Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions. If you are planning to loose weight and keep it off this type of behaviour can wreak havoc to your results and success. Usually emotional eating is a symptom of an underlying cause that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately many people will turn to food as a way of seeking quick satisfaction, comfort or a sense of ‘ fulfilment’ in times of emotional distress.
Some of the common underlying causes to emotional eating include;
Depression, anxiety, boredom, loneliness, chronic anger, anxiety, frustration, stress, problems with interpersonal relationships, and poor self-esteem can result in overeating and unwanted weight gain.
The key to solving this problem is to identify what the underlying causes and triggers are. It is important to work on two main aspects here.
1. Think of a different “healthier” behaviour to engage in when you experience the trigger to food. Maybe its calling a friend, taking a bath, going for a walk with the dog or exercising, reading, or meditating. The key here is that it needs to be something you will enjoy and release some of the stress created by the trigger.
2. Seek help or use a technique to resolve and release the emotions caused by your triggers. My personal favourite is NET as it provides quick and effective lasting changes to these emotional triggers. Other therapies that may help are counselling, the Sedona Method, EFT, Kinesiology and CBT.
An NET Example From A Real Patient;
A recent patient wanted to loose 10kg but despite exercising regularly and eating well found that whenever she encountered issues that created stress in her life she would become overwhelmed by the desire to engage in “bad choices.” She said, “It doesn’t matter, I’ll go for the chocolate, the soft drink, the chips - and I don’t even like chips!”
So although she was really excited and committed to her goal, so was unable to shift this occasional but irritating compulsion. It was having a significant impact on her progress.
What we uncovered was that her motivation for loosing the weight was due to the belief that “changing my body image could mean I will not be liked by others.” Of course she thought this was a silly belief to have but on an emotional level she knew it to be true. It had resulted in a significant loss to her happiness and confidence creating a significant amount of stress through many years of her life.
After using the NET technique to help identify a possible original time that this belief began she recalled at age 10 her relationship with her father changed significantly. She remembered that for some reason she didn’t feel he loved her anymore. Later, she found out that he was troubled by the fact she was going through puberty and didn’t feel comfortable treating her as that little girl anymore and lost his ability to relate with her, driving him towards withdrawl.
So although on the surface the goal to loose weight and live a more healthy lifestyle seemed admirable unconsciously there was a negatively framed belief.
The NET process helped her to reassess her belief and the emotion driving that behaviour. Consequently she was able to reaffirm a new belief that “it is ok to be happy irrespective of my body image” which allowed her goal of loosing 10kg to become a choice rather than a necessity. I’m happy to say she is well on the way to achieving that goal now!
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Action!
A good first step in tackling this problem is to keep a diary with your patterns of emotional eating and what triggered it - do this over 2 weeks to a month and you should be able to identify your triggers!
By Dr Mark Symonds (BChiroSc, MChiro, C.C.W.P)