March 5, 2025 • 11 mins
Do you find yourself reaching for food when you’re stressed, bored, or overwhelmed—only to feel guilty afterward? Emotional eating can feel like an endless cycle, but the good news is, you can break free.
In this episode, I’m diving into why we emotionally eat, the hidden triggers behind it, and practical steps to finally stop. You'll learn:
✔️ How to identify emotional vs. physical hunger
✔️ Why willpower alone isn’t the answer
✔️ Simple strategies to handle emotions without turning to food
✔️ How to create a sustainable plan for long-term success
If you’re tired of feeling stuck and ready for real change, this episode is for you!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the Eat Well, ThinkWell, Live Well podcast.
(00:02):
I'm Lisa Salisbury, and this isepisode 137, Why You Keep
Emotional Eating, and How toFinally Stop.
Welcome to eat well.
Well, the podcast for busy womenwho want to lose weight without
constantly counting, tracking,or stressing over every bite.
I'm Lisa Salsbury, a certifiedhealth weight loss and life
(00:24):
coach, and most importantly, arecovered chronic dieter here.
You'll learn to listen to yourbody and uncover the reasons
you're reaching for food.
When you're not truly hungry,freeing you to focus on a
healthier, more fulfillingapproach to eating.
Welcome back.
So glad you are here today forthis solo episode.
(00:46):
Picture yourself.
It's been a long day.
You're exhausted.
You come home and suddenly thatsnack at the pantry feels like
the answer to all your problems.
Sound familiar?
There's lots of scenarios I cangive here, but emotional eating
is something so many of usstruggle with.
But today we're going to talkabout how to finally break that
(01:09):
cycle, hopefully for good.
So if you've ever found yourselfreaching for food when you're
not physically hungry, feelingguilty afterwards, or stuck in a
cycle of stress eating, thisepisode is for you.
I'm going to break down whyemotional eating happens and how
to slow it down and maybe evenstop it for good.
(01:30):
First, I want to start withdefinition of what emotional
eating really is.
Because remember that in all mycontent, I do not want you to
ignore Your physical hunger.
I do not want you to try to eatas little as possible.
That is not the goal here.
We are trying to eat a littlebit less than what you're eating
(01:50):
in maintenance so that youcreate a little bit of a calorie
deficit.
So just hear me that this isvery different than responding
to your physical hunger.
So emotional eating is when weuse food to cope with emotions
rather than to satisfy physicalhunger.
That's, that's the like.
Basic definition.
It's important to recognize thatthis is completely normal.
(02:14):
Food is comforting, and ourbrains are wired to seek
pleasure and avoid discomfort.
But when emotional eatingbecomes a habit, it can lead to
weight gain, frustration, andfeeling out of control around
food.
The key difference betweenemotional hunger and physical
hunger are a few things.
(02:36):
So, Let's start with the factthat physical hunger builds
gradually and can be satisfiedwith a variety of foods.
Emotional hunger comes onsuddenly, often feels a little
bit like an emergency, isusually associated with a
craving for a specific food,often a comfort food, like
(02:57):
chips, chocolate, ice cream,etc.
Physical hunger occurs aftersome time from your last meal
Emotional hunger can occuranytime, regardless of the last
meal you ate, and in fact canoccur still while you are
eating.
Um, this is why, um, the urge toget seconds is often really
(03:20):
emotional hunger.
Emotional hunger is often tiedto a feeling like stress,
boredom, loneliness, orcelebration.
Also the feeling of FOMO.
Right?
Which is kind of hard to putinto a single emotion word, but
that fear of missing out, that'soften what's triggering those
seconds, the eating more, thatI'll never get this again, that
(03:43):
is associated with emotionalhunger.
So those are kind of the keydifferences between the two.
And I think you probably knowmost of the time when you're
emotionally eating, it doesn'talways look like crying face
down into a tub of ice cream.
There's a lot of reasons why weemotionally eat.
And I think this kind of helpsyou really, um, parse that out.
(04:06):
So we know what it is, but whyis it so hard to break the cycle
of emotional eating?
