Tips to Avoid Emotional Eating Habits

Dr.Pavitra Shankar, 0 mins read

Emotional eating is an increasingly prevalent concern, particularly among young people. Rather than eating for physical hunger, many eat to cope with emotions, celebrate success, or seek comfort during challenging moments. This tendency often leads to a preference for junk food, processed snacks, sugary treats, and other unhealthy options.

For instance, consider the ritual of stopping by an ice cream parlour or a bustling Chinese food stall every evening, even when your stomach isn’t hungry. The allure of these indulgent foods can be hard to resist, as they provide a fleeting sense of joy or nostalgia, turning meals into emotional escapes rather than nourishment for the body.

This guide will discuss this growing concern briefly and also share some tips to break the chain of emotional eating. 

What Is Emotional Eating?

As the name suggests, emotional eating refers to the use of food to fill emotional needs, rather than stomach needs. That means you are not hungry, but you are actually eating for taste, celebration, and comfort. This is called emotional eating. But unfortunately, emotional eating doesn’t fix emotional problems. In fact, it makes you feel worse as the original emotional issue remains the same. Plus, you have the feeling of guilt for overeating. 

How to Identify Whether You Are an Emotional Eater 

This starts with some questions. Ask yourself a few questions, and you will determine whether you are an emotional eater.

• Do you eat when stressed?
• Do you eat when you are full?
• Do you eat to feel better?
• Do you reward yourself with food?
• Do you feel powerless or out of control around food?

The Cycle of Emotional Eating

Eating occasionally for comfort or to feel better is not bad. But if eating becomes your only way to feel better and for comfort on a regular basis, you need to be cautious. People with emotional eating habits often have an impulse to first open their fridge and go to a junk food stall whenever they feel stressed, exhausted, lonely, angry, or bored. This puts them in a vicious cycle of emotional eating.

This cycle starts with having a feeling of stress or need for comfort or celebration. In such a situation, you start eating emotionally and fill yourself up to the neck. You may feel comfortable while eating. But as you finish, you will start having a feeling of overeating. This can make you feel guilty and powerless around food. This will put you in an unwanted situation, making you upset. This feeling gives an overwhelming urge to eat. And this cycle continues. 

How to Break the Cycle of Emotional Eating

• Identify what triggers emotional eating: First things first, putting a stop to emotional eating starts with finding the reasons for emotional eating. Identify what situations, places, or reasons are making you emotionally eat. Make a note in a diary to record the pattern.  
• Identify what you generally eat during emotional eating: Figuring out what you eat while being emotional can give you a reason to avoid emotional eating. When you get a list of all the junk food you are eating and how they are hurting your physical well-being gradually, you will become more cautious of what and when you are eating.
• Manage your emotions: The next big thing that comes to stop the cycle of emotional eating is to manage your emotions that make you an emotional eater. If it is because of stress, practice yoga, meditation or deep breathing exercises. If it is for comfort or celebration, find other healthy ways. If it is due to boredom or exhaustion, watch a movie, spend time with your loved ones, take a bath or get some rest. In a nutshell, create strong willpower against emotional eating. 
• Practice mindful eating: Eating while doing other things like watching TV, playing with your phone, or driving can make you eat quickly and mindlessly. Since your mind is somewhere else, you may not feel satisfied and continue to overeat. You eat so fast that you miss out on tastes and textures. But by slowing down, savouring every bite, and choosing the right food, you can have better control over what you eat.  
• Talk to a licensed therapist: A licensed therapist can help you manage your emotions and give you a better alternative to cope with emotional eating. Though most people can tackle it on their own, having a licensed therapist by your side means having a companion along your journey to combat this issue. Not only does it fast-track this fight, but it also makes it easier.