SubscribeMaintaining Your Weight: Emotional Eating Must Be Addressed
New research shows that those who have the hardest time keeping off the weight are those who eat for internal emotional reasons.
The study (published in Obesity) looked at those who were participating in a behavioral weight loss trial and also used data from the National Weight Control Register (NWCR).
The study found that it was easy to predict outcomes for those who ate in response to internal cues, such as feelings and thoughts. Essentially the higher levels of "internal disinhibition" at the beginning of the weight loss program - meant the less weight loss overall.
However there was no such correlation for those who ate in response to external cues (such as those who ate too much at parties).
The message here is: pay attention to getting emotional eating issues addressed - before even starting a diet program.
The cardinal rule for sucessful weight loss: First fix your head!.
ReplyThe four rules of weight loss: 1: Fix your head. 2: Eat less. 3: Move more. 4: Forever.
I never really ate because of emotions...I wasn't the one digging into the Haagen Dasz when some guy broke up with me or anything like that. If anything, I just made really poor choices of foods: Poptarts, donuts, cappuccinos, high sugar beverages, etc. Once I made the switch to better food choices such as cereals, fruit, veggies, etc., the weight came off pretty easily. I did used to snack a lot when I was bored, but I quickly learned to replace that snacking with doing something else with my hands: knitting, cross stitching, scrapbooking, etc...anything to keep my mind off food.
ReplyIf boredom is an emotion, then that's what leads me to oversnacking. And if pleasure is an emotion, then that's what leads me to overeat. So by that definition, I am an emotional eater.
ReplyCurrently I'm working on retraining my brain. I checked out the Beck Diet Solution from the library and it's helping me change my habits. Also, all the exercise I'm doing is keeping me from getting bored. Like Spectra, I started doing other stuff with my hands, like knitting, during my, um, D&D games (yeah, I'm a huge geek, so what?). And holding back on the snacking means I'm participating more in the game. You can't roll d20s with a handful of chili-flavoured chips!
Now I'm trying to work on control. I am a big ol' hedonist and I like to enjoy life. Eating = enjoyment. Cooking = fun. So I'm finding other things I enjoy, like working on stories, drawing, walking to the store and picking out the best looking produce. And to I've replaced the fun of cooking complicated, high calorie meals with the fun of arranging healthy food on a plate in an artistic way.
I also try to reward myself and give myself credit when I make a good choice like "I'm so glad I brought this little bag of raw almonds with me, now I know I don't have to get a fatty snack just because I'm slightly hungry." or "I'm so clever for finding a new route into the city that doesn't take me past that pie shop. It takes longer, but it's prettier and now I won't be tempted!"
Ah, as a former bulimic, how I can relate to this. You have to fix your head before your body is willing to do anything. (Of course, once you have the habits there will be setbacks, but it's much easier)
ReplyEmotional eating is always the hardest to overcome. One can try hypnosis perhaps to overcome this problem. We can eat for so many self-justified reasons. The feel good factor, the social and family pressures are always around us - overcoming cravings is the first step to a successful weight loss. Easier said than done for most but not impossible.
ReplyIt's humorous to me that they're still studying and researching emotional eating. Haven't we known for a looooong time that emotional eaters have a really hard time keeping weight off?
I like those rules, especially the forever part! Some people think that once they hit their ideal weight that they can stop and revert back to hold eating and activity habits. Not true! Changes need to be made for life. :)Reply
I'm currently reading "Shrink Yourself: Break free from emotional eating forever" by Dr Roger Gould. You have to be in the right mindset for it to really work, but I've been reading for a week now and have become really good at determining the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger. I haven't finished it yet, but I highly recommend it to anyone who recognizes they are an emotional eater and is ready to change that!
ReplyHmm, what about emotional starving?? That's pretty dangerous as well. All those celebrities who claim to their skinnier than ever physiques not to tampering with starvation diets, but to dealing with extreme stress.
