What is Emotional Eating and How to Overcome it?

Humans may not always eat to satisfy their hunger. Sometimes, individuals may also resort to comfort food for stress relief. This, also termed as emotional eating, may not harm you if it is rare.

However, if you tend to overeat every single time you feel emotionally hurt, emotional eating can affect your health in the long run.

Read on if you want to know about emotional eating, how to cope with it and more.

When under stress, some people eat less. Other individuals might need a distraction from the stress and seek comfort food or snacks.

You can start eating when you're not hungry or without even realising it because the effect is just fleeting. That might result in unhealthy choices. This is known as emotional eating.

Some of the primary triggers of emotional eating are:

• Failing to distinguish between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
• Dieting may also lead towards emotional eating, as it might take a toll on your mental health if you are not happy with limiting yourself to certain food items.
• Anxiety is another cause of emotional eating.
• Most importantly, situational or seasonal stress is the most common cause of emotional eating.

If you are an emotional eater, you may have the following symptoms:

• You cannot remain in control of certain foods.
• A sudden urge to eat during emotional situations.
• Feeling the need to eat something even when you are not hungry.
• You reward yourself with food often.
• Shame and guilt after overeating.

Although breaking out from emotional eating may be tough, it is not impossible. If you are wondering how to stop emotional eating, follow these tips:

• Maintain an Emotional Diary

The more familiar you become with your emotions, the better. Emotional eating can be a reflexive behaviour. Your chances of making changes are better if you can comprehend the feeling when you do certain things. Try keeping track of the instances when you eat while not feeling very hungry. This might help you stop your habit of emotional eating.

• Think of Other Ways to Cope with Stress Eating

Once you start understanding your emotions, try to cope with them in other ways instead of emotional eating. Pick a hobby or an interest that may help you think of something else when you are stressed.

• Be Active

Being active and regular exercises can be a great way to deal with stress and avoid overeating. Activity can help reduce stress hormones and release endorphins that boost your body.

• Eat Enough

You may notice that you feel like eating more at the end of the day if you have not filled your stomach enough during the day. This can increase your chances of emotional eating as you feel stressed.

• Take Note of Your Appetite

It can be challenging to recognise your hunger cues if you've been on and off diets for a significant portion of your life. Recognizing how bodily hunger and fullness genuinely feel can take some practice.

Physical hunger signals might help you recognise when you are overeating due to emotional factors.