Have you ever eaten when you weren't really that hungry, but you were stressed, bored or sad? If so, you may well have wondered whether that counts as emotional eating... and, more importantly, whether it's something you need to worry about! In this post I'm breaking down what emotional eating actually is, what it isn't, and when it's worth paying attention to. You can watch the full video right below, or keep reading!
What is emotional eating?
Emotional eating is simply eating in response to an emotion. That might be stress, sadness, boredom, anger or frustration... but it could just as easily be joy or celebration! So how do you tell whether you're eating because you're genuinely hungry (that real, biological, physical hunger) or because of how you're feeling? There are a few key differences between the two…
Biological hunger vs emotional hunger
Biological hunger tends to build slowly over time. As it emerges, you'll usually start thinking about lots of different foods that could satisfy you, so you might have several options going round your head... "ooh, I could eat this, or I could eat that."
Emotional hunger is different. It tends to come on very suddenly, and it feels really urgent. When you think about what you want to eat, there's often just one specific thing (or one specific type of food) in your head. You might suddenly think, "ooh, I really want a Bounty bar," or "I need something sweet." That sense of urgency is key.
However, it’s important to know that emotional eating isn't necessarily a bad thing, despite what we so often see on social media. But first, what emotional isn’t…
What emotional eating isn't
You're not experiencing emotional eating because you lack willpower, or because you don't have enough discipline, or you haven't found the right diet plan. It's also not automatically disordered eating.
It’s also not the same thing as binge eating either. The key difference is that with binge eating you're eating a very large amount of food in a short amount of time, and emotional eating isn't always that. You may not eat a huge amount of food. You might... but you might not!
Do you need to get rid of emotional eating?
Not necessarily! The goal isn't to completely get rid of emotional eating, because eating emotionally can be part of a "normal" relationship with food. Think about it... we want food to feel good. We want to feel satisfied after we eat and sometimes we want to feel soothed, too.
There's an interesting balance here because if you don't feel satisfied after you eat, you may never feel properly full. You can end up searching and searching for different foods to eat, and this is where it migth tip into binge eating or overeating.
Now, I appreciate that when I say emotional eating isn't something we necessarily want to get rid of, you might be thinking, "Yeah, but Lara, my emotional eating is totally out of control, and I really don't want to be eating in response to my emotions all the time!" And I totally get that, so the question is - is it actually a problem for you right now?
When emotional eating becomes a problem
So here's when it actually becomes a problem. If food has become your only way to cope with life's ups and downs, or you're regularly turning to food and it's turned into a daily habit, that may well feel really problematic. Picture this: you've had a stressful day, you come home from work, you raid the fridge, and you eat chocolate and crisps (or whatever it is for you) to take your mind off work - and this is happening every single day.
Perhaps you may also find that this pattern is followed by some really negative emotions. You feel even more guilty, frustrated or annoyed with yourself for having eaten that food in the first place. The reason emotional eating feels problematic here is that you seem to have only one coping tool (food). So what’s missing here is other ways to help you cope with that stress after a tough day's work, and that's what I'd encourage you to focus on.
Bottom line…
It's all about finding other coping mechanisms for life's ups and downs. Start by recognising what your trigger is, and then build some tools to cope with those specific triggers. This will help hugely.
If you'd like a way to work through your emotional eating, understand a bit more about it, identify your triggers and then put together a toolkit of things to use, my Emotional Eating Freedom Method Toolkit is a self-help tool that will take you through that process. You can find all the details here.
Or, if you have any questions, just pop them below and I’ll get back to you with specific strategies to help.