Number one, like I said, in thedefinitions, your brain is wired
for comfort.
Food gives us a quick hit ofdopamine, making us feel good in
the moment.
That's how your brain isdesigned.
But this reinforces the habit,making us more likely to turn to
(04:28):
food when we feel stressed oroverwhelmed.
And again, I'll say my favoritesaying Food works.
It just does.
It's normal for food to becomforting.
We've done it since we werebabies.
Nothing is really wrong hereother than when emotionally
eating is preventing us fromliving our healthiest lives.
And we want to kind of eat alittle bit less, like I said, to
(04:51):
get into that little bit of adeficit so we can start losing
weight.
Number two, diet culture makesit worse.
If you've been restrictingfoods, like in particular foods,
groups of foods, or followingstrict diets, emotional eating
can become a form of rebellionor a relief from deprivation.
(05:13):
When we label foods as bad, wecreate guilt around eating,
which fuels the emotional eatingcycle even more.
This is one reason I oftenassign clients to plan pleasure
foods or quality of life foods.
Essentially anything that youthink is going to be quote
unquote bad for weight loss.
Because you've got to startviewing these things as foods
(05:35):
you can occasionally incorporateinto your life.
Not as bad.
And not as cheat meals.
Number three, it's not justabout willpower emotional eating
isn't a lack of self control.
It's a learned coping mechanism.
The good news, just like anyhabit, it can be unlearned and
(05:56):
replaced with healthierstrategies.
This is due to theneuroplasticity of the brain.
We can rewire.
Okay, So how is that done?
How do we rewire?
Let's talk about actually how tostop emotionally eating.
I'm going to give you three keysteps.
Number one, awareness first.
The next time you find yourselfreaching for food, pause.
(06:19):
Ask yourself, am I physicallyhungry or is this an emotional
need?
You probably don't need to dothis when you're sitting down
for dinner, right?
Because you know you're readyfor a meal, it's physical
hunger.
But if you're reaching for foodin between meals, this can be a
helpful question.
Keep a simple journal where youknow what you ate and why.
Food journaling again.
(06:40):
Oh, she's like a broken record.
I know.
I know.
Over time though, you'll startto see patterns.
This is great, great data.
Maybe you always snack late atnight, out of boredom.
Or you overeat after a stressfulmeeting in the middle of the
afternoon.
Instead of judging yourself, Getcurious.
This is all part of theawareness.
(07:00):
Your brain is giving you a clueabout what it needs.
If you don't think to do this inthe moment, which totally can
happen, you can do a reflectionat the end of the day and,
without judgment, ask yourself,did I do any emotional eating
today?
Give yourself a metaphoricalhug.
Be gentle, okay?
(07:20):
Be kind.
That's when you can get someawareness.
It sounds like, hey babe, whatwas going on today that felt
like food would make it better?
Often when we are first tryingto create awareness, we aren't
going to be able to stop rightin the moment of first grabbing
the food, and that is fine.
So this end of day reflectioncan be a good alternative until
(07:41):
we can ask these questions inthe moment.
Anything we can do to createawareness around this is going
to Be helpful.
Number two, create a newresponse.
And this hearkens back just likethe awareness piece.
This also new response hearkensback to just a few weeks ago
when I was talking about thehabit loop and replacing your
(08:01):
habit with something different.
You can choose your new responsebased on your awareness of what
is causing the emotional eating.
So, for example, if stress isyour trigger, you can try deep
breathing, taking a quick walkor stretching instead of eating.
If you notice that boredom isleading to your snacking, engage
(08:23):
your hands.
Try a craft, journal, practice amusical instrument, or just call
a friend.
If comfort is your goal, findanother way to soothe yourself.
A warm shower or bath, a cozyblanket, a great playlist.
These can be just as comfortingas food.
(08:44):
Alright, and number three, weneed to shift your mindset
around food.
I have tons of episodes aboutthis, but here's a few ways to
start to shift that mindset.
First and foremost, stoplabeling foods as bad or off
limits.
Honestly, I could just stopright here.
This is the whole list.
This is a big one.
