Hunger: Physical or Emotional?

03/17/2011

You were doing so well on your diet, but then something went wrong. Maybe you got angry at your boss or upset with your kids. Perhaps you felt depressed about a bad investment or you struggled with a relationship problem.

You knew you weren’t hungry, but you reached for a few chips or cookies to make yourself feel better. You’ve just slipped into emotional eating.

Think about how often you eat for reasons other than hunger. Sneaking a candy bar in the middle of the afternoon, searching the cupboards when the kids go down for a nap, nibbling a free doughnut at the bank—none of these are actually related to your body’s need for fuel.

And by my definition, anytime you reach for food when you aren’t physically hungry or needing nutrition, you’re doing emotional eating.

It’s not that emotional eating is always a problem. If you occasionally grab a candy bar on a stressful day, you probably won’t do much damage. But if you aren’t careful, you can slide into using food to “fix” all of your emotional needs. Eventually, non-hungry can destroy your diet plan as well as harm your motivation and your self-esteem.

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