It is sad to think that your cravings for your favorite meals start to hit you when you are emotional. Like a lot of people, you may divert your negative emotions to emotional eating. Because of this, you unintentionally begin to stress eat, and your eating habits get affected. Stress eating can compromise your health and might cause psychological stress. How to control stress eating? Keeping a food diary might help as well as being mindful of your hunger.
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Combining stress, anxiety, and negative emotions will do you no good. Because of these things, we tend to overeat without thinking twice about their impact on our health. Most of us turn to foods for comfort, and that is quite normal. What’s bothersome is that some people develop an unhealthy relationship with food that affects their physical and mental health.
Stressful events can also make you feel hungry even though you’re not. Furthermore, people tend to choose junk food to satisfy their cravings during snack time because of emotion.
According to doctors, the human body produces cortisol when stressed, and cortisol affects your appetite, causing you to crave salty, sugary, and fatty foods. In addition, gender has also been associated with unexpected hunger. It has been said that a woman might turn to food more often than a man. It is because men prefer to drink alcohol when they are stressed. Due to this, a higher number of women are overweight caused by emotional eating.
Sadness has been one of the reasons why people stress eat. Some people lose their appetite when they are sad. But most people feel the need to devour a gallon of ice cream whenever they feel lonely. Turning to their comfort foods is one of their coping mechanisms to release the negative emotion within them.
Indeed, there are so many other ways for us to divert our attention when we’re stressed. Perhaps some healthy habits like yoga, exercise, or massage. So what exactly makes people drawn to ice cream, cookies, and junk food? Because people ought to believe that food can fill in the emptiness we feel when we are in an emotional state.
Other environmental factors could also contribute to emotional eating, such as:
Deciding to stop emotional eating finally is not easy at all. And making an action to do so is much harder. That is why it is important to do this gradually. So how do you control overeating? Refer to the tips below:
It would be best to know what triggers you to develop cravings for unhealthy food choices. Knowing what leads you to emotional eating is the very first step to start a healthy life. This starts by knowing yourself. Asking questions such as “Am I actually hungry, or are my feelings just hurt?” or “Is my boredom causing me to overeat?”
Each time you feel the need to satisfy your craving, focus on your physical body and check if you feel emotional or physical hunger.
One thing that could lead a person to eat any time of the day is having access to snacks and food. You need to remove all the foods that contain high amounts of salt and sugar as these kinds of snacks lead to unhealthy weight. Plus, it also prohibits you from achieving your weight loss goals.
Exercising will not only stop you from emotional eating, eventually, but it will also encourage you to pay attention to your health and be warier about the impact that overeating does on your health. This is also a good way to release unwanted feelings and stressful emotions.
It is easy to get tempted when you are bored and got nothing much to do. Instead of giving in to the urge to eat, take a moment to find something relevant to do. Perhaps walk your dog out in the park or drive around town with your friends. These are much healthier options than sitting on the couch while being eaten by shame and guilt.
Free yourself from your eating habits by consulting a professional. They can help you identify the root cause of your unexplainable appetite, as they will also search for the best possible solutions to drag you away from it.
Apart from the mentioned resolutions, you may also opt to try the following techniques to gear away from overeating:
We all cope with stress in different ways. While eating is probably one of the easiest coping techniques, keep in mind that there are other ways to feel better. For instance, you may enroll yourself in yoga or meditation classes.
In addition, joining group supports will enable you to share your experience. This will also help you gain new tips on how you will deal with your eating habits. It will help to know that you and the people in support groups are going through the same thing and that all of you can get through it by helping each other.
Lastly, focus on your weight loss goals. If you wish to become a healthier version of yourself, the best thing to do is to let go of your old habit.
Your FAQs Answered: Why Do I Eat When I’m Stressed? (https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-eating/why-do-i-eat-when-im-stressed)
Emotional Eating: What You Should Know (https://www.healthline.com/health/emotional-eating)
Tags: coping with stress, overcoming emotional eating, stress eating