Many people resort to eating for comfort or to relieve stress. This is called emotional eating , where food is eaten based on specific psychological feelings, without the physical need for it. Often people who suffer from emotional hunger tend to eat fast food, sweets, and other junk food. Unhealthy foods. Learn in this article about emotional eating and its causes, the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger , and how to get rid of emotional hunger.
Emotional eating
Emotional eating is the use of food with the aim of obtaining happiness or reducing negative feelings, that is, to satisfy emotional needs, not physical needs. Unfortunately, emotional eating does not solve psychological problems, but rather makes the person feel worse afterward due to the feeling of guilt resulting from overeating. In addition, emotional eating causes weight gain, which leads to more negative feelings and dissatisfaction.
Do you suffer from emotional eating?
In order to know if you are eating as a result of emotional hunger or physical hunger, try to think of answers to the following questions.
- Do you eat more when you feel stressed?
- Do you eat to feel better (to comfort yourself when you feel sad, angry, bored, anxious, etc.)?
- Do you eat when you are not hungry or when you are full?
- Do you eat regularly to satisfy yourself?
- Do you reward yourself with food?
- Does food make you feel safe? Do you feel that food is a friend?
- Do you feel helpless or out of control with food?
Sometimes, using food as a means of reward or celebration isn’t a bad thing, but when eating is your primary emotional coping mechanism—that is, when your first reaction to feeling stressed, angry, or bored—is to open the refrigerator, this The situation may fall into a spiral of emotional eating , then weight gain, then negative feelings, then emotional eating, and so on.
Causes of emotional hunger
Anything can trigger emotional eating and the desire to overeat. Causes of emotional eating may include :
- Health problems.
- work stress.
- Financial concerns.
- Relationship struggles.
People who follow restrictive diets or have followed them in the past are also more susceptible to emotional hunger and emotional eating.
There are some other less common causes that may lead to emotional eating , which include some psychological and mental illnesses that may lead to cognitive impairment and other problems such as:
- Lack of awareness or lack of awareness of what you are feeling.
- Inability to understand, process, or describe emotions.
- Dysregulation and management of emotions.
- Pituitary and adrenal gland dysfunction.
The difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger
Before you can get rid of emotional eating , you first need to learn how to distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger. Emotional hunger can be strong, so it’s easy to confuse it with physical hunger. But there are some factors that help distinguish between physical and emotional hunger.
- Emotional hunger comes suddenly and is a strong feeling that makes you move immediately to satisfy it and eat food to satisfy it, while physical hunger comes gradually, and you do not feel the need to get food immediately unless a very long time has passed without eating.
- Emotional hunger prompts the person to eat specific foods that give a feeling of satisfaction, such as sweets and fast food, while when feeling physical hunger, the person is able to eat almost anything, including healthy things such as vegetables.
- Emotional hunger leads to mindless eating, or eating large amounts of food quickly. For example, emotional hunger may cause you to eat an entire bag of potato chips or a pound of ice cream without really realizing it or fully enjoying it. When you eat in response to physical hunger, you You are usually more aware of what you eat.
- Emotional hunger is not satisfied once you are full or full. You may continue to want more and more, often continuing to eat until you feel uncomfortably full, while physical hunger prompts you to stop eating when your stomach becomes full.
- Emotional hunger does not cause a feeling of stomach pain or stomach rumbling sounds, but rather an intense rush and desire to eat specific foods immediately.
- Emotional eating often leads to feelings of guilt, or remorse, but when you eat to satisfy your physical hunger, you’re less likely to feel guilt or shame because you’re simply giving your body what it needs. If you feel guilty after eating, you probably know deep down that you are not eating to meet your physical needs for food.
The main differences between emotional eating and physical hunger , in brief, are the following:
| Emotional hunger comes suddenly | Physical hunger comes gradually |
| Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be satisfied immediately | Physical hunger can wait |
| Emotional hunger craves certain foods | Physical hunger There are many options |
| Emotional hunger does not stop eating unless the stomach feels uncomfortable and annoying | Physical hunger stops when you are full |
| Emotional eating triggers feelings of guilt and remorse | Eating to satisfy physical hunger does not make you feel bad about yourself |
Get rid of emotional hunger
Steps can be taken to overcome emotional eating and control cravings based on the psychological sensation of hunger, such as:
Psychological and mental preparation can be done to control the amount and timing of eating by creating a food diary. It is also useful in discovering the relationship between mood and eating habits, by writing down the foods you eat, their quantity, how hungry you feel when eating, and the time that you eat. For example, after a specific feeling or situation.
- Follow methods of managing psychological stress. For example, when feeling stressed, you may go out to the nearby park to breathe fresh air, or you may talk to a friend, or it is even possible to practice deep breathing exercises, which can give positive results in getting rid of negative feelings and getting rid of emotional eating .
- Every time you feel like eating, first check whether you are really hungry? Is this emotional hunger or physical hunger? For example, if you do not hear the sound of your stomach rumbling or if you have eaten recently, what you often feel is emotional hunger. All you have to do is give yourself some time for this feeling to go away and try to distract yourself from thinking. Hunger by keeping yourself busy with an activity.
- Fight boredom. Boredom or emptiness often trigger emotional eating , so instead of snacking when you’re not hungry, distract yourself and replace it with a healthy behavior. You can take a walk, watch a movie, listen to music, play with your cat, surf the Internet, or read.
- Avoid temptations. For example, do not keep foods that are difficult to resist in your home. If you feel negative emotions such as anger, sadness, or depression, do not go to the grocery store or postpone going shopping until these feelings pass.
- It’s okay to get some support from family or friends, as this may help you get rid of emotional hunger more easily.
- Don’t deprive yourself. When trying to lose weight, you may limit calories too much, eat the same foods repeatedly, and avoid sweets. This may lead to emotional eating by increasing the desire to eat and increasing emotional hunger . Therefore, when following a diet to lose weight, you should eat large amounts of food. Moderate healthy foods and diversify the dishes you eat.
- If you feel like eating between meals, eat light, healthy snacks such as fresh fruit, low-fat vegetables, nuts, or unbuttered popcorn.
- Avoid self-flagellation, and if setbacks occur, start again the next day. Try to learn from the experience and develop a plan on how to prevent this from happening again in the future. Focus on the positive changes you have made in your eating habits and thank yourself for making changes that lead to better health.
