Emotional eating, what causes it and how to get rid of it
Many people resort to eating for comfort or to relieve stress. This is called emotional eating, where food is eaten based on specific psychological feelings, without a physical need for it. People who suffer from emotional hunger often tend to eat fast food, sweets, and other unhealthy foods. Learn in this article about emotional eating, its causes, the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger, and how to get rid of emotional hunger.
emotional eating
Emotional eating is the use of food to achieve happiness or reduce negative feelings, that is, to satisfy emotional needs, not physical needs. Unfortunately, emotional eating does not solve psychological problems, but rather makes the person feel worse afterwards because of the feeling of guilt resulting from overeating. In addition, emotional eating causes weight gain, which leads to more negative feelings and dissatisfaction.
Do you suffer from emotional eating?
In order to know if you are eating due to emotional hunger or physical hunger, try to think of answers to the following questions.
Do you eat more when you feel stressed?
Do you eat to feel better (to soothe yourself when you feel sad, angry, bored, anxious, etc.)?
Do you eat when you are not hungry or when you are full?
Do you eat regularly until you are satisfied?
Do you reward yourself with food?
Does food make you feel safe? Do you feel like food is a friend?
Do you feel helpless or out of control around food?
Sometimes, using food as a means of reward or celebration isn't a bad thing, but when eating is your primary emotional coping mechanism—when your first reaction when you're stressed, angry, or bored is to open the fridge—you may fall into a cycle of emotional eating, then weight gain, then increased negative feelings, then increased emotional eating, and so on.
Causes of emotional hunger
Anything can trigger emotional eating and the desire to eat. Causes of emotional eating may include:
Health problems.
Work pressure.
Financial concerns.
Relationship conflicts.
People who follow or have followed restrictive diets in the past are also more prone to emotional hunger and emotional eating.
There are some other less common causes that may lead to emotional eating, which include some psychological and mental illnesses that may lead to impaired cognition and other problems such as:
Lack of awareness or understanding of what you are feeling.
Inability to understand, process, or describe emotions.
Emotional dysregulation and dysfunction.
Pituitary and adrenal gland dysfunction.
The difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger
Before you can get rid of emotional eating, you first need to learn how to differentiate between emotional hunger and physical hunger. Emotional hunger can be so intense that it can be easily confused with physical hunger. But there are some factors that help differentiate between physical and emotional hunger.
Emotional hunger comes on suddenly and is so strong that you feel like you need to eat right away, whereas physical hunger comes on gradually and you don't feel like you need to eat right away unless you've been eating for a very long time.
Emotional hunger makes you crave certain foods that give you a sense of comfort, such as sweets and fast food. When you feel physically hungry, you can eat almost anything, including healthy things like vegetables.
Emotional hunger leads to mindless eating or eating large amounts of food quickly. For example, emotional hunger might cause you to eat an entire bag of potato chips or a pound of ice cream without really paying attention or fully enjoying it. When you eat in response to physical hunger, you are usually more aware of what you are eating.
Emotional hunger is not satisfied by simply being full or having a full stomach. You may continue to want more and more, often eating until you feel uncomfortably full, while physical hunger prompts you to stop eating when your stomach is full.
Emotional hunger does not give you a stomach ache or a rumbling sound, but rather an intense urge to eat certain foods immediately.
Emotional eating often leads to feelings of guilt or remorse, but when you eat to satisfy your physical hunger, you are less likely to feel guilty or ashamed because you are simply giving your body what it needs. If you feel guilty after eating, it is likely that you know deep down that you are not eating to satisfy your physical need for food.
The main differences between emotional eating and physical hunger are briefly as follows:
Emotional hunger comes on suddenly.
Physical hunger comes gradually.
Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be satisfied immediately.
Physical hunger can wait.
Emotional hunger craves certain foods.
Physical hunger There are many options.
Emotional hunger does not stop eating until the stomach feels uncomfortably full and annoying
Physical hunger stops when you are full.
Emotional eating triggers feelings of guilt and regret.
Eating to satisfy physical hunger does not make you feel bad about yourself.
get rid of emotional hunger
Steps can be taken to overcome emotional eating and control food cravings based on the psychological feeling of hunger, such as:
You can prepare yourself mentally and psychologically to control the amount and timing of food by creating a food diary. It is also useful in discovering the relationship between mood and eating habits, by writing down the foods you eat, their quantity, how hungry you feel when eating, and the time you eat, for example, after a specific feeling or situation.
Follow stress management methods. For example, when you feel stressed, you may go out to the nearby park to get some fresh air, or you may talk to a friend, or you may even practice deep breathing exercises that can give positive results in getting rid of negative feelings and getting rid of emotional eating.
Every time you feel the urge to eat, first check if you are really hungry. Is it emotional hunger or physical hunger? For example, if you don't hear your stomach growling or if you have recently eaten, then what you are feeling is probably emotional hunger. All you have to do is give yourself some time for this feeling to pass and try to distract yourself from thinking about hunger by occupying yourself with some activity.
Fight boredom. Boredom or emptiness often drives emotional eating, so instead of snacking when you’re not hungry, distract yourself and replace it with a healthy behavior. You could go for a walk, watch a movie, listen to music, play with your cat, surf the internet, or read.
Avoid temptations. For example, don't keep foods that are difficult to resist in your home. If you are feeling negative emotions such as anger, sadness, or depression, don't go to the grocery store or postpone going shopping until these feelings pass.
It's okay to get some support from family or friends as this may help you get rid of emotional hunger more easily.
Don't deprive yourself. When trying to lose weight, you may restrict calories too much, eat the same foods over and over, and avoid sweets. This can lead to emotional eating by increasing your desire to eat and increasing your emotional hunger. So when you're on a diet to lose weight, eat moderate amounts of healthy foods and vary the dishes you eat.
If you feel like snacking between meals, eat healthy, light snacks such as fresh fruits, low-fat vegetables, nuts, or unsweetened popcorn.
Avoid beating yourself up, and if you have setbacks, start over the next day. Try to learn from the experience and make a plan for how to prevent it from happening again in the future. Focus on the positive changes you made to your eating habits and thank yourself for making changes that lead to better health.
the reviewer
https://www.healthline.com/health/emotional-eating#emotional-vs-physical-hunger
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/diets/emotional-eating.htm
