Have you ever wonder how you can manage your stress, lose weight, and create a healthier relationship with food? When we are feeling stressed and overwhelmed, it’s easier to overeat and indulge in our favorite foods as a source of comfort to force our feelings aside and simply enjoy the pleasure of eating. Indulging in eating to take your thoughts away from things that are bothering you may feel good in the moment, but afterwards, you may find yourself to have overeaten and feel regretful. Even worse, the thing that was stressing you out in the first place has not gone away. Then you’re left both with the stress and the weight.
But why can emotional eating result in overeating? In an article published in the Journal of Eating Disorders, Mallory Frayn, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at McGill University, found that there are correlations between emotional eating and having less awareness of cues that signal hunger or fullness in our body, which can lead to weight gain.
Rather than turning to food, a better way to cope with stress is to deal with the source of the stressor itself. Here are some ways we can help ourselves lose the stress and lose the weight:
Identify your Stressors
It can be hard to face the things that are bothering you. But by identifying or even writing a list of the sources of your negative emotions and stress, it will be easier for you to make a plan and carry it out so that your feelings don’t bottle up, intensify, and manifest itself into emotional eating.
Check in with Yourself
Take a couple minutes in your day to focus on yourself. Notice how you are feeling. Notice how stressors in your life and your feelings about those stressors affect your relationship with food. Before you eat, ask yourself if you are actually hungry. While you are eating, observe how easy or difficult it is to recognize when you are no longer hungry. Notice the moment you are aware of feeling full. These small daily steps can foster more self-awareness in your relationship with food and bring you closer to your weight loss goals.
Move your Body
A healthier way to cope with stress is to get up and move around. Studies have shown that physical activity decreases negative emotions that can cause you to engage in emotional eating. Taking a walk outside, stretching, biking, and other ways of being active can not only help clear your thoughts, but help you lose weight too!
Make Time for Activities you Enjoy
A great way to relax after a hard day’s work is to do something you enjoy. Whether it’s painting, hiking, or spending time with close friends, it can help you feel less overwhelmed and more in touch with yourself.
It’s also important to mention that because we may have less awareness of our hunger cues when we’re stressed, we can also experience the opposite extreme where we may lose our appetite and not feel like eating at all. But that’s not healthy either. By identifying and tackling the sources of our stress and negative emotions and becoming more aware of our eating habits, we can save ourselves from overeating or not eating enough, work toward our desired weight, and ultimately lead a more stress-free, healthy life.
Source:
Frayn, M., Livshits, S., & Knäuper, B. (2018). Emotional eating and weight regulation: a qualitative study of compensatory behaviors and concerns. Journal of eating disorders, 6, 23. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-018-0210
Kay Loughrey, MPH, RDN, LDN
Transformational Speaker, Breakthrough Coach, Nutritionist-Dietitian