June 20, 2025 • 10 mins
How Does Emotional Eating Impact Weight Loss, And How Can You Control It?
Why do we reach for ice cream when we're sad or potato chips when we're stressed? The answer lies in understanding emotional eating—a powerful force that can completely derail weight loss progress and create unhealthy relationships with food.
Licensed nutritionist Catina Wilson breaks down the critical difference between physical hunger and emotional eating. While your body genuinely needs nourishment with physical hunger, emotional eating is a response to feelings—stress, boredom, anxiety, sadness, or even happiness. The telltale sign? When emotionally eating, we rarely crave salads or nutritious foods. Instead, we're magnetically drawn to calorie-dense comfort foods engineered to trigger addictive responses in our brains.
These manufactured foods contain chemicals and additives specifically designed to create cravings stronger than many drugs, explaining why breaking the emotional eating cycle feels nearly impossible for many people. But there's hope. By implementing a simple five-minute pause when cravings strike, you create space to assess what's really happening. Is this physical hunger, or am I responding to emotions? This small delay—combined with strategies like journaling, walking, or calling a friend—can prevent impulsive decisions you'll later regret. For deeper emotional patterns, especially those stemming from past trauma, professional therapy might provide the tools needed to develop healthier coping mechanisms.
Ready to transform your relationship with food and get your weight loss journey back on track? Visit ATLWellnessClinic.com or call 770-726-8978 for a free 10-minute weight loss consultation. Your healthier relationship with food starts with understanding these emotional connections.
To learn more about Atlanta Wellness Clinic visit:
https://www.ATLWellnessClinic.com
Atlanta Wellness Clinic
1827 Powers Ferry Rd. SE, Bldg 1 STE 250
Atlanta, Georgia 30339
770-726-8978
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
welcome to the Atlanta Wellness Clinic podcast
hosted by licensed nutritionistand clinic owner, katina Wilson.
We're here to kickstart yourweight loss journey because,
let's be honest, the only thingwe want gaining weight is our
wallets.
From medical weight loss andnutrition coaching to body
contouring, we help metro atlAtlanta women get real results.
(00:24):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We've all reached for food in moments of stress or
sadness, but when emotionaleating becomes a habit, it can
derail those weight loss goals.
What causes emotional eatingand how can you regain control
to build a healthierrelationship with food?
Welcome back everyone.
Millie M, co-host producer,back in the studio with licensed
nutritionist and clinic owner,Katina Wilson.
(00:49):
What's going on, katina?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hey, great topic, I'm ready to dig in.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes, ma'am, emotional eating is something that so
many people struggle with.
I know our listeners will gaina lot from this conversation.
So how does emotional eatingimpact weight loss and how can
you control it?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, it's a huge hurdle.
I mean, it can actuallyliterally derail.
You know, you hear about thisall the time where people
they've been on a weight lossjourney and then something
happens, something triggers them, something bad happens and then
they they start reaching forthe comfort foods.
And that's the challenge withemotional eating.
It is a major hurdle andtypically it is in response to
(01:29):
something emotional.
It could be stress, it could beboredom, it could be sadness,
loneliness, for some people evenhappiness, right, and it's
different than physical hunger,because physical hunger you need
.
You need that hunger.
It's reminding you you needfood to survive.
Emotional it's typically you'retrying to cope with something,
(01:50):
you're trying to suppresssomething, whatever that
emotional thing that's going on.
And, yeah, we see it all thetime.
I've had it throughout my life.
It's derailed me numerous times.
Right, I know it's derailedothers who are on the weight
loss journey and so, yeah,typically we see it as a form of
coping mechanism, again,whether you're trying to
(02:11):
suppress or just kind of copewith whatever traumatic thing or
stressful thing is going on inyour life at the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
It's a classic trope that we see in television.
Whenever a young lady getsbreaks up with her boyfriend, we
see her in the bed with a tubof ice cream, like.
I guess that sensation ofeating feels good physically and
is there to soothe thatemotional.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It feels good in the moment because you're craving
that ice cream or that pizza orthat popcorn or whatever that
unhealthy thing is.
