Emotional Eating: What It Means and 4 Ways to Overcome It
Key takeaways:
Emotional eating is eating in response to emotions instead of physical hunger.
Emotional eating can be normal and natural. But in excess, it can lead to weight gain, a negative body image, and disordered eating habits.
Understanding the difference between emotional and physical hunger, recognizing your triggers, and developing ways to cope with your emotions can help you develop a healthier relationship with food.
If you’ve ever reached for food to help you feel better or celebrated an event by going out for dessert, you’ve experienced emotional eating. Emotional eating is something we all do at some point in our lives. And in many ways, it is a natural and normal form of comfort and pleasure. But for some people, it can become a way to avoid or ignore their emotions — and be a significant source of distress.
Learn more about what emotional eating is, how to recognize it, and how to deal with it so it doesn’t harm your health.
What is emotional eating?
Emotional eating is eating in response to emotions instead of to satisfy hunger.
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Food is a source of pleasure and comfort, so it makes sense that you would turn to it to make yourself feel better. Some people have particular foods they are more likely to eat when they become emotional, such as those that are sugary and salty. Eating these foods is OK in moderation, but people who emotionally eat can sometimes eat larger portions than they want to.
Emotional eating is more common in women than in men, but it affects everyone from time to time.
Why does emotional eating happen?
Most of us are faced with many emotions. And there are many different ways our bodies can cope with and protect us from difficult emotions. Eating is one of them. This makes sense given that we learn as babies that food is a source of comfort and naturally relaxes our nervous system.
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Common causes of emotional eating include:
Negative emotions, including stress, boredom, and depression
Positive emotions like joy or celebration
Not getting enough sleep
Frequent dieting
How can I stop emotional eating?
Emotional eating does not need to be stopped altogether. It can be a normal human response from time to time. But if you feel emotional eating has become an unhealthy habit for you, there are strategies that can help you reduce it. Here are four steps to help you.
1. Understand the difference between emotional hunger and physical hunger
Emotional hunger is easily confused with physical hunger. Many times, they can feel the same. The table below breaks down the differences.
Physical hunger | Emotional hunger |
Develops slowly | Comes on quickly |
Able to be satisfied from a variety of foods | Often only satisfied with specific food cravings, or may not be satisfied with food at all |
Occurs as a result of hunger cues | Occurs in response to emotions |
Able to stop eating when full | Likely to eat past fullness |
Usually results in feelings of satisfaction after eating | Can sometimes result in feelings of guilt or shame after eating |
Experienced multiple times per day | May come and go based on your mood and the events of the day |
2. Recognize your triggers
Begin to ask yourself why you are emotionally eating to help gain awareness of your triggers. For example, a common trigger for emotional eating is, unsurprisingly, negative emotions. Ask yourself if your body is hungry or if you are feeling especially sad or angry and crave food as a way to cope.
Another common trigger is feeling bored and using eating as external stimulation. Try to find out what is triggering to you, and take action as needed.
3. Explore ways to cope with intense emotions
It is important to have other coping mechanisms to deal with emotions — ones that don’t always involve food. Then you’ll have multiple options that you can choose from when you have an intense or difficult emotion.
Ideas for healthy coping mechanisms include:
Journaling
Exercising
Meditating
Reading
Listening to enjoyable music
Going for a walk
Being in nature
Immersing yourself in a non-food-related hobby — like a puzzle or knitting
Practicing acts of kindness, like helping others
Seeking support from loved ones or a mental health professional
The more often you practice these, the more natural they will become. In time you may be less likely to turn to food to cope.
4. Be mindful of what you eat
Research has shown that mindfulness-based approaches to eating may help reduce your tendency to emotionally eat.
Mindful eating, an important component of the broader philosophy of intuitive eating, involves:
Slowing down and being present while eating
Paying attention to your food and using your senses to notice its flavor, texture, color, appearance, and smell
Checking in with yourself while eating to see how your hunger and fullness levels are
Becoming more mindful of what you eat can also help you:
Let go of any rules you may have created around food
Increase satisfaction with eating
Gain respect for your body
Deal with your emotions in a healthy way
Is emotional eating bad?
It depends. Emotional eating is normal and OK to occasionally use food to help you feel better or serve as a reward. However, emotional eating can become a problem if it is used repeatedly to avoid feeling emotions.
Eating in response to emotions may make you feel better in the short term, but it can get in the way of understanding the root cause of whatever you are feeling. You may feel worse in the long run and be more tempted to emotionally eat as a result, which can create an unhelpful cycle.
Some of the negative consequences of excessive emotional eating include:
Feelings of guilt or shame from eating
Negative body image
Losing touch with your hunger and fullness cues
Disordered eating habits like binge eating, food restriction, and an overall unhealthy relationship with food
Eating disorders
If you find it difficult to work through emotional eating, you can also consider talking with a mental health professional, such as a therapist. They can help you work through your emotions and develop healthy ways to deal with them that are unique to you.
The bottom line
Emotional eating happens to all of us. And it is not always unhealthy. But recognizing your triggers and finding healthy ways to cope with your emotions can help you avoid the harmful effects of too much emotional eating. Remember to be kind to yourself and practice positive self-talk as you explore your relationship with food and emotional eating.
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References
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Thompson, S.H. et al. (2015). Gender and racial differences in emotional eating, food addiction symptoms, and body weight satisfaction among undergraduates. Journal of Diabetes and Obesity.
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