Replyi eat when i'm stressed out, anxious, nervous, bored. especially if i have to do something that i'm not sure how to do, like a writing assignment, school project, a task at work. i'm not really sure how to stop this habit. i try to distract myself with tea or fruit or to go for a walk if i can. but when the rubber hits the road and i have to sit down and write a paper, i find i feel so nervous about it and can't get anything going until i sit down with some takeout food and eat and think at the same time. not a great habit. i really need to break it so i don't derail all my hard work.
ReplyExcellent point, Gina. I'm pretty sure a lot of actresses who say they got really skinny by being "stressed" are probably starving and that's definitely not healthy either. I sometimes have busy days where I get so caught up in what I'm doing that I don't have time to eat regularly, but I do try to plan my meals out so I can at least grab something healthy.
ReplyMe too. I tend to eat...a lot...when I'm bored. When I have a full day of entertaining things going on, I eat very little.
ReplyI second (or would it be third?) this sentiment.
Replyweirdly enough, as another former bulimic, i don't think i ever ate because there was an emotional period in my life. that's probably why i didn't eat. i binged when i got sick of not eating or tried to make myself better (i.e- rebel against restricting). some people may count that as emotional eating but i don't think i do. my bad food habits have been with me for seemingly most of my life, even when i was athletic in my early teens and very active as a child. i think my being overweight at some periods during my life had more to do with not knowing any better. at 16 i had no concept whatsoever of calories. i literally didn't know what the hell they were. the only link i have to "emotional eating" is eating when bored. i'm used to be a grazer. thesedays, i tend to not be hungry at all. now that i'm trying to change my lifestyle for the better and actually eat healthy meals regularly it's become a problem for me because i'm just never hungry after i've eaten breakfast. i now have to force myself to eat.
ReplyThe modern diet is very acidic, maybe as high as 70-80 percent. Given the fact that sugar, fat and alcohol are the comfort foods, the acid intake for emotional eaters may be higher. Reports I’ve read say that acids that the body can’t eliminate through the bloodstream are stored in fat cells to isolate them from damaging the internal organs. If there isn’t enough fat cells the body, to be protective, makes more. The logic then would be a more alkaline diet, which would lead to less fat and better health.
ReplyOh man, yeah, stressful situations used to really make me eat. In college, I remember once I had a paper due and I didn't start it until something like 12 hours before it was due. I just kept avoiding sitting down and writing it and while I was avoiding it, I managed to eat an entire box of Chips Ahoy! cookies and a giant taco wrap from the cafeteria. I also stayed up all night writing it and drank about 2 pots of coffee writing it. I ended up finishing the paper just in time and I did ok on it, but I realized I needed a much better stress-coping mechanism if I didn't want to end up at 300 lbs or something.
ReplyI think regular exercise is the best idea for weight loss. But for fast and easy way for weight loss is to use weight loss pills.
ReplyUm, sorry, Rememberramu, but I think most folks here will respectfully disagree with you on that one!
ReplyMore self control again...
ReplyWhen this first was posted I thought "hahaha, not for me!" Then this weekend hit. I don't know WHAT happened but I just completely freaked out and ate myself crazy. Not for hunger, for emotion.
I need to get a grip on this. Bah.
ReplyI think the food you put in your head is as vital as the food you put in your stomach. Having talked with lots of dieters (especially people who were once struggling to keep weight off and now have kept it off), they often describe the background to their success as having their head "in the right place".
Trouble is so many diets don't address this as though the food were the only important factor. Your thoughts become your emotions and your brain is always thinking so it make sense that whether your long term diet success depends on how well you can keep your head in place that keeps you motivated to succeed. That's why I centered my blog on it.
ReplyIf you really want to control your emotions to stop eating, put a picture on your refrigerator of yourself with your gut hanging out.That will stop the binges when you are repulsed by the sight of yourself. If you really want to get into this go to DigitalDietIncentives.com and order a dinner plate with your photo on it with a caption like "no seconds-Fatass. I've been a yoyo dieter all my life, and have managed to keep my weight off for 1.5 years now.
ReplyAnother good post. Thanks for the link to the study as well. Boredom is aproblem for me too. I gues if i excercised more i wouldn't be s bored :-) I'm Learning more about emotional eating every week. this was a good article i thought as well.
Replyhttp://shegoddess.com/index.php/archives/15/whats-eating-you/