Controlling Emotional Eating!!! - Anyone have any good tips?

I assume if you're here, then you're already getting into the habit of logging everything you eat. But I think if you're trying to kick an emotional eating habit, you also have to log how you're feeling when you eat it. (I wish MFP had a comments column for this in our individual food logs). It seems like sort of a tedious exercise to track emotions in addition to food, but it will help you learn to identify the connections between the two, and sometimes even whole patterns.

If you eat in response to stress, in particular, maybe track your stress level on a 1-10 scale and log it when you log your food. But if, like me, you eat in response to stress, boredom, loneliness, anxiety, anger, etc... then it's better to take more elaborate notes. So before you eat a snack or a meal, ask yourself: "Am I hungry?" and "How am I feeling right now?".

Also, when you're feeling strong emotions that make you want to eat, it's useful to have a list of alternatives to eating. My list includes stretching, squeezing an ice cube, taking a walk, crying, calling my sister or, if I'm at work or out in public or something, ducking into a bathroom for an internal dialog to talk myself through what I'm feeling and why.

One matra I find useful is "If hunger is not the problem, then food is not the answer."

Good luck!

I can tell you that the only thing that will work is addressing the cause, not the symptoms. Try to figure out why you're doing this and address that. The eating will fix itself once you fix what is causing the distress in the first place.

I'm also an emotional eater. When I started this journey in November, it was hard. REALLY hard to break myself of eating when I was bored or stressed or upset. Then I realized that food doesn't love me like I love food. It doesn't care if I'm upset, stressed, or bored. It has zero emotional investment in my body and I have a huge emotional investment in my body. And despite everything, what it came down to was that I had gained weight because I had willingly put food into my mouth. That means, I can willingly NOT put food into my mouth.

I started paying attention to myself a bit more and began to recognize when I was hungry because I needed fuel and when I was looking for a snack because I was bored. Working out made me hungry; sitting around made me bored. So I decided to make a list of things to do when I was bored. Vacuum, laundry, clean bird cages-anything to move my butt and forget the snack. I starting drinking a glass of water when I felt snacky. I cut up cucumbers and made little baggies of that or frozen grapes to grab if I couldn't resist the urge.

Then something crazy happened. I was bored one day and didn't want anything to snack on. I wanted to work out, I wanted to clean windows, but a snack never occurred to me.

So my advice is to break up with food and find something you really enjoy to take its place. Use food for fuel to keep you strong enough to do the fun thing you've started doing. Take a class, write a book, learn to swim--anything you have ever wanted to do.

You can do this!

Thank you for posting this topic, and thanks to everyone for your suggestions!

I have come to realize this year, that I am a "stuffer". I don't like dealing with emotions like anger, jealousy, etc. So, instead of verbalizing what I feel, I eat. I put in my mouth what I won't let come out verbally....

My emotional eating often used to, and sometimes still does, happen through fast food. If I was having a bad day, feeling down in the dumps, or just feeling too exhausted to go home and cook, I would hit the drive-thru. My advice, and something that I'm working on myself, is to make better choices if you do have to get take-out or fast food. At Wendy's, for example, I order a grilled chicken sandwich with a plain baked potato or salad as the side. If it helps, if you know you are going to pick food up, check the nutritional information first - know exactly what you plan to order ahead of time and stick to the plan. This has helped me on days where I lack motivation to cook or do anything really.

This is hard. I have struggled myself for years. I have found something that helps me is to chew gum if I want to eat out of boredom or emotional issues. I also second having healthy snacks and keeping treats out of the house.

I AGREE! Trident is my savior!

Celery. Celery is GREAT for emotional eating because it's crunchy like a snack and quite low in calories. A whole bag in the UK is about 50 calories - apparently it takes more calories to digest celery than to eat it (That doesn't mean you shouldn't log it!).

So yeah - what I sometimes do is have it around so I can have a light snack. With hummus it's even nicer! Beetroot hummus since it's also low in calories.

