by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: January 23, 2009

Often the most difficult challenge facing people trying to lose weight is trying to get a grip on their relationship with food. Food seems to be both their best friend and their worst enemy, because it seems to provide them with comfort when they are down but ultimately makes them feel bad about themselves, particularly if they gain weight. Emotional eating often provides a major obstacle to weight loss, and it can be difficult to re-programme yourself to think differently about food, but it can be done.

Firstly, it is important for people to recognise and acknowledge their tendency to turn to food in an emotional way. Often individuals overeat and eat the wrong foods when they are depressed, but there are also those who eat when they are happy or angry, or experiencing any kind of emotion. It ends up getting to the stage where it is hard to disassociate food from your emotions, and so food becomes a kind of crutch to help you deal with things.

It can be comforting to eat a tub of ice cream or a bar of chocolate when you have a bad day, and for those people who have control of their weight and overall feel in control of their lives, this may be acceptable on occasion. However, this initial association between food and making yourself feel better has the potential to develop into a greater dependency on food for comfort, particularly if you have always had a difficult relationship with food and self-image.

This only seems to be recognised as a problem when people become overweight. If you are thin and eat emotionally it may be harder to recognise that such a relationship between food consumption and emotions exists. For overweight and obese individuals low self-esteem can play a significant role in encouraging them to continue eating the way they do rather than trying to tackle their diet and lose weight. They may feel bad because they are overweight and turn to food to comfort them, which may work for a short while until the guilt overwhelms them.

Often there is a sense of being out of control, and so ultimately the aim of stopping emotional eating is to make people feel that they are actually in control of what they eat and when they eat, and are not at the mercy of their emotions. Individuals have to recognise the triggers that cause them to overeat and to eat foods which have a comforting' quality to them if they are to do anything about the way they eat.

Emotional eaters need to try and re-condition themselves to see food as fuel and not an emotional crutch. It can help to create a new routine, so that there is less room to think about food in the same way they used to, and rather than eating food when they feel emotional, find some other activity to partake in. Exercise is particularly good for providing an emotional boost, but it can be any activity which is enjoyable, so that they come to associate emotion with an experience which does not involve eating but which does make them feel good about themselves.

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