Emotional eating: The lowdown behind this damaging problem

It’s a term that’s commonly coined in the weight loss industry – with more and more cases being reported. The process of eating to “make yourself feel better” is dangerous to say the least and anyone who falls into this category will find it particularly easy to pile on the pounds.

In fact, if you’re on this road, you’re probably en-route to Sono Bello or another facility offering a weight loss surgery. On the flip side, there are ways to combat it, as we take a look at some of the reasons behind emotional eating and what you can do to get around them.

A lack of awareness about your food

One of the biggest reasons behind this form of eating is that you simply don’t realize that you are doing it.

You’ll get to a stage where you think you have finished your meal, only to slowly but surely take more off your plate. In other words, you’re eating more than you really need – and you don’t consciously think about it.

This reason is purely psychological and it’s all about being mindful of what you eat. Always monitor what goes into your mouth and when you do reach the hunger stage, remove your plate from reach immediately to ensure that you’re not even tempted to go for seconds.

Food is your main pleasure in life

For some people, and you might be included in this, food is their main source of pleasure. It’s the main thing in the day that they look forward to – it’s almost a countdown.

Naturally, this is asking for trouble as without food, there is little to look forward to. This doesn’t necessarily have to be completely psychological either. For some foods, mainly those which contain large amounts of fat and sugar, your brain will release opioids which offer an immense source of pleasure. This is the reason that you crave these points in the day so strongly.

The solution to this issue might be a little more difficult to implement than others we talk about. This time, you need to find something to replace this food-related pleasure. You effectively need to find another reward and while it might not give you quite the same feeling, if you can realize that it’s helping your health immensely it can provide some solace.

You hate your body

This reason might seem a little strange; after all, if you hate your body in its current state, why would you turn to food to effectively worsen the problem?

Unfortunately, it’s been found that negative feelings such as shame don’t inspire people to make changes to their life. It means that you are far more likely to say you’ll start eating better after you reach a certain weight – by which point the job is so much harder.

To combat this, you really do need to change your way of thinking. It’s something that’s much easier said than done but if you can implement a feeling of getting things done “now”, you’ll be well on your way.