The Problem With Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can become a problem, as if you feel that you are unable to control your emotions and use food to comfort yourself, then weight gain is a possibility. It is extremely difficult to stop yourself from gorging on all the foods you know you shouldn't when you are depressed or angry, because you know how good food tastes as well as the positive feelings eating it gives you. Although you may later experience shame and regret, when you're eating you try to push any negative thoughts out of your head.

Unfortunately, you can't ignore the fact you have just consumed a day's worth of calories in one sitting and you end up feeling rather down and frustrated with yourself. You may want to be one of those people for whom weight management is not a problem, but until you learn to control your eating and break the association between eating and feeling better about yourself, albeit temporarily, you will struggle to control your weight.

Although there are some people who eat when they are happy and upbeat, as well as depressed, for many it is negative emotions which cause them to seek comfort in food. It is therefore important to find a way to deal with negative emotions without always turning to food, especially when you know that you will only feel worse about the situation. If you start putting on weight and feel as though you are unable to stop, of course you're going to feel bad and you end up trapped in a cycle of eating to feel better, gaining weight and feeling worse so that once again you turn to food.

This is obviously a situation you do not want to find yourself in, particularly since being overweight can undermine your self-esteem further and make it very difficult for you to remain positive. You therefore need to gain control of your weight, before the issue of weight comes to dominate your life. You have to learn to find ways to cope with stress, sadness and frustration without always turning to food. This may require you to develop relaxation techniques or take up a sport that will get you out of the house and give you an opportunity to socialise.

Indeed, it is important to interact with other people, so that you know you're not alone. There are plenty of other people struggling with their weight and who use food as a source of comfort. However, you don't want the situation to spiral out of control, which is why you have to try to get a grip on your emotional issues and stop relying on food to make yourself feel better when you know that in actual fact it will only exacerbate your problems and leave you feeling worse about everything.