Emotional eating: its causes and how to stop it

What is emotional eating
We don't always eat just to satisfy physical hunger. Many of us also turn to food for comfort, stress relief, or to reward ourselves. And when we do, we tend to reach for junk food, sweets, and other comfortable but unhealthy foods. You might reach for the pint of ice cream when you’re feeling down, order a pizza if you’re bored or lonely, or swing by the driveway after a stressful day at work. Emotional eating uses food to make you feel better - to fill emotional needs, rather than your stomach. Unfortunately, emotional eating does not solve emotional problems. In fact, it usually makes you feel worse. After all, not only is the original emotional issue still there, but you also feel guilty for eating too much.

Difference between emotional eating and physical hunger
Before you can break out of the emotional eating cycle, learn to distinguish between emotional and physical hunger. This can be more difficult than it sounds, especially if you regularly eat food to manage your emotions. Emotional hunger can be intense, so physical hunger can be easily overlooked. But there are clues that help to make the distinction clear.

Emotional hunger comes suddenly. It instantly strikes you and evokes terror and despair. On the other hand, physical hunger develops slowly. The urge to eat doesn't seem so strong and doesn't seem like immediate gratification (if you haven't eaten for a long time). Emotional hunger disrupts a certain comfort mode. When you're physically hungry, you feel good with almost everything, including healthy ingredients like vegetables. But emotional hunger triggers unhealthy foods in the form of sugary snacks that trigger immediate urgency. You feel like you need cheese or pizza and you don’t need anything else. Emotional hunger often leads to mindless eating, such as consuming a bag of chips or a bowl of ice cream without realizing it or enjoying it.

When you eat in response to physical hunger, you usually have a better understanding of what you are doing. Emotional hunger is not satisfied when you are full. You will always eat more until you feel uncomfortable. On the other hand, physical hunger does not need to be satisfied. You feel happy when your stomach is full. Your stomach doesn’t respond to emotional hunger, and even after you ate, you feel hunger like it’s something you can't get rid of. Emotional hunger often leads to remorse, guilt, or shame. If you eat to satisfy your physical hunger, you probably won’t feel guilty or ashamed for just giving your body what it needs.

Identify your emotional eating triggers
The first step in stopping emotional eating is recognizing your unique cues that lead you to emotional hunger. What situations, places, or emotions make you look for the comfort of eating? Most emotional eating is associated with unpleasant feelings, but it can also be caused by positive emotions, such as rewarding yourself for achieving a goal or celebrating a happy holiday or event. While the filling is working, negative emotions often make people feel overwhelmed before eating. This cycle usually does not end until the person satisfies their emotional needs.

Find other ways to feed your feelings
Understanding yourself and learning to deal with your emotions without eating will help you to regain control over your eating habits. Diets so often fail because they provide logical nutritional recommendations that only work if you consciously control your behavior patterns. It won't work when emotions get out of hand and immediate food satisfaction is required. To avoid emotional eating, train yourself to find other ways that will take you to emotional fulfillment. Understanding an emotional cycle or understanding what motivates you to reach for food is a great first step. The next step is to find alternatives that you can turn to for emotional fulfillment and support.

Pause when cravings hit and check-in with yourself 
Most emotional eaters feel powerless over what they eat. Food becomes the only thing you can think of. You feel an almost physical tension because you must be fed ‘right now’. Being that you have tried to resist the urges so many times and failed, you no longer attempt to exercise your willpower. To some extent it’s true: your willpower will only take you so far. The best way to deal with emotional hunger is to prepare yourself in advance and have a clear, realistic, and easy to follow plan for when cravings arise.

Support yourself with healthy lifestyle habits 
When you are physically strong, calm, and relaxed, it is easier to distract yourself from your cravings because you have enough resources, physical and emotional, not to give into cravings. But if you're tired, stressed, and overwhelmed, it won’t take much for you to go out of your way to go straight to the fridge. Exercise, sleep, and other healthy lifestyle habits will help get you through tough times without emotional eating. 

Alternatives to emotional eating
- For emotional support: Connect with someone you always feel better with or play with your pet;
- To take your mind off things: Engage in a hobby or something you enjoy doing and what keeps you grounded;
- If you feel anxious: Get busy with light movement, whether it’s playing with your children, hitting a ball, or taking a brisk walk;
- If you feel tired: Treat yourself to a hot cup of tea, take a bath, light a scented candle, or wrap yourself in a warm blanket;
- If you're bored, you can read a good book, watch a comedy show, explore nature, or do something you like (woodworking, playing the guitar, painting mugs, etc.).

Final note: Learn to accept your feelings, even the bad ones.
While it may seem like the biggest problem is that you are powerless over food, overeating due to difficult emotions occurs when you feel helpless in front of your thoughts and habits. You end up using food to avoid what’s really going on or to avoid feeling emptiness. Feeling uncomfortable can be scary. You may be afraid, like with Pandora's Box, that once you open a door, you will not be able to close it. But the reality is that if we learn to sit with our emotions, even the worst and most difficult ones, you will be able to change your patterns and stop the vicious cycle of overeating. To do this, practice to be mindful and learn to stay in touch with your emotional experiences in the moment. It can help you regain confidence and address issues that often lead to emotional overeating. Remember: this is a journey, and staying kind to yourself in the process is the surest road to success.