Wondering why it is so difficult for you to refrain from snacking in various stressful situations? Feeling full helps to relieve tension related to emotions such as sadness, anger and fear. However, it makes you addicted to food - after all, stress cannot be completely eliminated. How to break this vicious circle? Knowing the mechanism called "emotional eating" will help you control your appetite and control your overweight or obesity - and ultimately lose weight effectively.
The ideal would be to eat only as much as is needed to meet the body's real needs. However, there are so many temptations around! Besides, we are increasingly unable to cope with life - difficult work, personal troubles, loneliness, lack of friends - and this is also a good excuse to reach for a little sweet something. Unfortunately, neither laziness nor greed are the most common causes of overeating. The causes of eating problems lie much deeper and may result, for example, from psychological trauma. It is not for nothing that overweight and obese people are more and more often offered to talk to a psychotherapist.
You can get addicted to food
Let's be honest, in stress we will choose something sweet or fatty rather than beetroot and spinach. Sweets improve your mood for a short time and give you an extra boost of energy. Unfortunately, we eat mainly in the evening or at night, without giving the body a chance to burn excess calories. We forget that food is addictive, just like alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. And addictions are caused by the lack of satisfaction of the needs such as belonging to a group, acceptance, safety.
The tendency to overeat can also be brought out of the home. After all, it is a Polish tradition - a table set as an expression of love and hospitality. It is simply not appropriate not to clean the plate to the last crumb. Parents also often reward their children with food for good grades. In the future, they may reward themselves in the same way, e.g. with an additional portion of French fries at McDonald's for good results at work.
ImportantWhy do we eat stress?
dr n. Hum. Olaf Truszczyński - specialist in clinical psychology:
In childhood, we all learn that security is relatedwith mother and breastfeeding. This association is perfectly normal, but in adult life it can, unfortunately, take an exaggerated and harmful form. When is this happening? In a situation where, for example,we learn to respond to our emotional needs by filling the stomach with food and the related feeling of relief and pleasure . It is the satisfaction of at least two basic human needs - hunger and security.
Since many people are unaware of the relationship between satiety and a sense of security when stressed, they are also unable to break this relationship, which can be called "emotional eating". It has been scientifically proven that overeating can be a way to reduce anxiety and frustration. It is also clear that many people react by over-eating when the stress factor involved is unclear and causes an overwhelming feeling of anxiety.Obese people "use" food as a way to regain self-control over their emotional level.This can be described as a substitute form of coping with stress, the side effect of which is weight gain.
In this case, we are dealing with a vicious cycle where stress leads to over-eating, and over-eating leads to obesity, lowered self-esteem and the feeling of being unable to get out of the situation. So, if stress is the real cause of overeating, the only way to combat excess weight is to identify the actual sources of stress, restore normal sleep hours that are normally disturbed, and impose an appropriate and repetitive eating pattern (breakfast - lunch - dinner).
Obesity, however, cannot be reduced solely to psychological problems. It may happen that a person who is fully satisfied with his life has an enormous and unrestrained appetite. However, this is a minority. Most of them are people who try to fill boredom, sometimes loneliness, sadness or anger with the feeling of satiety and relaxation when eating. Unfortunately, obesity is also associated with slowing down of movement, lack of internal discipline and overeating at various times of the day. It is accompanied by shame, guilt, and even a desire to completely withdraw from social life.
Scientific observation shows that there is a conflict between the tendency to consume high-calorie foods for quick pleasure and the long-term negative he alth effects of overeating.Stress cannot be relieved through eating! When this happens, it becomes a factor in obesity.Therefore, when fighting obesity, you need to reduce stress.
What techniques can be particularly useful in such a situation? This includes changing the pace of eating (the slower the better), identifying sources of tension and working on their elimination, using relaxation techniques and avoiding automatic food response in stressful situations. When we feel the need to reach for something to eat, we need to think for a moment what is causing it: nervousness or real hunger. Such an internal conversation with yourself will help you bettercontrol your appetite .
Look for the real cause of your excess weight
If our weight problems arise from improper implementation of the need for control and are the problem of rewarding something to make a difference, we need to understand the reasons for our behavior. The next draconian diets, after which we eat a box of chocolates "for bravery", will not bring the expected results. Perhaps using more and more inventive ways to lose weight quickly is a symptom of the fact that we are really afraid to admit why we eat treats. Meanwhile, without knowing the real reason for this, we will not be able to effectively slim down. After all, it is easiest to blame everything on greed, rather than admit to family problems or your fear of being alone. Therefore, the fight with carcass is best to start with an honest look at our psyche and the problems we are struggling with. We can go to the gym later. And only at the end - for shopping.