(09:04):
When we make certain foodsforbidden, they become even more
desirable, which can lead tobinging or just overeating them.
They also feel scarce and oftenlike a last supper.
This is the last time I'll eatthis.
And from here on out, I'm goingto be good.
That's a recipe for disaster,but let's be honest.
We've probably all said thatkind of thing to ourselves.
(09:26):
And then we need to learn to sitwith discomfort.
Sometimes we eat to avoidfeelings, and instead, I want
you to to feel the feelings.
Emotions are temporary, as muchas your brain wants to tell you
that it's never going to goaway.
They do pass if we allow themto.
(09:46):
Allowing your feelings to bepresent in the body instead of
pushing them down with food is askill, no doubt about it.
It's one of the biggest things Icoach my clients on.
It's quite different than whiteknuckling your way through the
evening without running to thepantry.
It's about noticing the cravingand not reacting or resisting.
(10:06):
You are choosing not to respondto it.
There's a lot involved withallowing a craving, and it
really is an entire unit in mycoaching program.
So this is just the high level,but, you know, start sitting
with it.
Start practicing that, try to bepresent with what you truly want
to feel in just 30 minutes fromnow.
(10:27):
Don't worry about your long termgoals.
When you are having a cravingthat hardly ever is helpful.
You just want to think about howyour body will feel.
Shortly after eating that food.
Here's some final thoughts.
Emotional eating doesn't meanyou're broken.
I'm going to say that again.
Emotional eating does not meanyou are broken or that something
(10:50):
is wrong with you.
It just means your brain haslearned to use food as a coping
mechanism.
Having cravings is not aproblem.
They are just another emotion toprocess.
It's the responding habit.
That is what we are trying tochange, that automatic habit to
that craving that we want tokind of attack, if you will.
(11:15):
Habits can be unlearned.
The key is to get curious, notcritical.
If you found this episodehelpful, I'd love for you to
share it with a friend who mightneed it.
And if you're ready to breakfree from emotional eating and
finally create a sustainableapproach to food, I invite you
to book a consult call with meto see if my full 12 week one on
(11:36):
one coaching program is rightfor you.
You can schedule it at the linkin the show notes.
Remember, it's not just aboutthe food.
It's about empowering yourselfwith the choices that truly
serve you.
Have a great week.
And as always, thanks forlistening and sharing the eat
well, think well, live wellpodcast.
This is the Eat Well, ThinkWell, Live Well podcast.
(00:02):
I'm Lisa Salisbury, and this isepisode 137, Why You Keep
Emotional Eating, and How toFinally Stop.
Welcome to eat well.
Well, the podcast for busy womenwho want to lose weight without
constantly counting, tracking,or stressing over every bite.
I'm Lisa Salsbury, a certifiedhealth weight loss and life
(00:24):
coach, and most importantly, arecovered chronic dieter here.
You'll learn to listen to yourbody and uncover the reasons
you're reaching for food.
When you're not truly hungry,freeing you to focus on a
healthier, more fulfillingapproach to eating.
Welcome back.
So glad you are here today forthis solo episode.
(00:46):
Picture yourself.
It's been a long day.
You're exhausted.
You come home and suddenly thatsnack at the pantry feels like
the answer to all your problems.
Sound familiar?
There's lots of scenarios I cangive here, but emotional eating
is something so many of usstruggle with.
But today we're going to talkabout how to finally break that
(01:09):
cycle, hopefully for good.
So if you've ever found yourselfreaching for food when you're
not physically hungry, feelingguilty afterwards, or stuck in a
cycle of stress eating, thisepisode is for you.
I'm going to break down whyemotional eating happens and how
to slow it down and maybe evenstop it for good.
(01:30):
First, I want to start withdefinition of what emotional
eating really is.
Because remember that in all mycontent, I do not want you to
ignore Your physical hunger.
I do not want you to try to eatas little as possible.
That is not the goal here.
We are trying to eat a littlebit less than what you're eating
(01:50):
in maintenance so that youcreate a little bit of a calorie
deficit.
So just hear me that this isvery different than responding
to your physical hunger.
