THE ROAD TO HEALTH: The Psychology of Eating – How to Deal with Emotional Eating? by K. Gruszecka

A good diet and training plan seem to be the basis. However, the main obstacle is often not the lack of proper organization, but … our head! Emotions, stress, numerous distractors around us – all these factors usually present a much greater challenge. Today in the series “The Road to Health. Do you know that…?” we have another article by Karolina Gruszecka, a psycho-nutritionist, which can help many people understand why it is so difficult to resist temptation.

 

What does the theory say? We should eat only when we are hungry. What does it look like in practice? It’s a totally different story. The stimulus to reach for food is often emotional. And the emotions can be both negative and positive.

Now you can find out what other reasons make people want to eat (although they might not actually be hungry). Some basic information from the extremely interesting field of psychonutrition will help you achieve better results. How? Through more careful recognition of the signals sent by your body. In this article you will learn to distinguish between true hunger and other factors that make you want to eat.

 

Psychonutrition is a field that combines the basics of psychology with the science of nutrition, i.e. dietetics. You’ve probably heard that every change starts in your head. It may be a cliche statement, but there’s a lot of truth to it. If losing weight were so simple, there wouldn’t be so many overweight and obese people, and the sales of supplements that supposedly accelerate weight loss wouldn’t be at an all time high. 

If you have a long way ahead to achieve the desired effects, it is worth getting interested in psychonutrition. Our … emotions can be a big obstacle in losing weight: 

• Stress and inability to deal with it. 
• Reaching for snacks when you do not feel hungry. 
• Eating your meals when you’re in a rush, standing up, without due attention.

 

Find out why you may feel the urge to eat. This will allow you to effectively eliminate uncontrolled snacking.  

The 5 worst eating behaviors that could sabotage your weight loss process include:

1. eating in a hurry (fast pace of eating may negatively affect the digestive process and, in addition, the information will not have the time to reach the hunger and satiety center);
2. mindless eating (while watching TV or using your smartphone, you won’t even notice when you’ve eaten a meal);
3. eating while standing up (we often don’t realize how many extra calories we consume in this way);
4. eating on huge plates (each time you will think that you have eaten only a little food; this is an optical illusion, disastrous for your shape);
5. stress eating (you crave for sweets when you are in a stressful situation? instead of the anti-stress effect, you can only feel remorse for the snacks you have eaten that you hadn’t actually planned to eat).

 

Emotional eating

As the name suggests, it means eating under the influence of emotions. What’s interesting, it doesn’t concern not only bad emotions! Most often, you associate emotional eating with unpleasant experiences. Breakup, a family quarrel or stress at work. People who don’t know better ways to regulate their emotions, often turn to food. And let’s be honest, it usually isn’t a carrot, but most often chips, ice cream or sweets.

However, you should know that the stimulus to reach for food can also be… positive emotions! We celebrate success with a formal dinner, and birthdays or anniversaries are full of sweets. It’s OK if it happens occasionally, for example, once a month. However, celebrating your colleagues’ birthdays, which of course includes eating cakes, with a much greater frequency may already have a negative impact on your body.

 

 

The solution: Be assertive. You really don’t have to eat the cake every single time. Wish them a happy birthday and then politely turn down the cake. You can say things like: “Thank you, but I just ate” or ” I’d love to, but I’ve brought my lunchbox today.”

IMPORTANT! If you don’t feel like it, you don’t have to explain to anyone that you do it because you want to lose weight. The argument “I do this because I care about my health” usually works best.

 

When it comes to negative emotions, it is worth developing other methods to reduce stress. However, reading this advice is not enough. If you want this to really work for you, please take a moment to do the following task.

Prepare a list of things / activities that you enjoy. The list should include a minimum of 30 items. Do not hide it on the bottom of the drawer. Keep it with you to choose an activity other than snacking in a stressful situation. Firstly, you will feel proud that you have managed to resist the temptation. Secondly, it will benefit your body.

 

Rhythmic eating

The stimulus to reach for food is … time. Rhythmic eating means you have meals not when you feel hungry but according to scheduled times. For example: You eat 5 meals a day, every three hours. You have breakfast at 09.00, and at 12.00, even though you are not hungry yet, you already take out the lunch box.

