Hours and even days following the stressful event, a different category of hormones called glucocorticoids rise to stimulate our appetite and encourage us to eat. This biological response acts as a protective mechanism to help us get through a stressful and potentially life-threatening situation first, and replace our energy through food second.

If our stress goes unmanaged, levels of glucocorticoids remain elevated, leading to chronically stimulated eating behavior. Glucocorticoids can induce increased food intake and drive our preference for high-calorie foods. Various studies show that individuals who had higher levels of circulating cortisol following a stressor were more likely to consume more calories, particularly from high-fat foods.

These findings help to explain why some individuals may struggle with emotional or stress eating more than others. Read more about the effects of stress on total health in this blog post. Leaving our stress unchecked may cause us to feel more stressed and lead us to seek convenience foods like takeout or fast food that lend to highly palatable, calorie-dense meals.

Executive function describes the set of mental skills that allow us to plan, focus attention, remember, think before acting, and juggle a number of tasks. The eight executive functions include self-control, emotional control, task initiation, working memory, self-monitoring, flexibility, organization, and planning and time management.

You are unique, and so is your stress response. Rather than shaming yourself for engaging in stress or emotional eating, first remind yourself that you are human. Eating to honor our emotions becomes problematic when it takes away from our quality of life and sidetracks us from reaching our health goals, rather than enriching our lives and becoming integrated into a sustainable approach to nutrition.

There are a number of physiological, physical, mental, environmental, behavioral, and social causes that may increase the likelihood of emotional eating.

Not getting needs met in other life areas—like through adequate sleep, social connection, fun, self-care, or downtime—can create feelings of deprivation and lead individuals to seek fulfillment through food instead. Over time, this may cause individuals to become out of touch with these bodily cues, leading to eating in response to emotions rather than physical sensations.

Being unaware of our physical and mental sensations may prevent us from appropriately addressing our bodily state and promote emotional eating. Emotional eating has been associated with a reversed stress response in individuals who experienced chronic early life stress.

In these cases, levels of the stress hormone cortisol are reduced rather than increased following a stressor. As a result, individuals are more likely to experience increased rather than decreased appetite after stress. Read more about the impact of sleep on appetite and eating behavior in this blog post.

We may be more susceptible to stress eating if our gut health is off. Research shows that our gut bacteria play a role in the metabolism of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward pathways, as well as serotonin , acetylcholine, and norepinephrine. As a result, our gut may indirectly influence our eating behavior through changes in our mood.

Emotional eating tends to take place with external eating. Not only can eating provide distraction from our boredom , it can increase levels of dopamine, too. Perfectionism is a personality style characterized by striving for excellence and setting extremely high standards of performance.

Negative perfectionism may increase stress levels, and has been studied for its effects on emotional eating. On a short term-basis, highly palatable foods can provide relief from negative emotions like stress and anxiety and improve mood states. Because of these adaptations, food may need to be more palatable in order to have the same stress-busting effects.

Research also suggests that continued stress may not even be necessary in order to initiate the urge for highly palatable foods, meaning that stress eating can become a habit even in the absence of stress.

In one study , researchers suggested that some individuals mistook overeating with emotional eating when they reflected on their food intake from the prior evening. Was I tired, lonely, bored, or anxious?

Did I crave a specific food, taste or texture? Did I feel guilty or uneasy while eating or immediately afterwards? Are you hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?

Unsure of how to build a balanced meal? Our balanced plate framework is the perfect place to start. And if you struggle with finding time to eat during stressful times, simple actions like setting an alarm on your phone to eat or scheduling your lunch break into your calendar can help to promote regular meal times.

Keyword: Practice. The skill of mindful eating is like a muscle; the more we use it, the stronger it gets. Mindful eating is a practice that engages all of our senses to experience and enjoy our food choices. Eating more slowly, chewing thoroughly, acknowledging where your food came from, and noticing the color, smell, taste, and textures of food are all examples of mindful eating.

Journaling aids in processing emotions, creates pause, and provides clarity, so while it may help with your emotional eating journey, you may find that it lowers overall stress levels too.

Some useful journal prompts include: What was happening before my bout of emotional eating? What emotions trigger me to emotionally eat? How else can I cope with these emotions? Our relationships with food can be deep-seated and complex.

When you feel low, do you reach for a friendly pint of ice cream? But even if you are very physically hungry, you usually can wait for food. In contrast, emotional hunger can come on suddenly, like lightning. It demands food immediately and may not stop even when a person is stuffed.

Because it can be part of you without you realizing it, emotional eating may be difficult to let go of. First, take some time to understand where and how your emotional eating habits started.

