I'm an emotional eater
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LolaDeeDaisy23
Posts: 383 Member
I was looking at my weight progress since I started MFP and it blew my mind how much my emotions affect my weight.
I started out average weight, and became obsessed with logging and obsessed with losing and wanted to lose as much as I can by eating as little as I can. I got down to 114 pounds and I felt disgusting. I looked disgusting and sick. My mom asked me if I was starving myself, which I was... eating 1,000-1,200 calories per day and using the treadmill to burn off most of what I ate.
I started lifting heavy, gained some muscle weight and was starting to feel good about myself. Then I started a new job and had to work in a horrible hostile work environment. My coworker was toxic and I hated waking up and going to work. This was the same time I found out I had PCOS, 15 pound spike in weight.
Lost some of the weight, spiked again when we went to Hawaii (and I ate ALL the foods).
My weight started going down again due to LCHF, no change in exercise. Spiked up again due to in vitro failure.
Now I'm slowly trying to understand that food does not solve anything, it won't change how I feel. I need to be more in tune with my emotions and stop looking to food as a temporary answer.
I started out average weight, and became obsessed with logging and obsessed with losing and wanted to lose as much as I can by eating as little as I can. I got down to 114 pounds and I felt disgusting. I looked disgusting and sick. My mom asked me if I was starving myself, which I was... eating 1,000-1,200 calories per day and using the treadmill to burn off most of what I ate.
I started lifting heavy, gained some muscle weight and was starting to feel good about myself. Then I started a new job and had to work in a horrible hostile work environment. My coworker was toxic and I hated waking up and going to work. This was the same time I found out I had PCOS, 15 pound spike in weight.
Lost some of the weight, spiked again when we went to Hawaii (and I ate ALL the foods).
My weight started going down again due to LCHF, no change in exercise. Spiked up again due to in vitro failure.
Now I'm slowly trying to understand that food does not solve anything, it won't change how I feel. I need to be more in tune with my emotions and stop looking to food as a temporary answer.
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Replies
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I am a stress eater too. I eat out of habit and when I am stressed. I am trying to listen to my hunger cues better now. I have done weight watchers in the past and had to maintain on 1100-1200 calories. It is very hard. This woe makes me feel so much better, and I don't starve all the time. Learning to eat when I am hungry and not for emotional reasons (bored, stressed..) is the most challenging part. After having to eat every 3-4 hours on WW just to keep from starving, my brain thinks I should eat more often, when my stomach is just fine. Crazy huh?0
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Working on two key issues: emotional eating (happy, sad, bored, you name it) and also portion control (which for me is the same as "eating to satiety") Some days are better than others but so long as the trend is downward (like my weight) I'm ok. Just doing the best I can.1
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One thing that helps me is to remember that our bodies are hard-wired to this type of response. Most carbs create a seratonin and/or dopamine reaction that makes us feel better. Add to that, many of us had parents who didn't like to see us feeling down, and would entice us with treats rather than time and activities, because it's what they'd been taught... Knowing that a little bit of the urge/response wiring is beyond my control allows me to switch to minimizing the effect and begin rewiring everything.
Making sure to supplement with any nutrients you might be missing, via food preferably, or supplements if you aren't able to get what you need through foods, really seems to help curb or blunt to edge of this reaction.
Remember, too, to channel this emotion where you can - loud angry music, a good hard workout of some kind, meditation, adult coloring books, mindful activity, a craft, anything to channel that feeling somewhere else.
Oh, and I find that when I get down in the dumps, and too caught up in my own head, sometimes the best thing I can do is to intentionally set about to do something nice for someone else. It's pretty hard to stay as a self-absorbed twit (ME) when you're a do-gooder! LOL5 -
I apparently eat emotionally too. I just became the default care giver of a very cranky, mean- spirited, elderly great-aunt-in-law and my weight has gone up a couple of pounds. The more unpleasant the situation the more I want carbs. I completely understand your situation, my weight also went up when I worked in a very toxic place a few years ago.
@KnitOrMiss You have some great advice! Thanks
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