HOW TO STOP EMOTIONAL EATING
/Weight Loss Fluctuations (9.8.2025 to 9.14.2025)
This post will be short and to the point: If hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution. Seriously. Food doesn't fix anything other than actual hunger.
Crappy day at work? Thankless adult child? Loss of a loved one, a fight with a partner, a giant pimple on the top of your nose?
Nothing you can eat will help, change, correct, or reverse any of those things.
Does that seem lecturey? It may indeed be. It's also factually true. And our logical selves know this already. Our emotional selves also know it already, but we put a lot of mental energy into shoving the knowledge aside. (If only kidding ourselves burned calories … )
In the bounty of our western culture, we have the luxury of inserting food into every feeling, every event. It's as if emotions overrule logic every time, at least regarding eating. The amygdala stares down the prefrontal cortex. (Feel free to look those up. I had to.)
There are countless times I've eaten while in the midst of every subjective state of mind known to humans. I've stuffed my face with entire bags of pretzels after an embarrassing episode of 'foot in mouth.' Hurt feelings after realizing I was the largest and frumpiest person in a room full of colleagues? The drive-through at McDonald's may help. A row with My Lovely Mate? I'll show him. Deep dish pizza, please! (Yes, I've engaged in revenge eating.)
[Insert sound of screeching tires]
What?!
None of those scenarios makes any sense. Nor do the one billion others that come to mind. Feeling irked or self-conscious, depressed or jubilant, bored or overworked—none of the feelings—can be addressed and appeased with shoveling grub into our gobs. Opposite, as a matter of fact. Was it logical for me to think that a Big Mac Meal would make me the least heavy or frumpy person in the room? Would inhaling a bag of 'Snyder's of Hanover' pretzels make that stupid thing I said in front of those people that time not have been said? And how ridiculous and twisted is the (non) logic that eating a Domino's pie will smooth over a marital spat?
Can you see how all those scenarios are disconnected from food? How eating only made things worse. That we don't use food to cope with an issue, but rather, we use it not to cope. Eating is a distraction and a deflection. It is not a solution to anything—other than to hunger.
It has taken me decades to tease apart my feelings from my food. If you find yourself looking lasciviously at a pint of ice cream when you feel some 'type of way,' take a moment, take a breath, and take a step back from the impulse to treat a state of mind with that which has often made things worse for us, emotionally and mentally. Food doesn't fix feelings, except perhaps to throw fuel on our guilt, remorse, and self-loathing. And we don't need those feelings magnified, do we?
How to stop emotional eating? We need to stop eating unless we're hungry.
Sorry. That's not a fun or sexy message. And changing the habit of eating from emotions isn't easy. But it is doable.
Say it with me: If I can do this, you can do this.
I promise.
Disclaimer: I’m not a medical doctor, researcher, or Ph.D., but instead, I’ve been fortunate to have had the time and resources to research the ketogenic diet, also known as LCHF (low carb/high fat). The information I share is based solely on my understanding of that research. We are all responsible for our own choices, including what we put in our mouths, and there’s no substitute for each of us checking things out ourselves. And I’m not a medical professional in any way. Go Keto With Casey is not a medical site. “Duh,” you might say. But best to make it clear to all. I welcome questions, comments, and even civil criticism. I’m still learning. So, if you have something to add, go for it. Links in this post and all others may direct you to affiliate links, where I will receive a small amount of the purchase price of any items you buy through those links. Thanks!
