How To Stop Bingeing, End Emotional Eating And Avoid Diet Relapse

Hi Tom! Great article, as usual! I've always poo, poo'd the emotional column on food journals, but over the last year I've been taking special note of my mood changes. In the past, I've either been really, really up or really, really down and not much in between. Now I notice that when my macros are higher in carbs than protein and fat, I am in a wicked mood the next day. I feel like ants are crawling under my skin and the smallest irritation can set off undo rage. I'm a mom of 3 little ones and that behavior is unexceptable. I've had to put myself in time-out more than once. Now that I've finally realized what the true source of my mood swings are, I am able to keep them at bay by simply eating correctly(I cycle 3 days of 40P 40F and 20C and one day of 40P 40C and 20F), doing my weights and doing 60min of cardio a day. Cardio is my prozac, lol. I also started doing HIIT, but I still "need" my fix of uninterrupted, 60 min session. I finally feel like the calm, cool, collected and fit person that I've always invisioned myself to be.

Has there been any studies done regarding the affect of stress on the appetite? I'm not denying that I have used food to cope, soothe and/or entertain myself, but I had the adjustable gastric band (LapBand) for 18 months, and my appetite was greatly reduced.

With the band it became much, much easier to differentiate between physical hunger and emotional hunger, and I found my desire to overeat virtually disappeared. There were a few ocassions where I was definitely NOT hungry but still wanted to eat, but they were infinitely more rare than I had expected.

This leads me to believe that my appetite is the biggest problem that I face in my struggle with excess weight - not my emotions. It was such a blessing to finally be relieved of that constant hunger! I experienced the same results with Meridia.

Unfortunately I had to have my LapBand removed due to erosion, and I have regained the 100+ lbs I had lost with the band in the three years since removal.

It is very frustrating.

Donali wrote

Has there been any studies done regarding the affect of stress on the appetite?

Yes, lots of it in the psychological context: People under stress simply eat more:

for example, the Oliver study, "Stress and food Choice" published in the journal "Psychosomatic Medicine in 2000.

this study proposed that stress may affect your health not only through its direct biological effects but also because it changes health behaviors (such as binge eating) that affect your health.

In this study, the researchers found that when stressed, people increased their consumption of sweet, fatty fods.

IN terms of physiological effects of stress directly on appetite: One study from the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology (Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior)

this study suggested that stress may influence eating behavior and they found that high cortisol levels caused subjects to eat more total food and more sweet food.

Another paper was published by Dallman and colleagues in 2003, called Chronic Stress and Obesity was a rat study, which looked at the complex endocrine mechanisms that cause stress eating and they propose that their findings extend to humans.

There is clearly a strong psychological component. in fact these researchers called it a "psychophysiological rsponse" to stress.

Bottom line is, you must develop coping strategies for stress that work for you.

Tom V.

Hi Tom,

I am an environmental eater. What are the coping strategies for environmental eaters?

I know the only one my therapist mentioned is don't go near food. That is very difficult to achieve.

Is there anything that works other than avoid the kitchen, the restaurants etc.

Cathy wrote:

I am an environmental eater. What are the coping strategies for environmental eaters? I know the only one my therapist mentioned is don't go near food. That is very difficult to achieve. Is there anything that works other than avoid the kitchen, the restaurants etc.

cathy, "envirnomental eater" is very much the same issue as "stress eater" or "emotional eater." Different stimulus, but same response

Are you familiar with the Pavlov's dog experiment /concept from psychology 101?

Its a stimulus - conditioned response issue

EMOTIONAL EATER:
stimulus = feel emotion
response = eat

STRESS EATER
stimulus = feel stress
response = eat

ENVIRONMENTAL EATER
stimulus = physical surroundings/environment/place
response = eat

different stimulus, different response... SAME SOLUTION

THIS right here is the big difference between my 5-step program and other emotional eating programs. I address the deeper causes of the problem so you can quite literally re-wire the stimulus reponse conditioning on a neurological levels.

old patterns can be broken. new conditioning can be put into place. and thats exactly what must happen because willpower doesnt work long term. Willpower only gets you started.

Avoid food? thats not only "difficult to achieve" its absurd! You need to change your relationship with food not avoid it. Food is not the problem. food is the solution. You cannot build a healthy body without the right food.

More precisely, you need to change your beliefs about food and rewire your neural associations with food.

The traditional advice to set up your environment for success and avoid unsupportive environments is good advice, but that will only take you so far. You have to reprogram your relationship with food.

subscribe to my list for the announcement of the book release www.endemotionaleating.com. Without question, this 5 step program can help with this issue.

tom

I have a question concerning "Clean Eating"
Are diet or protein drinks (slimfast) etc.
And Bars (Zone) and others considered clean eating foods?
Do I need to give these up?

In the context of binge eating problems, "clean eating" can be taken too far and actually be the CAUSE of a binge, not a solution for better results.

If you try to be 100% compliant via 100% clean eating and forbidden foods, most people will find themselves with an increase in cravings and binge eating behaviors.

you tend to want what you cannot have.

I prefer to recommend a 90% compliance rule, which means eat "clean" (natural, unprocessed food or food permitted on your particular fat loss prgoram) 90% of the time, and eat whatever you want 10% of the time

On the 10% "free meals" or "off meals" I recommend eating whatever you want, but not in whatever quantities you want. Always be observant of portion sizes.

