realize what happened, determine what you can do to recover and then move on. No reason to beat yourself up about the occasional mistake as the net result would probably increase your stress level which is the opposite effect that you want.

For more information on health related articles like this one, please feel free to visit us at Enhanced Life Options and have a healthy and happy life.

Steve Caldwell is a student of health and an advocate of people interested in improving a healthy lifestyle through proper nutrition and exercise.

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How to Control Emotional Eating For Faster Weight Loss

Just before you open that packet of wafers or unwrap that candy, ask yourself, are you really hungry? Because chances are that if you're feeling lonely, or bored, or frustrated, you will most probably resort to eating. For some people, eating at odd hours is more about filling an emotional need rather than true hunger. This is called emotional eating. It can lead to eating too much high-calorie, sweet, salty and fatty foods.

The first step to control your eating is to find out first when you eat most. Do you eat more at work? Or do you eat at night when you're alone and bored? There could be many factors responsible for emotional eating such as depression, anxiety, frustration, loneliness, anger and boredom! Food can also be a distraction.

If you're apprehensive about an upcoming event, eating may distract you but after a while your attention comes back to the original cause of worry. After you have figured out what is responsible for your cravings, you can try and avoid situations in which you have that feeling. The best way to cope with such feelings is to channelize your energy in positive direction by trying to do something else which also diverts your mind, and in the process, you end up doing something constructive as well! What you need is not a diet, but a lifestyle change!

Exercise can be a good alternative:

You can try some simple techniques to see which of them works for you. Exercising is the most common of them all. Whenever you feel low, just try and do simple exercises like cycling or going out for a walk, or swimming. You can also include Yoga or Aerobics or Gym in your routine. It helps relieve stress and anxiety, makes you feel good about yourself. Also making you fit at the same time!

Talking to a friend or parents is also a great moral booster. Talk to an old lost friend from high school. Think about happy moments that you spent together and laugh at your kiddish pranks! This will not only lighten up your mood, but your friend's as well! Listening to music is also very comforting. Make sure you listen to peppy songs which make you tap your feet rather than slow, romantic, sad songs which will again leave you feeling morbid!

To keep yourself motivated, you can make a collage of pictures of yourself wearing trendy outfits and looking fit and you can include an occasional picture in which you're looking really fat and ugly. The trick lies in making yourself hate the way you look when you're fat. This should keep you away from ordering extra cheese in the pizza! Also, do not sleep very late. Rather, get up early in the mornings and go for a jog.

Some people maintain a diary to note down whatever they eat, so that whenever they eat something next time, they feel guilty about it, hence avoiding eating on impulse. A very important point to note: Do not go for grocery shopping when you're hungry. Most of the times you will buy things that you would not want to, and you'll end up eating them just because they're in your reach! The most important factor that will help you control emotional eating is your will power! If you let your emotions take control over your actions, you are bound to give in! Keeping yourself focused and motivated will go a long way in changing your lifestyle.

Jason is a researcher and author. Discover useful tips on losing fat [http://www.losingfateasy.com] to help you get to a healthy weight quickly. Be sure to read our section on weight training tips [http://www.losingfateasy.com/weight-training.html] as an important aspect of any healthy lifestyle.

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