Help To Stop Comfort Eating

Comfort eating is another form of emotional eating. As the name suggests, we are eating in response to our feelings of a need to be comforted and a desire to feel better in ourselves rather than actual physical hunger.

This desire for comfort can result from a variety of triggers – depression, worry, loneliness, stress, anxiety, low self esteem and unhappiness are a few examples. Depression related eating and anxiety triggered eating are the two most commonly cited reasons for overeating and comfort eating.

All of these triggers are becoming more common in the hectic lifestyles we all lead today. Unfortunately, comfort eating very often undermines the best intentions of every dieter.

Experts have suggested that 75% of all overeating is due to our emotions, because we have learnt that food can bring us comfort, at least in the short term. We therefore turn to food to heal our emotional problems rather than dealing with and managing our lives with more appropriate techniques.

Situations and emotions that can trigger us to comfort eat generally fall into 5 categories:-

Social – when we eat as a way of fitting in, from feelings of inadequacy around others, or nervousness perhaps.

Emotional – when we eat to fill a void, or in response to how we are feeling – bored, tired, stressed, or anxious.

Situational – eating because the opportunity is there-bingeing.

Thought – Eating because of negative self worth.

Physiological – eating in response to physical cues or routines. Increased hunger because of a skipped meal or to cure a headache for example.

Identifying what triggers you to comfort eat is an important step in taking control of your relationship with food and curing the problem of comfort eating. You may be able to identify the stressors, thoughts or emotions which are linked to your need for comfort foods and also identify patterns to your eating.

Eating in response to your emotions will also have become a habit. So developing alternatives to eating when you reach out for your comfort food is very useful. It helps to break the habit which has formed and goes along way towards ensuring that you lose weight permanently and avoid falling into the trap of eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa.

You can learn more by registering your email address for a free copy of 'The Emotional Eater's Guide to Achieving Permanent Weight Loss' on our home page.