EMOTIONAL EATING

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Using food to soothe myself

Grapejuice2015
Grapejuice2015 Posts: 14
edited November 10 in Social Groups
I'm new to MFP and lost my first 2lbs this week logging. I need friends to support and who are supportive. Emotional eating is a big problem of mine. In fact, if I didn't emotionally eat, I probably wouldn't have a weight problem. I turn often to food to soothe myself from emotions. I would like to find other ways that aren't fattening, but I haven't found anything so far that works as good as food. I think it's all from being given a cookie to stop crying as a child. Haha. Please add me as a friend.

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  • hunkydorie
    hunkydorie Posts: 1
    Hi grapejuice 2015.., I just got back to logging on fitness pal this week. I went gang busters for six months and list 27 pounds. I've gotten five back since thanksgiving. I've got a terrible habit of letting my emotions drive my eating habits. I hold it together all day in a stressful job... Eating what I planned and packed for myself, only to come home and flip out all evening shoving junk in my face. Would you like to be friends me try to help each other out? I haven't tried connecting with anyone before. I think it might be worth a try!
  • TriciannT
    TriciannT Posts: 58 Member
    I am no longer challenged at work and started emotional eating out if boredom. It makes me crazy as I never wld have thought this wld happen. I am preparing an exit as I can't be like this any more.
  • Pabs70
    Pabs70 Posts: 5 Member
    Hi there...I have the same problem. Eating junk food/ice cream etc just because I want to soothe negative emotions, loneliness, not dealing with negative feelings, isolation, boredom. ..feel free to add me as friend. Let's support each other and learn how to deal with this bad habit.
  • djhnd
    djhnd Posts: 89 Member
    GJ, I think everyone in this group has a similar experience to you. Emotional eating IS eating to soothe oneself. It's self-medicating, for whatever - anger, anxiety, frustration, boredom, sex - whatever! People like me eat to avoid feeling whatever is going on. You are not alone! Lots of us here in this group, and all around you, I'm sure :smiley:
  • jdarcy6870
    jdarcy6870 Posts: 11
    I am an emotional eater as well. I have discovered that I stuff my feelings instead of feeling them. I am working on feeling my emotions, which is not always easy for me. However, my feelings hurt for the moment and then they dissipate. I think it is important to understand why you eat emotionally. My counselor has really helped me understand this better, now the next step is applying what I have learned.
  • Veggie_mama
    Veggie_mama Posts: 77 Member
    I'm in the same boat as everyone here. I also believe that if I weren't an emotional eater, I wouldn't have a weight problem either. I was always rewarded as a child with food and praise. I still fall back on that sometimes when I do something that I've worked for, but I know I shouldn't do that. I was at my smallest weight wise, in 2006-2007. Since then, I've gotten married, 2 pregnancies, changed jobs 3 times, moved into a home and been through at least 3 deaths in the family. Not trying to excuse my poor eating, just more of a "map" of what's been going on. I always swallow back what I feel and usually don't speak up, and when I do this, it lets others walk all over me. I know I could use some serious psychotherapy, but that's a topic for another site and another time. :)
    If anyone needs an ear, a shoulder, or just someone to vent to, I'm here. :smile:
  • kdwalker50
    kdwalker50 Posts: 2
    I am new to MFP. I ve never been in a chat room, so I want to be appropriate. I too have had had many of life's challenges, as we all do. However, since 2008 after injuring my knee which meant no more 5 mile daily walks for a while, I have certainly become an emotional eater, which was new to me in 2008. The conversation I have with myself is 'just do it' - do that work out, relieve that stress and your emotional eating should lessen, right? But I keep procrastinating. I know I will feel so much better all around. So I am going to stop using my 'emotional challenges as an excuse (for me) not for everyone. Tomorrow will be the day of logging food and starting a 3-day exercise program. Wish me luck.
  • kdwalker50
    kdwalker50 Posts: 2
    I find that exercising is my best medicine. I just have to get on the treadmill and use my other equipment - I feel so much better and it does help with emotional eating, for me anyway.
  • djhnd
    djhnd Posts: 89 Member
    Grape Juice and anyone else on this thread - I just read something today about how an extract of saffron (the spice) was in a study and helped some women snack less. I guess it's a bit of an appetite normalizer. It seems to be a natural anti-depressant too, maybe that's why it helps with appetite. One of the drugs in the old FenPhen mixture is an antidepressant, too.

    Might be worth a try for some.
  • Kirstie155
    Kirstie155 Posts: 1,001 Member
    [quote="hunkydorie;30956986"I hold it together all day in a stressful job... Eating what I planned and packed for myself, only to come home and flip out all evening shoving junk in my face. Would you like to be friends me try to help each other out? I haven't tried connecting with anyone before. I think it might be worth a try![/quote]

    This is what I do, this is why I'm fat. My job isn't that stressful, but I'm good most of the time all day until I get home. I have a few scenarios that might happen:
    The worst scenario:
    I'm alone for an hour and a half as soon as I get home, and sometimes walk straight to the fridge and start eating the moment I get there. Dog needs a walk? I need a snack first. Change out of work clothes? After this snack.
    Cold leftovers, chips, chunks of cheese, whatever. Tons of calories that aren't logged, preplanned or thought out in anyway. I just. cant. stop. I then eat dinner later, and I am not hungry. On a really bad binge day I will eat until I am sick on my "snack."

    I don't do this everyday, another scenario is that I walk the dog, change my clothes (you know, don't go STRAIGHT for the fridge) but then after I make dinner or heat up leftovers. I graze while the microwave is going, while I'm cooking. Calories while I'm waiting to eat-these calories aren't planned, logged or weighed.

    This is the behavior that I do when I am not active in MFP. I've been back and logging for 10 straight days now. Being here helps a lot, but starting back up again after a break can make it all come back full force and when I realize that I have gone overboard and try to log the binges I get really down on myself.
    I am trying to get better about all of this, but there is an unconscious thing about eating when I'm alone that I really am trying to get a grip on. I have an eating disorder. There, I said it.


  • estitom
    estitom Posts: 205 Member
    I've struggled with this a lot (and still do on some days), with several eating disorder diagnoses... No matter how severe the emotional eating is, the problem is (almost always) the lack of coping mechanism. Everyone need something, whether it's an activity, a person or a place, to help them cope with problems. It's also important to learn how to tackle problems right away and not avoid them - a problem everyone struggle with at times.
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