Indeed, regularity in eating is advisable. For many people who have so far skipped breakfast and, as a result, had something sweet at work, and after returning home consumed the entire contents of the refrigerator, the rule of 5 meals every three hours will work perfectly and will bring great results. However, if you have been eating regularly for a long time and have healthy meals, do not worry too much about this rule. You should eat your meals based on your hunger and listen to your body.

 

 

The solution: Your body is not a mathematical equation. Sometimes it is difficult to maintain a similar calorific value and the same meal times each day. Your calorie requirement varies on different days. One day you have a workout, on another you don’t. Sometimes you do tabata, sometimes it’s yoga. One day you walk up the stairs, on another you take the lift. It all affects how many calories you burn and thus affects the feeling of hunger. We are women and let’s face it – our sense of hunger can also depend a lot on the phase of the cycle.

 

That’s why you should listen to your body and on this basis (not the clock) decide when to eat. Remember that the diet should benefit you, not the other way around.

 

Would you like an example? Look at kids. Sometimes they have such an appetite that they could eat every hour. On another day, they eat two meals a day and don’t want any more. When they are sick (and the body naturally accumulates all its strength to fight the infection and not for the less important digestive processes) they have a much smaller appetite. Children naturally understand the signals their bodies send them.

We, the adults, should follow the example of the little ones! Children do not drown out the signals coming from the body.Also, if one day you have a greater appetite and eat 5 meals, and the next day you do not feel hungry and eat only 3, it will not be a mistake.

 

Remember – your body knows better than the best dietitian. You only need to listen to it. And rhythmic eating will not help you with that.

I am against artificial rhythmic eating based on a clock hand that actually interferes with your body’s natural signals. I am FOR flexible nutrition system, adapted to your lifestyle, daily schedule, the resulting energy needs, and the sense of hunger.

 

Visceral Eating

It’s probably hard to guess what this style of eating means. So what is this all about? Visceral eating is eating out of… fear of being hungry! Absolute intolerance of the feeling of hunger, which is disastrous for your body (as soon as your stomach gently growls, you reach for a small cake / candy, use processed or fast food – just to eat faster). What does visceral eating look like most often? 

Example: You wonder whether the meeting you are about to attend will take longer. Thus, you want to be prepared and decide to have much more for lunch. Or you don’t know when you will be able to eat your next meal due to work overload so you decide to have a large second helping at breakfast. WRONG!

 

Your body really doesn’t know why you suddenly decide to eat more. But, due to the fact that it has a powerful adaptability skills, it will adapt to this larger portion. However, you must know that your shape will not benefit from it. First, too large portions will stretch your stomach (it is very flexible and easy to expand), and remember that a full stomach is nowhere near a flat stomach. Secondly, your body is happy to accumulate additional calories in the form of adipose tissue for the rainy day.

  

The solution: You must realize that these are not times when you are at risk of starvation. Availability has never been so big when it comes to food. Don’t have larger portions for fear of getting hungry later in the day. Just prepare beforehand. When you don’t have the opportunity to have your healthy salad at the meeting, take your favorite vegetable juice with you. While eating during important business talks is out of the question, sipping is completely natural. What else can you do to end visceral eating once and for all? Over the fear… of being hungry!

 

Think what will happen if you are hungry. Will it make you feel weak and dizzy? Will you faint? Will they have to call an ambulance to get you? Rather not. Hunger is okay. This is the time when your body is a little nervous that it has not received a meal. However, remember that nothing bad will happen to you. Your body, due to the adaptive abilities I mentioned before, can cope. How? By obtaining energy from … fatty tissue reserves!? As you can see, temporary hunger is not as bad as it might seem.

 

CAREFUL! Don’t draw wrong conclusions. This doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself regularly. Hunger as a way to lose weight is a bad idea. You will slow down your metabolism and, in the long run, your body will start drawing its energy from protein. In addition, the loss of muscle mass will not make you look better. However, remember that if one meeting takes longer than expected and you are hungry for a moment, nothing bad will happen. Therefore, you do not need to eat a much larger portion in the previous meal. Have a normal meal and take the juice with you to the meeting. Accept the temporary feeling of hunger (overcome your inner fear) – remember that you are safe, that it is not a bad feeling and that you do not have to start eating right away. Breaking from visceral eating is not easy, but it will certainly benefit your body.

