Have you ever felt upset and used emotional eating to feel better?
Do you look at food as a comfort?
Have you started eating when you were stressed and didn’t even realize it?
Is it hard for you to stop this cycle?
If you can relate to any of these things, this article can help you to understand and stop emotional eating.
What is Stress or Emotional Eating?
stress eating
Emotional eating or stress eating is something many people struggle with. This type of eating or emotional binge eating happens when someone is upset, anxious, or annoyed. In this case, eating is a way to cope and feel better.
For example, imagine that someone is studying for a hard test and feel anxious. This person starts making and eating food as a way to cope with this anxiety. While studying, this person may reach for a bag of chips as a way to feel comfort during this time.
In the example above, the person is eating the bag of chips in a fast manner. They also are finding it hard to stop eating even when they feel full. Unlike eating to fulfill physical hunger, stress eating is more about relieving stress, not actual hunger. Even if the person studying is not that hungry, their need to deal with their stress becomes their focus.
Why do I do Emotional Eating?
Stress and Difficult Life Events
Emotional Eating
Stress eating is hard to deal with, and you may wonder why you do it. Many people stress eat when they feel upset or stressed. Stress can come from so many things! Stress can come from daily activities like work or school. Certain life events can also make us feel these emotions. For example, if someone has a death of a loved one, this can cause the person to feel a lot of stress and sadness. When dealing with these emotions, eating can become a habit that is hard to stop.
A recent event that the world has been going through is COVID-19. A recent study found that during lockdown more than 50% of people turned to stress eating. People were in their homes, worried about all this pandemic brought to this world and how it could affect them.
Obesity and Depression
Studies have shown that overweight people have a harder time coping with stressors and negative feelings in their lives. This can cause them to turn to stress eating more often. Obesity in adolescence and stress eating are linked. When children are growing up, they struggle with their body image and confidence. These struggles along with emotional regulation difficulties can cause an adolescent to turn to food as a comfort.
Obesity and depression have been associated with each other. Some research shows that emotional eating links these two ideas together. Notably, depression and emotional eating are found to be more common in women.
Sleep Problems and Boredom
Research has found that sleep duration affects emotional eating. Sleeping fewer hours can cause people who emotionally eat to eat more.
People also say that they turn to eating when they feel bored. These people may feel like they have nothing interesting to do and eating will fill the time.
Disordered Eating
Emotional Eating can be looked at as a type of disordered eating. When someone is stress eating, they may consume a lot of food and find it hard to stop doing so. This is similar to Binge Eating. Binge Eating causes people to lose control of their eating and consume large amounts of food in one sitting.
Simple Ways to Stop Emotional Eating
If you struggle with stress eating, know that you are not alone and there is hope! What you are going through is not easy, and you are very strong! In order to break free from stress eating, you want to learn what to do instead of emotional eating.
First, Work on Your Emotion Regulation Skills
Emotional eating is a way people deal with their emotions. As the researchers mentioned in this study, healthy eating behaviors are crucial especially in adolescents. These patterns can follow them for the rest of these children’s lives so it is important to tackle them as early as possible. Shriver et al. mention that developing high emotional regulation skills in kids can be a good way to help them stop stress eating.
Depression and anxiety can also be at risk for adolescents who deal with their emotions poorly. This is another reason why good emotional regulation skills are important to have. In a nut shell, identifying and accepting your emotions is a very important step. It includes both positive and negative emotions, particularly those difficult emotions we could not handle. To learn more about emotional regulation, read our article.
Second, Try Hobbies or Interests
When you feel stressed or sad and want to look to food, try doing something you enjoy instead. For example, in these times, you can try listening to your favorite album or painting with watercolors. Instead of eating, other things will start to calm you down and make you feel better. Finding new hobbies can help people who emotionally eat when they are bored.
Third, Mindfulness Meditation for Emotional Eating
When you feel like emotional eating, try doing mindfulness activities. Mindfulness has been shown to help people lower their anxiety. Mindfulness allows someone to escape from their stress and focus on the calmness and stillness of the present moment.
These practices can be easy and fun to do! Yoga, mediation, journaling, and going on a mindful walk can all be simple enough to do whenever you feel stressed. To learn more about these mindfulness practices read our article.
Fourth, Turn to a Loved One
Our loved ones should be there to help us when we are going through hard times. When you feel like stress eating, try turning to someone you can trust to talk to and share your worries.
Even if you don’t feel like talking, you and your friend can do something to take your mind off of things. You can watch a movie together or play a game. Do something that makes you happy with someone that makes you happy!
Fifth, Care for Your Body and Have Patience on Your Journey
Emotional eating may cause you to fear eating, overall. Know that eating is natural and we all need to do it to take care of ourselves and our bodies. You deserve to eat without worry and stress.
Try your best to fill your body with healthful foods and drinks. Remember that no one is perfect and it is normal to eat food that is not super healthy from time to time. Even if you are trying to stop stress eating and you end up doing it, do not beat yourself up! You are trying your best and your best is always good enough! Be kind to yourself and show patience in the journey you are on.
Sixth, Work on Sleep Habits
Since sleep patterns can affect emotional eating, it is important to improve sleeping habits. If you struggle with sleeping, try:
Making a set time that you will wake up and go to sleep
Stay away from technology before bed
Turn off the blue light from your electronics
Consume less caffeine especially later in the day
Seventh, Look into Emotional Eating Therapy
A therapist can help you deal with your anxiety and depression. Emotional eating therapy can help you manage stress eating and assist you to deal with your emotions more healthily. Speaking with a professional can also help if you are someone who struggles with any type of eating disorder.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be helpful for someone with emotional eating. CBT helps people rewire their thoughts and find new ways of looking at things. This can help someone find better ways to deal with their emotions and stop them from using eating as a tool.
Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT ) can also be helpful for people who struggle with stress eating. DBT can help someone regulate emotions better. DBT promotes both acceptance and change in people’s journeys to recovery. When you can manage your emotions better, you will live a happier and calmer life.
We wish you the best of luck on your journey with emotional/stress eating. Remember that you are so strong and capable of rising above these tough times. You deserve to live a happy and healthy life!