These insights can help you recognize the feelings that trigger it. Consider leaning on a trusted friend or family member, or to reach out to a mental health provider. They can help you see how your eating habits connect with your mental and physical well-being.

When you set goals for a healthy lifestyle, try to take a wider view. Do you also want to like yourself better, be more comfortable with yourself, feel pride and a sense of achievement? Take a moment to get clear on your goals other than weight loss and think about the steps you can take to achieve them.

Eating is an immersive sensory experience. This can keep your mind busy instead of relying on food to manage your emotions. Here are some swaps to consider:.

If you fall back into emotional eating on occasion, take time to understand why you slipped, without judging yourself. Was it due to feelings of stress or sadness?

What could you do different next time? Home Healthy You How To Stop Emotional Eating: 5 Coping Skills You Can Practice Right Now. How to stop emotional eating: 5 coping skills you can practice right now.

Some people cope with difficult situations by reaching for comfort food. Chowing down on ice cream or macaroni and cheese can make everything seem like it's going to be okay. And there may be a reason why, according to the Harvard Special Health Report Lose Weight and Keep It Off.

Turns out, there are parts of the brain that are rewarded from eating high-fat or high-sugar foods. And more than a decade of psychological research suggests that any behavior that is rewarded is likely to be repeated. However, eating comfort food when things get tough—also known as emotional eating or stress eating—is not a solution to life's challenges.

It only works temporarily. Worse, it causes longer-term distress if it brings about weight gain. You may be able to stop stress eating or emotional eating by figuring out why you need comfort food.

Does it calm you down, cheer you up, compensate you for a tough day, or some combination? Recognizing these thought patterns can make it easier to resist giving in. It also helps to realize that emotional eating doesn't solve the problem that made you upset.

Another way to control emotional eating is to figure out what your triggers are. Keep a food diary that records not only what and how much you ate, but also how you felt at the time. Once you recognize a pattern, develop a strategy to break it.

For instance, if you often eat because you think you deserve it after a tough day, remember that you also deserve to lose weight, feel healthy, and be proud of yourself. If you eat because of stress, learn to dial back that stress. Yoga, meditation, and regular exercise can help reduce stress levels.

The best distractions from emotional eating are things that take only about five minutes—just long enough to help you switch gears. The more ways you can think of to distract yourself, the easier it will become over time to stop stress eating.

Instead, resisting will become your new habit. If you're unsuccessful trying to stop stress eating on your own, consider turning to a therapist for cognitive behavioral therapy CBT.

CBT encourages you to discover and expose negative and unproductive ways of thinking—such as grabbing that chocolate bar—and teaches you to replace these thinking patterns with more helpful ones. Then, next time you have stressful situation, you might say to yourself, "I'm really upset, but if I eat to soothe myself, I'll feel upset about my weight, too.

Instead, I'll go for a walk so I can calm down and feel better. It may take a combination of approaches to stop stress eating. But becoming aware of the problem is a good first step to breaking the cycle. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content.

Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Thanks for visiting. Don't miss your FREE gift. The Best Diets for Cognitive Fitness , is yours absolutely FREE when you sign up to receive Health Alerts from Harvard Medical School.

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Does this scenario sound familiar? Maybe you replace a sweet treat with something crunchy or salty, but the idea is the same. Emotional eating is a coping mechanism that some people use to soothe stress, fear, anger, boredom and loneliness.

Sometimes, emotions get so linked to eating habits that you reach for comfort food without realizing it. This habit can cause weight gain over time, especially if your go-to foods are high in calories, sugar and fat—and they usually are.

Mindful eating is a technique that dietitians use with clients to help curb emotional eating. It involves deliberately paying attention to your food choices, and being aware of what is happening in your body and mind. Mindfulness teaches you to focus on your emotional and physical responses before, during and after eating, without judging yourself.

You experience meals with all of your senses, so you truly see, taste, hear, smell and feel your food. It removes guilt associated with food choices, and lets you focus on what being hungry and full really feel like. Studies show that mindful eating techniques can you help curb binge eating, stop impulsive food choices, stop rewarding yourself with food, control weight and reduce body mass index.

You can learn to refocus your eating patterns. Meanwhile here are some tips to get you started:. With some practice, mindful eating can help you find the joy in food and learn to listen to — and love — your body. To find a dietitian who specializes is mindful eating:. Donate now.

Home How to curb emotional eating. Health seekers. The emotional-weight connection Emotional eating is a coping mechanism that some people use to soothe stress, fear, anger, boredom and loneliness.

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By Mayo Clinic Staff. Show references Duyff RL. Reach and maintain your healthy weight. In: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. New York, N. Whitney E, et al. Weight management: Overweight, obesity, and underweight.