So emotional eating is when weuse food to cope with emotions
rather than to satisfy physicalhunger.
That's, that's the like.
Basic definition.
It's important to recognize thatthis is completely normal.
(02:14):
Food is comforting, and ourbrains are wired to seek
pleasure and avoid discomfort.
But when emotional eatingbecomes a habit, it can lead to
weight gain, frustration, andfeeling out of control around
food.
The key difference betweenemotional hunger and physical
hunger are a few things.
(02:36):
So, Let's start with the factthat physical hunger builds
gradually and can be satisfiedwith a variety of foods.
Emotional hunger comes onsuddenly, often feels a little
bit like an emergency, isusually associated with a
craving for a specific food,often a comfort food, like
(02:57):
chips, chocolate, ice cream,etc.
Physical hunger occurs aftersome time from your last meal
Emotional hunger can occuranytime, regardless of the last
meal you ate, and in fact canoccur still while you are
eating.
Um, this is why, um, the urge toget seconds is often really
(03:20):
emotional hunger.
Emotional hunger is often tiedto a feeling like stress,
boredom, loneliness, orcelebration.
Also the feeling of FOMO.
Right?
Which is kind of hard to putinto a single emotion word, but
that fear of missing out, that'soften what's triggering those
seconds, the eating more, thatI'll never get this again, that
(03:43):
is associated with emotionalhunger.
So those are kind of the keydifferences between the two.
And I think you probably knowmost of the time when you're
emotionally eating, it doesn'talways look like crying face
down into a tub of ice cream.
There's a lot of reasons why weemotionally eat.
And I think this kind of helpsyou really, um, parse that out.
(04:06):
So we know what it is, but whyis it so hard to break the cycle
of emotional eating?
Number one, like I said, in thedefinitions, your brain is wired
for comfort.
Food gives us a quick hit ofdopamine, making us feel good in
the moment.
That's how your brain isdesigned.
But this reinforces the habit,making us more likely to turn to
(04:28):
food when we feel stressed oroverwhelmed.
And again, I'll say my favoritesaying Food works.
It just does.
It's normal for food to becomforting.
We've done it since we werebabies.
Nothing is really wrong hereother than when emotionally
eating is preventing us fromliving our healthiest lives.
And we want to kind of eat alittle bit less, like I said, to
(04:51):
get into that little bit of adeficit so we can start losing
weight.
Number two, diet culture makesit worse.
If you've been restrictingfoods, like in particular foods,
groups of foods, or followingstrict diets, emotional eating
can become a form of rebellionor a relief from deprivation.
(05:13):
When we label foods as bad, wecreate guilt around eating,
which fuels the emotional eatingcycle even more.
This is one reason I oftenassign clients to plan pleasure
foods or quality of life foods.
Essentially anything that youthink is going to be quote
unquote bad for weight loss.
Because you've got to startviewing these things as foods
(05:35):
you can occasionally incorporateinto your life.
Not as bad.
And not as cheat meals.
Number three, it's not justabout willpower emotional eating
isn't a lack of self control.
It's a learned coping mechanism.
The good news, just like anyhabit, it can be unlearned and
(05:56):
replaced with healthierstrategies.
This is due to theneuroplasticity of the brain.
We can rewire.
Okay, So how is that done?
How do we rewire?
Let's talk about actually how tostop emotionally eating.
I'm going to give you three keysteps.
Number one, awareness first.
The next time you find yourselfreaching for food, pause.
(06:19):
Ask yourself, am I physicallyhungry or is this an emotional
need?
You probably don't need to dothis when you're sitting down
for dinner, right?
Because you know you're readyfor a meal, it's physical
hunger.
But if you're reaching for foodin between meals, this can be a
helpful question.
Keep a simple journal where youknow what you ate and why.
Food journaling again.
(06:40):
Oh, she's like a broken record.
I know.
I know.
Over time though, you'll startto see patterns.
This is great, great data.
Maybe you always snack late atnight, out of boredom.
Or you overeat after a stressfulmeeting in the middle of the
afternoon.
Instead of judging yourself, Getcurious.