And the thing with emotionaleating is you're not reaching
for a salad, you're reaching forthe calorie dense foods, and
that what's going to lead you toovereating?
It's going to lead you intotaking in more calories than
(02:54):
your body actually needs, which,in turn, is going to cause you
to gain the weight right.
And so that's the difference, Iguess, between like physical
hunger.
Physical hunger, it could besatisfied with a salad, it could
be satisfied like with anything, but with emotional eating, it
tends to come on fairly fast,pretty intense, and the only
(03:15):
thing that's going to reallysatisfy it is whatever you're
craving in the moment thatchocolate, that ice cream, that
pizza, or for me, like all ofthe above, the difference so
what are some strategies torecognize and stop emotional
eating in the moment?
Yeah.
So I think it's about and Ifeel I feel like in one of our
podcasts we talked a little bitabout this around like mindful
(03:36):
eating.
Take a pause If you feel likekind of in the immediate term,
if you feel like that I have tohave this piece of cake, maybe
wait five minutes, drink somewater, go for a walk, call a
friend, you know, journal likewhat you're feeling in the
moment, and then come back anddecide am I really hungry, do I
(03:57):
really want this cake or is itsomething else?
Because it really is is if youeat that cake in the moment, if
you just immediately jump intoit, you're going to feel bad
later and that's not good either, right?
So maybe take a little bit of apause and just kind of assess
like what's going on and reallytry to identify those feelings,
because maybe once you start toidentify those feelings, then
(04:18):
you can kind of determine isthis truly physical hunger, can
it be satisfied with somethinghealthier, or is there something
emotional going on that I needto deal with in a different way?
So that's one of the thingsthat I would say in the
immediate term that I thinkwould be helpful.
Longer term, I do think we haveto think about, like what are
(04:39):
our emotional triggers, what arethe things that we maybe we
need to deal with and that mayinvolve, you know, even talking
to a professional therapist tohelp work through whatever those
emotional things are.
But I think in the moment,maybe just taking a little bit
of a pause, really trying tointernalize, like, what is it
that you're feeling?
(04:59):
Like I said journal talk to afriend, go for a walk.
I think if you start to createthat habit, it will help guide
you into healthier patterns.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Just taking a break sometimes will give you some
clarity, and I've been therestanding in front of the
refrigerator, knowing I just hada snack 15 minutes ago, going
why am I in here?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Oh, absolutely, and then it's also going to help you
learn to differentiate thetypes of emotions that you have.
When I've started to take abreak now, I know like sometimes
, when I have that tense feeling, maybe it's anxiety or
something that's coming on whenI start to feel it in my stomach
, and so maybe it's not the cakeor the pizza that I'm really
craving right now that I reallyreally want it's oh, I need to
deal with whatever.
This is causing this anxiety,right?
(05:41):
So if you start to figure outand learn and put words to
whatever the emotional feelingis that you have again, I think
we can start to create, you know, better patterns longer term.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Absolutely, and you and I talked about this earlier.
I think I'm more of an anxiouseater than an emotional eater,
because every day at my desk, attwo or three o'clock in the
afternoon, it was somethingcrunchy which might be potato
chips, which is not thehealthiest thing to eat.
So I had to understand why wasI doing this and what emotion I
was feeling in order to replaceit with something healthier.
So you're a nutritionist.
(06:13):
So if, when I get to heaven, Igot a question that I need to
ask God, is that why are thethings that are so bad for us
taste so good?
So why do the comfort foodstend to be high in sugar, fat
and carbs?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Because they're manmade.
Right, they're manmade, they'vebeen designed that way.
There's all these chemicals.
I am an engineer, or, as afriend of mine likes to say, I
am a reformed engineer.
So I went to school with allthese chemical engineers.
They are literally manipulatingthe food, especially like
packaged and processed foods,and so there are all these extra
(06:54):
ingredients.
Many of that you and I cannoteven pronounce that when you eat
it enough, it's like a drug,it's actually stronger than a
drug, and so that's why you'recraving it, because you've now
introduced it into your system.
Your system doesn't know whatit is, but it likes the way that
it feels, and so now it'scraving it.
