What is Emotional Overeating and How To Stop It?

As the title says, emotional eating is the act of eating mindlessly citing emotional problems at the core of overeating rather than real physical hunger. Sadly, emotional eating has turned out to be the biggest problem for weight gainers around the world. If emotional overeating was your problem in the past or it still is, then read the following strategies to help you overcome them.

1. Pleasure Eating

Sometimes people eat because they do not know of other ways to make them feel happy. They overeat to forget their painful circumstances or the stress of handling life’s problems. Eating gives them a sense of pleasure and temporary relief from the more troubling situations of life.

You should realize that this is not the ideal way of dealing with problems. Overeating will only cause serious health problems later on. Find other ways to make yourself feel good.

It is imperative to say ‘no’ to overeating. Take time out for yourself when feelings stressed or indulge in hobbies but do not overeat to forget your sorrows. It does not help!

Amazingly, when you take the reign in your hands to make yourself happy, the urge for emotional overeating automatically subsides.

2. Overeating Due to Stress

Stress is a plague in modern lifestyle. There are countless stories of people overeating to calm their nerves and sadly, if you are among them, you are a stress eater. Though we tackle with stress daily, only a handful of us are aware of the techniques to manage stress successfully.

There are no formulas for dealing with stress. It takes a little bit of time and devotion to manage stress. Change your habits to a more positive one and you will see the difference in your life.

How to tackle stress:

- reduce your work pressure in the current job; if not possible, then switch jobs

- hire domestic help for household chores

- devote time to yourself, most importantly

Stress has become an integral part of our life. Rather than trying to eliminate it, make some changes or adjustments in your lifestyle and then you can focus more positively in managing stress.

Research other ways of dealing with stress. The more you learn to relax and let go, its better for you.

3. The Eating Competition / Race

Often we tend to overeat because others are eating the same thing! Its called the “I don’t want to left out” syndrome – apply this on other aspects of life like career but not regarding food.

We feel that if others are eating a particular cuisine and we are not, we feel left out and think that opportunity to have this won’t come again. Thus to maximize on the situation, we eat to our fill even though you might not have been hungry at all!

There should not be rush for eating or it is not compulsory to eat wherever you are. If you are at home, keep the food in refrigerator for later or if you are at party, you can bring a ‘doggy bag’ for later.

Food is not running away anywhere. You have your entire life to enjoy variety of cuisines rather than hog in on any opportunity when sumptuous dishes are in front! Give a break! Control your emotional overeating impulses and you will just be fine!

Apart from these, there are other possible reasons for overeating. Think about them and look for remedial measures or combating strategies. To change old overeating habits, you should have the determination!

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