5 Warning Signs That You Might Be Stress Eating And How To Overcome
When we encounter a stressful situation, there are usually drastic changes in our eating behaviours. We can cope with many negative emotions, such as disappointment, anger, regret or sadness, which are conditioned mainly by stress and can also be defined as emotional eating, consciously or unconsciously, by eating frequently. This change in our nutritional behaviours can manifest itself in the form of overeating or sometimes in the form of severe calorie restrictions. Also, there may be many hormonal reasons underlying uncontrolled eating behaviour and many reasons that you may not realize but may be under your control.
The most crucial factor that makes the desire to eat food so irrepressible and triggers it like a crisis is the hormone cortisol, secreted in significant amounts under stress. In fact, according to a study conducted by British researchers in 2017, the snacks consumed by individuals with high cortisone secretion while coping with problems in their daily lives are much more than those with low cortisol secretion. On the other hand, the hormone cortisol, which we secrete under stress, is not the only reason for emotional eating. When we are under extreme tension, we gravitate towards more sugary, spicy and fatty foods and feel happy with dopamine release. This neurochemical makes our brain feel like a "reward" during eating moments. But since dopamine also plays a role in the development of addictions over time, we often begin to associate emotional eating with pleasure, which can lead us to an endless cycle of emotional eating. What is crucially important here is to catch the warning signs of the problem that can lead you to a solution.
Identify what you are feeling, focus on the emotions you are dealing with, and develop solutions to calm yourself. For example, instead of suppressing your feelings by cramming eating, do an activity that gives you pleasure.
If you have forced both your physical and psychological health on a restrictive diet to lose weight quickly, leave this diet that cannot become a lifestyle in the long run. While focusing on what's healthy for your body, find a balanced diet that occasionally includes foods that give you pleasure, too.
Do not lose control by saying "all or nothing" when you cannot hold on to the diet list where you are chasing the perfect. Each day, you can make a fresh start to reach better than ideal with a balanced and realistic nutrition routine. And stop labelling foods, good and bad!
As much as we tend to eat to cope with negative emotions, we can sometimes eat uncontrollably, especially with the joy and enthusiasm created by the celebrations. The important thing is to wait for a moment in the face of a conditioned eating attack to be aware of these feelings and think consciously about the food we take on our plates.
Since your brain is the body's number one consumer of glucose, we crave more sugar and caffeine after a sleepless night to get through a busy day and focus. Thus, we take in much more calories than usual due to many hormonal imbalances in our bodies. To break this cycle, you should set a nighttime routine and make sure you get at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
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