So the reason for that isbecause it's man-made and
they've introduced so manydifferent types of chemicals and
(07:15):
additives and all of thesethings that, again, we can't
even pronounce into the food,and now we're taking it in.
That's why you're craving it.
So you know one way as anutritionist and you hear a lot
of nutritionists I'm nodifferent we tend to like to
focus on real food, whole food,because you know what you put in
there.
You know how much sugar, youknow how much salt.
(07:36):
You're not putting all thisextra other stuff that's in
there, right?
So if you can start to cook yourown food right, you know what
you're eating, what you'reputting in it.
You can start to like weanyourself off of some of these
other kind of like unhealthyfoods, the foods that are
causing you to crave but yeah,but a lot of it.
It starts with the fact thatit's manmade and they put so
(07:57):
many things in there that youstarted to crave it.
You're craving it like a drug.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
See, I didn't need a higher power, I have you.
So are there medical orbehavioral treatments that can
help break the cycle ofemotional eating?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I think it starts with, if you're trying to do it
on your own, I think it startswith again pausing, trying to be
more mindful about what you'reeating, right, and so what
you're feeling in the moment isit truly hunger or is it thirst,
or is it something else?
And if it's something else,again let's like journal there.
So there's some things you cando there.
So let's journal what are youfeeling?
(08:34):
Why is it feeling?
What triggered it?
That sort of thing you canstart to learn.
You journal enough, you canstart to learn from some of
those trends that you're seeingand then maybe you can start to
create some better habits thatway.
But for some people this hasbeen like a lifelong journey and
it probably started with somesort of traumatic event that
happened, you know, at a muchearlier time in their life, and
sometimes it's bigger.
(08:55):
You need something bigger andstronger than your journal or
even your circle of friends, andthat's why I suggested earlier
depending upon like what thetraumatic thing is, it may
require talking to a licensedtherapist, somebody that can
help you navigate the traumaticexperience but then also, at the
same time, help you start tocreate some better, some better
(09:15):
coping strategies, spiritualexperience, going through your
relationship with food, and Ilove how you said before these
emotions, even happy ones,because food is at the center of
a lot that we do, evenbirthdays, thanksgiving,
christmas, happy times, sadtimes.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So understanding that relationship and taking that
pause will definitely helppeople.
This is such a powerfuldiscussion.
Thank you for sharing thesepractical strategies for
overcoming emotional eating andto our listeners, we will see
you next time for more ways tobuild lasting, healthy habits.
Thank you, katina.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Thank you, Millie.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's a wrap on this episode of the Atlanta Wellness
Clinic podcast.
If you're ready to kickstartyour weight loss journey and not
just your bathroom scale andfrustration, ready to kickstart
your weight loss journey and notjust your bathroom scale and
frustration, visitATLWellnessCliniccom or call us
at 770-726-8978 for a free10-minute weight loss
consultation, because the besttime to start was yesterday, the
(10:19):
second best time right now.
See you next time.
welcome to the Atlanta Wellness Clinic podcast
hosted by licensed nutritionistand clinic owner, katina Wilson.
We're here to kickstart yourweight loss journey because,
let's be honest, the only thingwe want gaining weight is our
wallets.
From medical weight loss andnutrition coaching to body
contouring, we help metro atlAtlanta women get real results.
(00:24):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We've all reached for food in moments of stress or
sadness, but when emotionaleating becomes a habit, it can
derail those weight loss goals.
What causes emotional eatingand how can you regain control
to build a healthierrelationship with food?
Welcome back everyone.
Millie M, co-host producer,back in the studio with licensed
nutritionist and clinic owner,Katina Wilson.
(00:49):
What's going on, katina?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Hey, great topic, I'm ready to dig in.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes, ma'am, emotional eating is something that so
many people struggle with.
I know our listeners will gaina lot from this conversation.
So how does emotional eatingimpact weight loss and how can
you control it?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, it's a huge hurdle.
I mean, it can actuallyliterally derail.
You know, you hear about thisall the time where people
they've been on a weight lossjourney and then something
happens, something triggers them, something bad happens and then
they they start reaching forthe comfort foods.
And that's the challenge withemotional eating.
