Diet & Fitness Blog
Emotional Eating: Are You an Emotional Eater?
Email PageBy Dr. Roger Gould
eDiets Contributor
I eat because I'm ravenously hungry. I eat because I'm bored, or lonely, or married or single. I eat because I pass a doughnut shop, or because I had too much to drink, or was at a party, or because my mother cooked and I didn't want to disappoint her, or because I want to eat as much as my husband can, or I don't want to deprive myself or I'm depressed.
Do any of these excuses for overeating sound familiar? If so, it's a good bet that your weight problem is closely linked to the phenomenon of emotional eating. You've somehow chosen eating as your preferred way to handle negative emotions.
This psychological pattern makes you fall off the diet wagon time and time again. Are you ready to finally take charge of your hunger, your weight and your life?
There is no magical bullet for your extra pounds. First, you must learn to control your emotional eating and, in effect, flick off your hunger switch. Only then can a great healthy eating plan allow you to take off the weight and keep it off.
Let's get started on the path to a better life. The first step is to take an insightful little emotional eating quiz to determine if you indeed are an emotional eater.
Simply answer the following seven questions, then check out what your answers mean.
The last time you ate too much:
1. Did you notice your hunger coming on fast, or did it grow gradually?
2. When you got hungry, did you feel an almost desperate need to eat something right away?
3. When you ate, did you pay attention to what went in your mouth, or did you just stuff it in?
4. When you got hungry, would any nutritious food have sufficed, or did you need a certain type of food or treat to satisfy yourself?
5. Did you feel guilty after you ate?
6. Did you eat when you were emotionally upset or experiencing feelings of "emptiness?"
7. Did you stuff in the food very quickly?
Go to the Emotional Eating Quiz answers…
Comment by 
Jessica said... - Sunday, August 31, 2008 3:20:00 PM
my mother has told me that she thought i was an emotional eater. which i disagreed with. i didn't really know what that meant.it's not like i have a bad day and come home and eat a cheesecake. I took this quiz and 4 out of 7 rated emotional. with the explanations i now know what to look for. i now can consciously evaluated my food and emotions and the onset of my hunger before i stuff my face.lol. thank you.
Comment by John said... - Wednesday, September 03, 2008 7:04:00 AM
After reading this I was surprised. I now realized that I can control and watch out for the signs of emotional eating. Thanks for the wake up.
Comment by cin-dee said... - Friday, October 23, 2009 1:19:00 AM
I have known for ever that I eat when I'm depressed. I also eat because of my chronic pain. Sometimes the pain is so overwhelming that even meds don't work, so I eat to divert myself from my pain...and then its just for momentary relief. I've learned recently that people who are severely depressed don't eat. So in a ways, gaining weight in depression is a better sign....but gaining weight makes me more depressed! Its a yo-yo problem.
Comment by 
said... - Monday, October 26, 2009 8:40:00 AM
I think am more of an emotional eater than a food addict. In the past I was in denial of my eating habits. Now I realize that I do have an eating disorder that I need to work on before it's too late. I do want to live longer and be healthier than ever before. So far, I have lost 25 pounds and I still have a lot of weight to lose. I am really proud of myself for what I have accomplished. It took a very long time for me to lose the weight.
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