“Grandma had a rule – don’t leave the table until you’re done”: 3 personal stories on how to deal with emotional overeating

Emotional eating is a hook that is very easy to bleed. What do we do most often when we are sad or worried? That’s right, we’re starting to take over the emotions. This stereotypical behavior is also conveyed to us in the movies – when a girl breaks up with a guy, the first thing she pulls out of the fridge is a bucket of ice cream. It’s okay if these are one-off stories, but when overeating becomes a habit it’s harder to deal with.

According to statistics, between 2% and 5% of people in the world suffer from emotional overeating, and in general, about 9% of the world’s population suffers from eating disorders. At the same time, the disease is most often diagnosed in women and adolescent girls, while men enter the statistics much less often.

Emotional overeating is not as much a physical addiction as it is a psychological addiction, so you need to work with it both ways. An expert in dietetics and a Gestalt therapist will tell you how to do this. And we will hear firsthand stories of people who have already overcome addiction.

Our experts

Artem Verisdietitian, Product manager at FITKIT – sugar free protein dessert manufacturer.

Victoria MukhaA Gestalt therapist specializing in eating disorders.

Emotional eating…

The way to deal with negative emotions is through food. It can be intense anger, anxiety, boredom, loneliness, or sadness. In a word, all these feelings that bother us. And I want to make up for this negativity with something nice. In such cases, we act not from hunger, but from discomfort, and this can lead to overeating.

Overeating is dangerous both psychologically and physiologically. Guilt often follows a meal for not being able to control an attack. This can increase anxiety – and as a result, the person eats even more. Regular malfunctions cause weight gain and can contribute to the development of comorbidities.

With persistent and pronounced seizures it is difficult to cope on your own, in which case you will need the help of a specialist: a dietitian, psychologist and / or psychiatrist. If you do not encounter such a problem often, there are special techniques that can help. But above all, it’s important to understand whether overeating is really related to emotions. Any overeating can have two causes: sometimes it’s not because we’re eating too much, but because we’re eating too little and not consuming enough macro and micronutrients. Then you need to rebalance.

How do I know if I’m emotionally overeating?

The answers to the following questions will help determine the propensity and degree of eating disorders.

Do you eat more than usual when stressed?

Do you eat when you’re not hungry?

Do you reward yourself with food?

– Do you feel lighter or guilty after eating dessert or fast food?

If the answer to at least one question is yes, then emotional overeating sounds familiar to you.

What will help in this situation?

There are many types and characteristics in the world of eating disorders (EDD), which includes emotional overeating. Sometimes the causes of problems should not be sought in one’s own life, but in family history – after all, it is difficult to adapt to a diet if in difficult historical times the ancestors almost starved.

step one

Try to understand what emotions you experience when you think about food, think about what else might give you the same feelings. Any eating disorder is primarily characterized by: emotional relationship with food when it becomes more than just a way to satisfy hunger with pleasure. Perhaps life lacks the security or acceptance of loved ones?

second step

Get some support from yourself. Often, binge eating is accompanied by a sharp sense of guilt, you scold yourself and promise that it will not happen again. Try not to, accept that it’s an attack and possibly necessary. Look for ways to make yourself happy other than food.

step three

Keep a food diary. Most often, the attack takes place in a semiconscious state, so it is important to analyze and write down everything that is eaten after it. Fix even the smallest snacks: a nut or cookie on the go counts too. It gives daily structure, regularity, support, and helps to cope with anxiety, which is the result of uncertainty and leads to binge eating attacks.

Kind reminder: Everyone, even an absolutely healthy person, experiences periods of binge eating. It’s reasonable to start worrying if binge eating episodes occur more than once a month for six months.

Three personal stories on how to deal with emotional eating

Sometimes there are situations in life that trigger the process of eating disorders and it takes a lot of willpower to deal with them on your own. Therefore, it is important to know that you are not alone with this problem.

Svetlana, 28 years old, ship propulsion systems design engineer

For a young man in 2020 from Moscow to St. I moved to Petersburg. He rented an apartment with his friends and the four of us stayed in a small kopeck. It was totally stressful – I gave up my favorite job, family, friends and everything to live in a shared flat.

One day, I realized that I was eating, even though I didn’t want to anymore, and I was stuffing this pizza inside me. I wasn’t weighed at the time, but by my calculations I gained about 35 kilos a year.. I got sick often, I quit sports, I didn’t move much, I didn’t like everything, but I continued to eat.

Weight gain has greatly affected my self-confidence: I stopped wanting to be beautiful, to feel like a woman in general, although I had always taken care of myself before that. I almost stopped seeing people, I shut myself off in this depression at home. My mother kept saying that I had gained a lot of weight, that I needed to lose weight urgently and that it was very bad for my health. We have always had an extremely warm relationship with him, and such a reaction hurt me. He didn’t realize he was making things worse.

In the end, I tore the ligaments in my leg due to loss of agility from the extra weight, and after that I just lay there staring at the wall. But recklessly I practically stopped eating – I no longer felt that way. And then it’s over – apparently I’ve reached my limit. Suddenly at the end of January last year I had strength, I again wanted to communicate with people, work, walk, be beautiful. And emotional overeating has left me.

Svetlana, 30 years old, producer

Overeating is a problem I’ve had since I was about five years old, when I started visiting my grandma at her cottage. He had a rule: Don’t leave the table until you’ve finished your meal.. So I got used to continuing to eat even if I overdo it.. Then I started stress-eating, consuming fast calories like chocolate and chips, I ate a lot. As soon as I woke up, the first thing I did was to have breakfast, even though I overeat at night and had stomach ache in the morning, and after an hour or two I started thinking about food again. Even though he had promised himself he wouldn’t do this, his self-hatred increased due to the fact that he still ate too much.

Emotional overeating affected self-esteem as well as figure, and I thought I could only be happy when I was thin. I ate seven kilos on vacation and my supervisor said I was quitting, he suggested I take care of myself. It just added to the stress.

Starting this summer, I’ve been working on ways to stop emotional overeating. I would ban certain products to myself and overeat with them. And now I allow myself what I want. For example, a small piece of chocolate is usually sufficient. I am learning to feel the signals of satiety, sometimes I drink a few glasses of water to determine if it is physical or emotional hunger. It’s not a perfect story yet, but I’m getting better already.

Tonya, 25 years old, PR manager

The problem of binge eating emerged in the seventh grade. I couldn’t be friends with my classmates and bought my favorite sweets with all my pocket money. The portions were huge, but when I was full, I felt better.

Now when I’m bored, I often overeat, I’m afraid to be alone with my thoughts right now and try to occupy myself with something, namely food. Another reason is stress. If I have a lot of new items and I don’t know how to deal with it, I need extra fuel. At the same time, I am constantly looking for new challenges for myself, I am constantly stressed.

Overeating does not affect my health, it only affects the figure. I try to eat right, sometimes I eat in small portions but with emotions and then I start blaming myself. This problem was severe until I went to a psychologist I had worked with for three years. I haven’t finished it yet, but now it’s easier for me to control myself and judge less, so there’s less impulsive overeating.