It is a major hurdle andtypically it is in response to
(01:29):
something emotional.
It could be stress, it could beboredom, it could be sadness,
loneliness, for some people evenhappiness, right, and it's
different than physical hunger,because physical hunger you need
.
You need that hunger.
It's reminding you you needfood to survive.
Emotional it's typically you'retrying to cope with something,
(01:50):
you're trying to suppresssomething, whatever that
emotional thing that's going on.
And, yeah, we see it all thetime.
I've had it throughout my life.
It's derailed me numerous times.
Right, I know it's derailedothers who are on the weight
loss journey and so, yeah,typically we see it as a form of
coping mechanism, again,whether you're trying to
(02:11):
suppress or just kind of copewith whatever traumatic thing or
stressful thing is going on inyour life at the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
It's a classic trope that we see in television.
Whenever a young lady getsbreaks up with her boyfriend, we
see her in the bed with a tubof ice cream, like.
I guess that sensation ofeating feels good physically and
is there to soothe thatemotional.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
It feels good in the moment because you're craving
that ice cream or that pizza orthat popcorn or whatever that
unhealthy thing is.
And the thing with emotionaleating is you're not reaching
for a salad, you're reaching forthe calorie dense foods, and
that what's going to lead you toovereating?
It's going to lead you intotaking in more calories than
(02:54):
your body actually needs, which,in turn, is going to cause you
to gain the weight right.
And so that's the difference, Iguess, between like physical
hunger.
Physical hunger, it could besatisfied with a salad, it could
be satisfied like with anything, but with emotional eating, it
tends to come on fairly fast,pretty intense, and the only
(03:15):
thing that's going to reallysatisfy it is whatever you're
craving in the moment thatchocolate, that ice cream, that
pizza, or for me, like all ofthe above, the difference so
what are some strategies torecognize and stop emotional
eating in the moment?
Yeah.
So I think it's about and Ifeel I feel like in one of our
podcasts we talked a little bitabout this around like mindful
(03:36):
eating.
Take a pause If you feel likekind of in the immediate term,
if you feel like that I have tohave this piece of cake, maybe
wait five minutes, drink somewater, go for a walk, call a
friend, you know, journal likewhat you're feeling in the
moment, and then come back anddecide am I really hungry, do I
(03:57):
really want this cake or is itsomething else?
Because it really is is if youeat that cake in the moment, if
you just immediately jump intoit, you're going to feel bad
later and that's not good either, right?
So maybe take a little bit of apause and just kind of assess
like what's going on and reallytry to identify those feelings,
because maybe once you start toidentify those feelings, then
(04:18):
you can kind of determine isthis truly physical hunger, can
it be satisfied with somethinghealthier, or is there something
emotional going on that I needto deal with in a different way?
So that's one of the thingsthat I would say in the
immediate term that I thinkwould be helpful.
Longer term, I do think we haveto think about, like what are
(04:39):
our emotional triggers, what arethe things that we maybe we
need to deal with and that mayinvolve, you know, even talking
to a professional therapist tohelp work through whatever those
emotional things are.
But I think in the moment,maybe just taking a little bit
of a pause, really trying tointernalize, like, what is it
that you're feeling?
(04:59):
Like I said journal talk to afriend, go for a walk.
I think if you start to createthat habit, it will help guide
you into healthier patterns.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Just taking a break sometimes will give you some
clarity, and I've been therestanding in front of the
refrigerator, knowing I just hada snack 15 minutes ago, going
why am I in here?
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Oh, absolutely, and then it's also going to help you
learn to differentiate thetypes of emotions that you have.
When I've started to take abreak now, I know like sometimes
, when I have that tense feeling, maybe it's anxiety or
something that's coming on whenI start to feel it in my stomach
, and so maybe it's not the cakeor the pizza that I'm really
craving right now that I reallyreally want it's oh, I need to
deal with whatever.
This is causing this anxiety,right?
(05:41):
So if you start to figure outand learn and put words to
whatever the emotional feelingis that you have again, I think
we can start to create, you know, better patterns longer term.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Absolutely, and you and I talked about this earlier.
