Emotional Eating

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WorkingMomGetsFit
WorkingMomGetsFit Posts: 70 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I admit, I am an emotional eater/binge eater and this is something that I have been working on and it has gotten better. The problem is, when I am upset, I have no appetite. The last two weeks, there has been a few days where I have barely eaten half of my daily calories. Anyone out there who can relate? How do you handle these situations?

Replies

  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
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    Very much so! I swing both ways depending on what the stress is, I could either binge or starve. When my mom was in the hospital, I basically had to force myself to eat at least somewhere close to my calories. I kept telling myself " Getting yourself sick will not help her any." If I feel myself slipping into a binge I tell myself, " I have enough garbage to carry around (including mental) I don't need extra weight too."
  • cardbucfan
    cardbucfan Posts: 10,427 Member
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    Very much so! I swing both ways depending on what the stress is, I could either binge or starve. When my mom was in the hospital, I basically had to force myself to eat at least somewhere close to my calories. I kept telling myself " Getting yourself sick will not help her any." If I feel myself slipping into a binge I tell myself, " I have enough garbage to carry around (including mental) I don't need extra weight too."

    This is me although I usually fall on the stress eat side of things. I'd say don't force yourself to eat as long as you are getting some healthy stuff in every day.
  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
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    When I'm very anxious about something, I can't eat.
  • tlicttbh
    tlicttbh Posts: 89
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    When I'm a little or moderately depressed, I tend to overeat. When I'm really down, I don't want to eat. But I go ahead and eat anyways even though I don't feel like it because I know that's what's good for my body.
  • ae92jay
    ae92jay Posts: 153 Member
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    I suspected that I am an emotional eater based on how hard I work out at the gym. All of my past trainers said I should have been lighter after a couple of months of personal training sessions.

    So I read many books on the subject, and I can confirm that I am definitely an emotional eater. So what I have been doing lately is keeping a diary on here to help combat this problem. This is day 3, this is the first time I have done a food diary in 6 months.

    The first day I started the food diary I was at over 4000 calories a day, each day I have gotten better :smile:

    Here are the books that I read regarding emotional eating:

    - Diets don't work
    -The Overfed Head
    -Shrink Yourself
    -Breaking Free from Emotional Eating
  • EddieV2
    EddieV2 Posts: 19 Member
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    I remember I would over-eat when I was frustrated, which in-turn, made me even more frustrated because I would over-eat to the point where I was literally in pain. Granted, I eat a lot of protein and vegetables so it never hurt me too much, but it was honestly frustrating and, like I said, painful. So, I started to do some research.

    First off, I realized that I only over-ate when I was dissatisfied with my meal, or snack (this is almost always the culprit for me), because it was so happily satisfying. I started to look into studies to further prove this.

    I found what made sense; levels of dopamine can trigger binge eating or lack of hunger. Here is the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2977997/

    When you're frustrated, angry, or sad, your dopamine levels are lower than normal, and you try to eat to make up for it to raise the dopamine levels. Usually, you look for sugar because this raises dopamine levels the most.


    In short, stay away from snacks and eat happily satisfying meals and you won't look towards snacks. If you can't eat for a day because of how you feel, don't fret too much; you usually make up for it the next day or two. If it lasts longer than that, then you need to just make sure you get some fats and somewhat near your bodyweight in protein to keep your body operational.
  • EddieV2
    EddieV2 Posts: 19 Member
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    I suspected that I am an emotional eater based on how hard I work out at the gym. All of my past trainers said I should have been lighter after a couple of months of personal training sessions.

    So I read many books on the subject, and I can confirm that I am definitely an emotional eater. So what I have been doing lately is keeping a diary on here to help combat this problem. This is day 3, this is the first time I have done a food diary in 6 months.

    The first day I started the food diary I was at over 4000 calories a day, each day I have gotten better :smile:

    Here are the books that I read regarding emotional eating:

    - Diets don't work
    -The Overfed Head
    -Shrink Yourself
    -Breaking Free from Emotional Eating

    Do you think you the workouts stressed you out at all?
  • DeterminedBex
    DeterminedBex Posts: 97 Member
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    Hands up! I do it too....I don't worry too much tho, but when I don't have an appetite I will choose more calorie dense foods- nuts, avo, eggs, cheese etc to fill the spot.
  • tlicttbh
    tlicttbh Posts: 89
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    EatQ by Susan Albers is helping me a lot. If you do a search on EatQ Susan Albers, there is an online test that will give you some idea whether or not you are an emotional eater.
  • ae92jay
    ae92jay Posts: 153 Member
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    [/quote]Do you think you the workouts stressed you out at all?[/quote]

    I felt the opposite with the workouts, it help me relaxed. Since I work out early in the morning it kept me calm for the start of the day.
    Did it cause stress, I think in the end i was to focused on the end result. My current plateau keeps hitting me at the 150 pound mark. I get discouraged, and give up.

    So when i get back to the 150 mark is when i will really need help, encouragement from the myfitnesspal community.

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