A complete "cheat day" is too often taken as permission to binge for an entire day, so I prefer 10% compliance rule meaning 10% of the time eat whatever type of food you want , but not in unlimited quantitiy. (the law of calorie balance is always with us!)

Tom..
This really hits home to me.. I have been struggling over this for sometime now. I have a very stressful job and over the years have learned to leave it at work and not bring it home.

But I see now that is where the binge eating comes in. When I'm at home at night i just can't stop eating. I crave the sweets and salty things. I just gave up smoking (for the 2nd time) after 30 years. The first time I quit I gained 50 LBs. so I am afraid of repeating this. I know I should focus on one addiction at a time but i can't afford to add more weight. I do have a membership to the gym, but having back surgery last year, it is very slow going. I'm a relapser... I find motivation and lose it.

i get tired of the same old foods. (except junk food!)
my 30 year reunion is next year, so that my big motivation this time. I see I need to fix whats inside as well as my outside if I'm ever going to acomplish my goals.

Thanks...I appreciate your honesty and all that you do for everyone.

Dear Tom

Thanks a lot for this newsletter. I always read your letters with great interest.

This one has made me aware of my 2 kg weight gain after maintaining mine for 2 years.I am under stress and I eat soothing foods more than I ever have. Thanks for the wake-up call.I will be vigilant now . I want to be a maintainer and not a relapser. thanks

regards
jasmin

For everybody interested in practical skills necessary to stop emotional eating and binging.

A few years ago I came across a website www.normaleating.com run by Sheryl Canter, a psychologist from NYC. This website has plenty of tested advice, very good suggestions and , best of all, an online support group.

I became a member there four years ago and wish to testify that I did become free of emotional eating, and successfully arrested the alarmingand accelerating weight gain I had felt powerless about. (However, as to losing the surplus weight already accumulated , the BEST suggestions came from Tom Venuto's site and the newsletter).

I mention this here, on Tom's site, because in my turn, I promote Tom's ideas a lot on Sheryl's. I believe Tom's and Sheryl's approach really complement each other.

In my experience, people in grips of emotional eating WILL NOT be able to follow Tom's suggestions of discipline in eating and exercise , UNTIL they have done the emotional work. Discipline feels like deprivation, deprivation brings on stress, stress can only be relieved by food at this stage. (Been there, done that).

I am very glad though that at last emotional problems are beginning to be addressed in the fight against flab. Blaming the weak willpower is not an effective way, breaking the dependence is.

M

I think that people don't give this emotional eating idea as much credit as they should, so I'm glad to see you writing about it in such an honest and scientific way. Thanks for always providing good, true information Tom!

Tom:
I've just read your article regarding stress eating and other peoples comments about stress related eating and weight gain.

My daughter has recently been diagnosed as Type 1 diabetic, Celiac, and lactose intolerant. I have been doing a lot of reading about nutrition. I have read about insulin, being a hormone, acts with other hormones in your body. I saw how fast she lost weight when the insulin wasn't working properly, and I saw how fast she gained it back when insulin was given to her after diagnoses. And I also see how much different stresses effect her blood sugar levels. When she exercises a lot, the blood sugar drops; in contrast, non-physical stress such as crying or emotional stress, causes her blood sugar to go up - sometimes way up. I understand that these variances are also driving her other hormonal levels and glands, such as pituitary, thyroid, etc. I see how her mood just goes down the drain when things are out of wack. I am beginning to understand the severity of bad stress on the body and how much it effects. I also am understanding the importance of good stress - exercise and how it brings all these hormones down and under control.

Anyway - she was diagnosed in January of this year. Almost instantly, I gained 10 pounds after maintaining the same weight rather effortlessly for the last 6 years. How's that for stressed-related response. I know that some of this was my own fault...crying into my ice cream that my daughter can no longer eat. But I also believe that some of this weight gain is due to the internal uncontrolled reactions that my body had to the stress. My hormone levels. My body thinking it was under stress and sending signals to retain food energy. My mind overwhelmed with new information and new worries, just exhausted. My sleep disrupted with thoughts of my daughter bottoming out in her sleep and getting up in the middle of the night to check blood reading. My body reacting again - more stress, more retention of food energy, more fat stored.

The human body is so complicated. Weight gain or loss is not just about eating. In a perfect world, calories in vs. calories burned makes sense. But in a world of stress and worry, theres much more to it that I don't think we really understand yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with anything you say, and I think exercise is the most important factor in everyones life - I just think that there's a more complicated system in us that doesn't always respond to a cut and dry answer.

Elizabeth

yes, without question our appetite and our body weight are regulated with some very complex hormonal systems, including the stress hormones and also insulin, as you mentioned, which is a very important player.

All of these hormones and all of the body's weight regulating mechnisms however, alwys work inside of the energy balance equation.

Where weight reduction and management is simple is in the calorie balance principle: burn more than you consume and you lose weight.

Where weight reduction and management is complex is in the way all these hormones and weight regulating mechanisms (stress and stress eating included) Affect the energy balance equation!.

The place where people begin getting in trouble is when they say things (and believe things) like "calories don't count," and therefore they discount the importance of staying aware of and vigilant about the amount they eat... often mindlessley as an automatic response to stress or to fill emotional needs.

Remember, many people when under stress, have a tendency to lose weight. Stress does not necessarily equal more body fat. Stress induced eating that leads to a calorie surplus, however, does.

my very best to you

tom v.

Tom,

This is a great article. I passed it along to all of my girlfriends to see since a lot of the same thing was going on with my own friends.

Thanks!

Corina