8 Signs of Emotional Eating

By Shelia Viers, Experience Life

“Emotional eating” refers to eating large quantities of food (usually comfort foods) due to feelings rather than hunger.

On occasion, this can be in response to feelings of happiness (i.e. when celebrating) but most often emotional eating is triggered by feelings of stress, boredom, anger, sadness, loneliness, anger, resentment, and anxiety.

Here are my top 8 ways to know if you are an emotional eater:

You feel stressed about a particular issue or something going on in your life but instead of dealing with it directly, you delay by heading off to find your favorite snack food.
You find that you eat larger portions and/or foods that you believe are “naughty” when you are alone.
You get cravings that feel out of control — you literally can’t think of anything else until you eat what you are craving.
You eat until you feel stuffed often.
You aren’t hungry enough to eat an apple, but you are definitely interested in diving into your favorite treat.
You feel guilty about or ashamed of your eating habits and of blowing your healthy eating plan once again.
When you do something good, you celebrate with a food related treat because you feel like you deserve it.
You turn to foods or beverages when you feel fatigued and need energy.

If you can relate to any of these, you are an emotional eater. Before, you feel despair… keep reading. Emotional eating is not necessarily a bad thing.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Val M.

2:33AM PDT on Mar 21, 2013

Thanks

March 21
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William B.

12:49AM PST on Feb 22, 2013

I can certainly relate to this article.

Thank you for sharing.

February 22
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Brian M.

10:56AM PST on Feb 21, 2013

Food is my primary drug of choice for all of my emotional issues.

February 21
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Debbie C.

2:43AM PDT on Apr 7, 2012

Oh my gosh... This article has so many truths to it.

My problem is that I will eat a couple of cookies and that is not what I want. So, I will try something else. And that too won't be what I want. After I try 3 things, then I quit looking!!!

April 7
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3:27PM PDT on Mar 14, 2012

Useful information.

March 14
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Alison A.

6:01AM PDT on Mar 14, 2012

Thanks for posting.

Vera C.

2:32PM PDT on Mar 13, 2012

Thanks for the interesting article... And for the comments, too! I was especially touched by those posted by Ellen M., Artist L. and Ruth P.
I think there is nothing wrong with resorting to some chocolate for a boost in strength and goodhumour, when needed. Actually I feel the main thing is to keep food a means (for celebrating, telling someone - including yourself - you care, recovering strength quickly, or even just enojoying life...) and never make it an end, not even a negative one.