I also had to identify my trigger food - for me it is Peanut Butter. I was eating it for all the wrong reasons and absolutely not for any nutritional value. So, I don't eat it anymore. At all. In its place, I' started breathing exercises with deep breathing. I count as high as I need to (using slow/controlled breathing) until the urge to eat passes.

Not gonna lie - when I first started this I could count REALLY high. I removed my trigger food on 12/1/2013 and almost three months later I barely give it a second thought.

This is hard. I have struggled myself for years. I have found something that helps me is to chew gum if I want to eat out of boredom or emotional issues. I also second having healthy snacks and keeping treats out of the house.

This is what I just heard of trying instead and so far (this week haha) it has been helping. When i feel like i want to grab something I shouldn't out of emotion I pop gum. I love trident but am trying out some of the Dessert flavors of Extra so I get that "dessert" taste without eating it.

Loving everyones suggestions too, so many of us suffer with this.

I have struggled, and still do struggle. It isn't a daily struggle, but more of a minute by minute struggle. I have been through so much therapy I could write a book about it. When I was single living alone, I would hide food in my own house even though no one would ever know. I now do the same but hide from my husband. Turns out, I grew up in a family who knew about my eating disorder and the hiding but would never talk about it. Now, so my husband is that way too with me. I'm struggling and keeping my journal as honest as I can be.

I agree that determining the REASON for it is going to be very helpful, but that takes time so while you are working on figuring that out, you can work to control or change the habits, or the symptoms if you will.

In my opinion, the first thing is to be honest with what you are eating, and track every single bite, sip, gulp, binge. It sucks. I won't lie. But when you see the damage in a tracker, it opens your eyes. Second, when you are grocery shopping, take a friend with you who will kindly help you stay on your list. MAKE THE LIST. You don't want someone who is going to make you feel bad for wanting to make that bad choice, but you want that one friend, or family member to help you be mindful of the change you are seeking. For me, it was my Dad. And he was my worst influencer but once I told him I needed to change he then stopped trying to be my saboteur.

Determine your trigger events, situations, foods. Write it down anywhere you can. Keep your goals visible to you in your house, your desk, car. Anywhere you are, put a reminder. I put up a stop sign for me to remember to STOP and think before I eat. I also put a picture of me on my wedding day on my refrigerator as a reminder of what I looked like, reminding me of how I felt.

Gum chewing for me doesn't work because all I do is eat the entire pack at one sitting. I have an addictive personality and clearly have no control over anything I attempt to eat that has ANY kind of sugar so I stay away from it now. I also realized I was using food for the personality flaw of my need for instant gratification. Food instantly comforts, where as calling a friend doesn't always do that....

I sure hope this helped even a little. Feel free to message me or friend me if you want. I know how much it hurts to realize the "OH #X#X! what did I do".

I emotionally eat. Hardcore. I found other outlets for my emotions and most of the time they work. I use comedy and writing to vent my frustration so I don't go bananas and eat. Another option is I personally use Overeaters Anonymous. They have online forums of you don't feel like walking in.

Sometimes you don't gain control until after the destruction is done and all you can do it get up, brush off the crumbs and keep on trucking. You are only human and some things are a little overwhelming.


Keeping a journal helps, it assists you in pinpointing when you go for the kill ( hit the kitchen up for the goodies) and what led you to it. It may take a long time for you to figure out your trigger foods, situations and how to keep things in balance so no one dies...with a spork to the forehead.

Emotional eating is a pain in the assets. If you need a laugh or two add me as a friend. We can laugh it off, or cry. Either one burns calories

I struggle too -seriously I have just spent october til yesterday over eating and gained 14lbs! Today is day 2 of no binge eating/emotional eating and Im going to stick to it. What im doing is intermittent fasting - eating between 12pm and 8pm and thats helping alot. I used to eat this way before I slipped up so I know it helps me. I let myself know I can have the "bad" food but I need to wait for my meal times and not snack. Knowing I can have some biscuits or pasta is great and then I dont go crazy and over eat on them. Im also trying to use my treadmill as a new source to vent out any emotions. I hope you do well and get back on track x