Emotional eating and constantly hungry

Everyone is different some eat when stressed others don’t. I find by taking photos of yourself just for yourself not for anybody else just helps you see where you were at the start of the journey took a long time to gain the weight will take time and persistence to continue not every day or week is going to be a good one. The pictures every 4 weeks will allow you to see the difference of all your efforts. Having a minimum of 3litres of water a day keeps you full. Keep going and do not skip your meals even if you are not hungry every 2-3 hours this way your not overeating and prepare your meals and snacks in advance. All the best

I don't know if I deal with this in the healthiest way but I'm on a medication that makes me hungry all the time and when I'm emotional it's harder to fight. One suggestion is journaling to get to the root of your feelings. Another is working out, even going for a walk or light stretching to stop thinking of food. I find I'm less hungry after I use my exercise bike though I know that's not the case for everyone. When I'm having bad cravings I stick to eating at certain times. It's easier to hold out for a specific meal even if I'm looking at the clock. I'll stick in a snack if needed. I'll also cut back completely on higher carb higher sugar foods and stick with protein and a lot of non starchy vegetables for meals. Even oatmeal is something I'll overeat when really bad. Good luck!

Honeyacid wrote: »

For the last few weeks, I just haven't felt like I've been entirely here mentally. Ive been having waves of feeling extremely sad and extremely angry for literally no reason. I have no motivation to do anything, and its been reflecting on my diet. And for the past few days I've been really really overeating, and the results of it has been showing on my physic. I've also been very stressed out, even more so that I've been gaining. Because of this I've found that I'm constantly hungry. What should I do? Because at this point I'm thinking about giving up on loosing weight and maintaining it, because I know I'll probably continue failing...

Just to approach this from the perspective that our brains are also part of our bodies, so our bodies impact them, I'd say this.

First, are you getting enough nutrients, and enough base calories to support your body and mind right now? If you don't know, maybe take a few days worth of meals and look up this sort of thing online, calculate out what you have. If you are low on certain nutrients, it can really impact your mental health. For example, low iron seems to cause an increase in anger, in studies. Also, the hunger impulse is not JUST about calories. If you are low on nutrients, your body may push you to eat more as well and make you feel hungrier all the time. If you are too low on calories, you may feel hungry all the time and it, too, can impact emotional state - and this CAN be individual. What is okay for some may be too low in calories for others, so if you have a really low cal diet, maybe adding back some calories in general, for slower weight loss, might be worth exploring (I'd honestly check on nutrient levels first, though).

Another aspect of this - could you be pregnant? Could you be ill with something or are you physically recovering from any injuries? The body can need more resources during these times so if you are on a low cal diet, it might not be enough to support your needs, you know?

Second, has your diet changed sometime before you started really having these waves of anger and sadness?

For some folks, mild food allergies and/or food intolerances can cause emotional symptoms as part of the issue. Other things can sometimes be more fatigue, a little more congestion, a little stomach rumbles...or sometimes it's the first and main sign of the problem. My son, for example, was basically like a little satan child when he had dairy. No allergy, but on dairy, things happened like, for example, an hour long screaming tantrum that wore him out so much he passed out, then woke up and CONTINUED screaming for another hour. :-/ I have this issue with corn. And one thing that you said that really resonated was the 'for literally no reason.' There's nothing goin on in life, or in the moment, that would cause the emotion, but bam, it hits out of nowhere anyway. Very weird, and also really hard to deal with and upsetting.

Sometimes, for people where this happens to be the issue, it's just something that triggered, and a food journal that tracks what you eat, and your emotional jumps, can help. Sometimes, people change diets and start eating a lot more of a certain food and so start noticing there's a problem more, so if you added more of something to your diet a little before this happened, that might be worth exploring to see if eating less might help.


Third, do you have any family history of auto-immune disorders? Or of stomach issues? If you have family members with auto-immune disorders, you are at a higher risk of them triggering. And they can trigger at any age, for most of them - some, like celiac disease, impact your nutrient levels and state of hunger. With that family history, it might be worth it to get checked at a doc, get tested for celiac disease or general issues, you know?

And lastly - hugs, hon. I'm so sorry it's been so hard on you lately. Honestly, rather than just give up entirely, maybe you could try to find a maintenance level of eating and try that? It might help you feel like at least you are not gaining, but can practice paying attention to calories, but also help you see if, at maintenance (so, you not gaining or losing, as opposed to some arbitrary standard, you know?), you are STILL hungry. Because if you are, that's a good indication that there's something else going on and you should probably try to investigate a medical cause.

Good luck, hon.

Just try and maintain your weight. Sounds like losing weight is too much atm. And see a counsellor