6 Tips to manage stress eating

6 Tips to manage stress eating

How To Stop Stress Eating

Have you ever experienced stress-eating also called emotional eating, if the answer is YES, then, the article is for you. Emotional eating can be fought when you know "how to stop stress eating" and other things related to it.


What Is Stress Eating?

Call it "emotional eating" or "stress eating". The trigger to eat here is your feeling or thought so, it is your thoughts and not your body that is triggering you to eat. People experiencing such kind of eating can have any emotion that's in action, which includes negative emotions, anger, stress, boredom, loneliness, and sadness but the outcome is overeating.


What Causes Stress Eating?

Emotions, like stress, aren't only the causes of emotional eating disorders. At times even physical causes too can be the triggers. Other common causes frequently people say about include;

[Also read: Simple ways to reduce stress]

1. Boredom

Having nothing to do or being bored is the foremost cause for many people. When people live inactive or unstimulating lives they turn to eat to get the gap filled. Boredom is also a kind of stress and that's the reason stress and eating disorders go hand in hand.


2. Habits

Often habits are driven by longing and things that occurred in a human's childhood. An instance can be, eating ice cream following good marks or baking biscuits or cookies with grandparents.


3. Fatigue

It is much easier to eat more or consume without thought when fatigued, particularly when exhausted from performing unpleasant work. Overeating can look like being an answer to not do a specific work anymore.


4. Social Influences

We all have those friends who force us to indulge in late-night eating. Such influences are hard to resist.

Some people eat less in such situations, even, this is an unhealthy eating habit as per nutritionists. Whatever the emotions are, the result is the same: an unhealthy lifestyle and health issues.


Is Stress Eating A Disorder?

Yes, it is definitely a disorder because it is a kind of eating disorder that is nothing less to any emotional condition that needs treatment. In fact, studies have proven that if this situation continues long, it not only affects a person physically but also emotionally.


Difference Between Stress Eating And Binge Eating

Studies have recognized binge eating as a disorder. However, a few define binge eating as the continuum of stress eating while a few disagree with the thought. Irrespective of what the theories are both have one common thing, eating without a hunger craving. Despite this connection according to other studies, binge eating has one more additional sign: eating more in less time which may happen or may not happen in stress eating. On the whole, both are ways to cope with emotional conflict and few psychologists say binge eating is an extreme sign of emotional eating.


Tips To Stop Stress Eating

Probably the first tip to follow is to evade stress and negative thinking besides following these below;

1. Maintain A Food Diary

Jot down what you are eating, how much you are eating, how you are eating, and finally when you eat. When you do these you can easily know which type of triggers are more dangerous for you. A constant check will let you try to break some of the manageable triggers.


2. Tame The Stress

Always try to control your stress. When you are stressed out or emotionally blocked instead of relying on eating try stress management techniques such as meditation, yoga, and so on.


3. Hunger Reality Check

Let's define this in easier terms, know if your craving is emotional or physical. If it is emotional just evade eating for the maximum time possible.


4. Get Support

Getting support is as essential as getting self-help. Be with your friends or family or join a professional support center.


5. Fight Boredom

Instead of eating or snacking whenever you feel bored, substitute eating in some helpful way such as reading a book, watching a movie, or joining some physical activity group.


6. Remove Those Temptations

Check your storeroom, refrigerators, and other racks where you stuff your food. Carefully lookout for the ones that are ready to eat and discard them as soon as possible. You can cut down your emotional eating to half when your house doesn't have ready-to-snack packs.

Even after all these, if you still can't stop overeating due to emotions as the last step, try to at least snack healthily.

You need not ponder much on this and when your home tips fail there's always a final destiny which is a professional clinic. Remember, don’t even stress too much about how to stop stress eating as this can again lead to emotional eating.

Author:

Sudheendra Reddy

Sudheendra is a passionate blogger for 8 years and holds a Degree in Journalism & Mass Communications. His writings particularly focus on health, medicine, diet & lifestyle. For him, everything that interlinks and relates to health & medical world entices him. His write-ups aim at educating people not by just giving facts but by infusing human touch.