 

External eating 

The stimulus to reach for a meal is … its availability. So you decide to eat because it is within your reach. Not because you are hungry. 

There are many examples:

• Buffet (the sight of a large amount of beautifully presented vision tempts you to come for more, even though you are not hungry);
• Junk food in vending machines (you pass the vending machine every day, and as you know what it offers are not cherry tomatoes, but sweets and salty snacks);
• Walking past a bakery (despite the fact that you are not hungry, the beautiful-looking display and the smell of freshly baked buns encourage you to buy some).

 

 

The mechanism of external eating is very well known to food manufacturers. They try to surround you with advertising and the availability of their product so that you start to feel like you really want to have it. No matter if you are hungry or not.

The solution: External eating is not easy to overcome. Especially with as much food available as we have nowadays. You will need several techniques in this unequal fight. You may find the simplicity of some tips surprising. However, the most important thing is that they are effective. When you are on an all-inclusive holiday or during a banquet and there is a buffet table in front of you, remember that frequent helpings are the most disastrous for your body. It’s very easy to lose track. Make a rule for yourself, e.g. say that you only eat the contents of one plate. And half of it are vegetables. If this rule is too drastic for you, you can start with one helping.

 

Do you need a candy bowl for your clients at work? Change its position. Move the bowl behind your computer so you don’t have to keep looking at it. It will be much easier for you to resist the temptation.

When walking past a vending machine with unhealthy food or wandering in a supermarket between shelves with sweets, look… the other way. It’s really an easy tip, but believe me, it works! With time, it will become a habit for you and when you are in a supermarket, you will completely forget about the very existence of the shelf with sweets. As a result, the chances that you will NOT be tempted definitely increase!

If there is a bakery on your way to work and when walking past you end up buying a sweet bun that you didn’t plan for, get down to work. External eating is a very common problem for people who are trying to lose weight because of the tempting smell. But once again… simple solutions are the best! Just change the direction of your route a bit. Cross the street and the bakery will stop tempting you. Do you have to walk further? Double benefit achieved! Your body will not only benefit from avoiding the food that you did not plan to buy, but also from … a longer walk.

 

Whenever there’s food in front of you, remember that you always have an invaluable weapon with you: the internal dialogue. In such situations, ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?” Have a glass of water and wait.

It is very likely that your body has mistaken hunger for thirst. This technique often works. However, if you have drunk water, waited 15 minutes and still feel your stomach growling, it’s a clear sign that it’s time for a meal! ?

 

Bibliography: 

1. Baumeister R. Utrata kontroli. Jak i dlaczego tracimy zdolność samoregulacji. PARPA, Warszawa 2000.
2. Gruszecka K. Psychodietetyka, czyli jak wyjść z błędnego koła odchudzania. Wydawnictwo Sensus, 2020.
3. Juruć A. Zaburzenia depresyjne okiem psychodietetyka.
4. Pietrzykowska E, Wierusz-Wysocka B. Psychologiczne aspekty nadwagi, otyłości i odchudzania się. 2008. Pol. Merk. Lek, 24(143), 472-476.
5. Ziółkowska B, Mroczkowska D. Dlaczego jemy? Uwarunkowania stosunku do jedzenia w cyklu życia na podstawie analizy wyników wstępnego sondażu. Poznań 2012 r.

Karolina Gruszecka

Dietician

Master of Dietetics, a graduate of psychodietetics, a PhD student at Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, co-owner of Elite Bydgoszcz (Dietetics, Coaching and Individual Training Center). She takes part in Polish and foreign conferences, appears on TV shows, and shares her knowledge and experience not only with patients, training participants or university students, but also on the Internet via her Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts. Her book "Psychodietetics, or how to get out of the vicious cycle of dieting" was hailed a bestseller after just 7 days on the market.