I think I'm more of an anxiouseater than an emotional eater,
because every day at my desk, attwo or three o'clock in the
afternoon, it was somethingcrunchy which might be potato
chips, which is not thehealthiest thing to eat.
So I had to understand why wasI doing this and what emotion I
was feeling in order to replaceit with something healthier.
So you're a nutritionist.
(06:13):
So if, when I get to heaven, Igot a question that I need to
ask God, is that why are thethings that are so bad for us
taste so good?
So why do the comfort foodstend to be high in sugar, fat
and carbs?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Because they're manmade.
Right, they're manmade, they'vebeen designed that way.
There's all these chemicals.
I am an engineer, or, as afriend of mine likes to say, I
am a reformed engineer.
So I went to school with allthese chemical engineers.
They are literally manipulatingthe food, especially like
packaged and processed foods,and so there are all these extra
(06:54):
ingredients.
Many of that you and I cannoteven pronounce that when you eat
it enough, it's like a drug,it's actually stronger than a
drug, and so that's why you'recraving it, because you've now
introduced it into your system.
Your system doesn't know whatit is, but it likes the way that
it feels, and so now it'scraving it.
So the reason for that isbecause it's man-made and
they've introduced so manydifferent types of chemicals and
(07:15):
additives and all of thesethings that, again, we can't
even pronounce into the food,and now we're taking it in.
That's why you're craving it.
So you know one way as anutritionist and you hear a lot
of nutritionists I'm nodifferent we tend to like to
focus on real food, whole food,because you know what you put in
there.
You know how much sugar, youknow how much salt.
(07:36):
You're not putting all thisextra other stuff that's in
there, right?
So if you can start to cook yourown food right, you know what
you're eating, what you'reputting in it.
You can start to like weanyourself off of some of these
other kind of like unhealthyfoods, the foods that are
causing you to crave but yeah,but a lot of it.
It starts with the fact thatit's manmade and they put so
(07:57):
many things in there that youstarted to crave it.
You're craving it like a drug.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
See, I didn't need a higher power, I have you.
So are there medical orbehavioral treatments that can
help break the cycle ofemotional eating?
Speaker 3 (08:13):
I think it starts with, if you're trying to do it
on your own, I think it startswith again pausing, trying to be
more mindful about what you'reeating, right, and so what
you're feeling in the moment isit truly hunger or is it thirst,
or is it something else?
And if it's something else,again let's like journal there.
So there's some things you cando there.
So let's journal what are youfeeling?
(08:34):
Why is it feeling?
What triggered it?
That sort of thing you canstart to learn.
You journal enough, you canstart to learn from some of
those trends that you're seeingand then maybe you can start to
create some better habits thatway.
But for some people this hasbeen like a lifelong journey and
it probably started with somesort of traumatic event that
happened, you know, at a muchearlier time in their life, and
sometimes it's bigger.
(08:55):
You need something bigger andstronger than your journal or
even your circle of friends, andthat's why I suggested earlier
depending upon like what thetraumatic thing is, it may
require talking to a licensedtherapist, somebody that can
help you navigate the traumaticexperience but then also, at the
same time, help you start tocreate some better, some better
(09:15):
coping strategies, spiritualexperience, going through your
relationship with food, and Ilove how you said before these
emotions, even happy ones,because food is at the center of
a lot that we do, evenbirthdays, thanksgiving,
christmas, happy times, sadtimes.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
So understanding that relationship and taking that
pause will definitely helppeople.
This is such a powerfuldiscussion.
Thank you for sharing thesepractical strategies for
overcoming emotional eating andto our listeners, we will see
you next time for more ways tobuild lasting, healthy habits.
Thank you, katina.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Thank you, Millie.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
That's a wrap on this episode of the Atlanta Wellness
Clinic podcast.
If you're ready to kickstartyour weight loss journey and not
just your bathroom scale andfrustration, ready to kickstart
your weight loss journey and notjust your bathroom scale and
frustration, visitATLWellnessCliniccom or call us
at 770-726-8978 for a free10-minute weight loss
consultation, because the besttime to start was yesterday, the
(10:19):
second best time right now.
See you next time.
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