This is all part of theawareness.
(07:00):
Your brain is giving you a clueabout what it needs.
If you don't think to do this inthe moment, which totally can
happen, you can do a reflectionat the end of the day and,
without judgment, ask yourself,did I do any emotional eating
today?
Give yourself a metaphoricalhug.
Be gentle, okay?
(07:20):
Be kind.
That's when you can get someawareness.
It sounds like, hey babe, whatwas going on today that felt
like food would make it better?
Often when we are first tryingto create awareness, we aren't
going to be able to stop rightin the moment of first grabbing
the food, and that is fine.
So this end of day reflectioncan be a good alternative until
(07:41):
we can ask these questions inthe moment.
Anything we can do to createawareness around this is going
to Be helpful.
Number two, create a newresponse.
And this hearkens back just likethe awareness piece.
This also new response hearkensback to just a few weeks ago
when I was talking about thehabit loop and replacing your
(08:01):
habit with something different.
You can choose your new responsebased on your awareness of what
is causing the emotional eating.
So, for example, if stress isyour trigger, you can try deep
breathing, taking a quick walkor stretching instead of eating.
If you notice that boredom isleading to your snacking, engage
(08:23):
your hands.
Try a craft, journal, practice amusical instrument, or just call
a friend.
If comfort is your goal, findanother way to soothe yourself.
A warm shower or bath, a cozyblanket, a great playlist.
These can be just as comfortingas food.
(08:44):
Alright, and number three, weneed to shift your mindset
around food.
I have tons of episodes aboutthis, but here's a few ways to
start to shift that mindset.
First and foremost, stoplabeling foods as bad or off
limits.
Honestly, I could just stopright here.
This is the whole list.
This is a big one.
(09:04):
When we make certain foodsforbidden, they become even more
desirable, which can lead tobinging or just overeating them.
They also feel scarce and oftenlike a last supper.
This is the last time I'll eatthis.
And from here on out, I'm goingto be good.
That's a recipe for disaster,but let's be honest.
We've probably all said thatkind of thing to ourselves.
(09:26):
And then we need to learn to sitwith discomfort.
Sometimes we eat to avoidfeelings, and instead, I want
you to to feel the feelings.
Emotions are temporary, as muchas your brain wants to tell you
that it's never going to goaway.
They do pass if we allow themto.
(09:46):
Allowing your feelings to bepresent in the body instead of
pushing them down with food is askill, no doubt about it.
It's one of the biggest things Icoach my clients on.
It's quite different than whiteknuckling your way through the
evening without running to thepantry.
It's about noticing the cravingand not reacting or resisting.
(10:06):
You are choosing not to respondto it.
There's a lot involved withallowing a craving, and it
really is an entire unit in mycoaching program.
So this is just the high level,but, you know, start sitting
with it.
Start practicing that, try to bepresent with what you truly want
to feel in just 30 minutes fromnow.
(10:27):
Don't worry about your long termgoals.
When you are having a cravingthat hardly ever is helpful.
You just want to think about howyour body will feel.
Shortly after eating that food.
Here's some final thoughts.
Emotional eating doesn't meanyou're broken.
I'm going to say that again.
Emotional eating does not meanyou are broken or that something
(10:50):
is wrong with you.
It just means your brain haslearned to use food as a coping
mechanism.
Having cravings is not aproblem.
They are just another emotion toprocess.
It's the responding habit.
That is what we are trying tochange, that automatic habit to
that craving that we want tokind of attack, if you will.
(11:15):
Habits can be unlearned.
The key is to get curious, notcritical.
If you found this episodehelpful, I'd love for you to
share it with a friend who mightneed it.
And if you're ready to breakfree from emotional eating and
finally create a sustainableapproach to food, I invite you
to book a consult call with meto see if my full 12 week one on
(11:36):
one coaching program is rightfor you.
You can schedule it at the linkin the show notes.
Remember, it's not just aboutthe food.
It's about empowering yourselfwith the choices that truly
serve you.
Have a great week.
And as always, thanks forlistening and sharing the eat
well, think well, live wellpodcast.
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