In: Understanding Nutrition. Belmont, Calif. Braden A, et al. Eating when depressed, anxious, bored, or happy: Are emotional eating types associated with unique psychological and physical health correlates?

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Health Information Policy. Media Requests. News Network. Price Transparency. Medical Professionals. Clinical Trials. Mayo Clinic Alumni Association. Refer a Patient. Executive Health Program. Not getting needs met in other life areas—like through adequate sleep, social connection, fun, self-care, or downtime—can create feelings of deprivation and lead individuals to seek fulfillment through food instead.

Over time, this may cause individuals to become out of touch with these bodily cues, leading to eating in response to emotions rather than physical sensations. Being unaware of our physical and mental sensations may prevent us from appropriately addressing our bodily state and promote emotional eating.

Emotional eating has been associated with a reversed stress response in individuals who experienced chronic early life stress. In these cases, levels of the stress hormone cortisol are reduced rather than increased following a stressor.

As a result, individuals are more likely to experience increased rather than decreased appetite after stress. Read more about the impact of sleep on appetite and eating behavior in this blog post.

We may be more susceptible to stress eating if our gut health is off. Research shows that our gut bacteria play a role in the metabolism of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward pathways, as well as serotonin , acetylcholine, and norepinephrine.

As a result, our gut may indirectly influence our eating behavior through changes in our mood. Emotional eating tends to take place with external eating. Not only can eating provide distraction from our boredom , it can increase levels of dopamine, too.

Perfectionism is a personality style characterized by striving for excellence and setting extremely high standards of performance. Negative perfectionism may increase stress levels, and has been studied for its effects on emotional eating. On a short term-basis, highly palatable foods can provide relief from negative emotions like stress and anxiety and improve mood states.

Because of these adaptations, food may need to be more palatable in order to have the same stress-busting effects. Research also suggests that continued stress may not even be necessary in order to initiate the urge for highly palatable foods, meaning that stress eating can become a habit even in the absence of stress.

In one study , researchers suggested that some individuals mistook overeating with emotional eating when they reflected on their food intake from the prior evening. Was I tired, lonely, bored, or anxious?

Did I crave a specific food, taste or texture? Did I feel guilty or uneasy while eating or immediately afterwards?

Are you hungry, angry, lonely, or tired? Unsure of how to build a balanced meal? Our balanced plate framework is the perfect place to start. And if you struggle with finding time to eat during stressful times, simple actions like setting an alarm on your phone to eat or scheduling your lunch break into your calendar can help to promote regular meal times.

Keyword: Practice. The skill of mindful eating is like a muscle; the more we use it, the stronger it gets. Mindful eating is a practice that engages all of our senses to experience and enjoy our food choices. Eating more slowly, chewing thoroughly, acknowledging where your food came from, and noticing the color, smell, taste, and textures of food are all examples of mindful eating.

Journaling aids in processing emotions, creates pause, and provides clarity, so while it may help with your emotional eating journey, you may find that it lowers overall stress levels too. Some useful journal prompts include: What was happening before my bout of emotional eating?

What emotions trigger me to emotionally eat? How else can I cope with these emotions? Have I eaten enough food today? Have I eaten regularly today? What would be helpful for me instead of eating? Building a list of strategies to deal with emotions like stress, loneliness, sadness, boredom, or anxiety, can offer solutions when your mental state is compromised or your brainstorming power is limited.

For example, I know that listening to my favorite Spotify playlist and organizing my space helps ease my stress and switching up my scenery and calling a friend helps to address feelings of loneliness.

Emotional eating may be the result of unmet needs. Improving your sleep , engaging in regular exercise, eating balanced meals, staying connected to loved ones, relaxing, flexing your creative skills, and feeling fulfilled are essential to preventing feelings of deprivation.

Holding onto feelings of guilt and shame during or after a bout of emotional eating only extends the emotional experience. Do your best to reflect back on the events that led to your experience, identify areas that may need more attention, and move forward with a growth mindset.

Sticking to a consistent bedtime schedule, eating at regular times throughout the day, and treating workouts like appointments with yourself may sound dull, but sparing mental energy and decision-making power is key during stressful and emotional times.

Habits are like mental shortcuts that help to automate our behavior, so while building health habits may feel effortful at first, they may actually save us effort in the long-run.

I personally love SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. The emotional eating cycle can be vicious, but a little awareness can go a long way.

Occasionally using food to lift your spirits or even amplify positive emotions is a perfectly normal part of life, but leaning heavily on food for comfort may be counterproductive to your health goals.