Emotional Eating DOES Impact Weight Loss

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The journal Obesity just published a study of 286 overweight men and women. They conclude that emotional eaters—individuals who report eating in response to thoughts and feelings—are more likely to regain the weight they lose. In a related study of 3345 adults, the authors found that individuals who eat because of internal reasons, such as feeling lonely or as a reward, lost less weight then individuals who didn’t eat to cope with internal feelings or thoughts.

“Our results suggest that we need to pay more attention to eating triggered by emotions or thoughts as they clearly play a significant role in weight loss. Current treatments provide minimal assistance with eating in response to feelings or thoughts,” states Heather Niemeier, one of the obesity researchers from Brown University. She adds, “Modifying our treatments to address these triggers for unhealthy eating and help patients learn alternative strategies could improve their ability to maintain weight loss behaviors, even in the face of affective and cognitive difficulties.”

Of course emotional eating is a huge factor in weight loss (and weight gain). However, this study is a good reminder of why I consistently bring my clients back to the importance of acquiring the tools they need to address their individual patterns of emotional eating.

Learning the steps to identify your own unique pattern of emotional eating and learning how to develop a concrete plan that addresses your specific eating patterns is a crucial step that many people try to skip. Once you acquire the tools to take control of your emotional eating, eating for weight loss becomes much less complicated. If you struggle with emotional eating, you already know that if you don’t find a way to gain control of those eating patterns, it really doesn’t matter how many “diet tips” you learn. Because why you eat can be at least as powerful as what you eat. Or, as a client recently told me, once you have the “why” under control, the “what” is just easier.

Take good care,

Melissa

PS: You can always contact me by leaving a comment or via my website

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