How to recognize and stop the teen's emotional hunger?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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We do not always eat just to quench hunger. We often eat for comfort, stress relief, or actively absorb something delicious as a reward. Unfortunately, emotional hunger does not solve emotional problems. A teenager often resorts to food as the easiest way to relieve stress. And then, after a few days, he feels worse. Emotional problems remain, and then comes the feeling of guilt for overeating. We will teach a teenager to recognize emotional hunger and distinguish it from the real. These are important steps to free the brutal appetite from power.
What is emotional hunger?
Emotional hunger is when you do not feel like eating, but you want to experience the pleasure of the very taste of food. Chocolate, bar, cake, chips - products that give pleasant taste associations, but at the same time enrich the body with complex or bad carbohydrates, which do not satiate for a long time, but they give extra folds on the sides.
It is tasty to eat from time to time to reward yourself for something - there is nothing wrong with that for a teenager. Emotional hunger every day is the problem for weight, figure and self-esteem. When food becomes the main emotional mechanism of survival, when in a state of frustration your first impulse is to open the refrigerator, then you are stuck in an unhealthy cycle of eating habits.
Emotional hunger can not be filled with food. Food can give an opportunity to feel good at the moment, but the sensations that have caused the need for nutrition, have not gone away. And a teenager often feels worse than before because of the unnecessary calories he received. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that a teenager ceases to learn healthy ways of fighting his emotions, it is more difficult and difficult for him to control his weight, and he feels even more helpless.
Tip # 1: Identify the causes of emotional hunger
People eat for different reasons. The first step to stop emotional saturation is to determine your problem, which forces you to eat. What situations, places or feelings make you reach for food?
Keep in mind that although most of the cases of emotional satiety are associated with unpleasant sensations then food can also cause positive emotions, such as rewarding oneself or when a teenager celebrates a holiday or a joyful event.
Reasons for the emotional hunger of a teenager
Stress. Have you noticed how stress makes you hungry? This happens not only in your brain. When stress becomes chronic, as is often the case in our chaotic, rapidly changing world, this leads to a high level of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol causes cravings for salty, sweet and fatty foods, foods that give a rush of energy and a sense of pleasure. The more uncontrolled stress in a teenager's life, the more likely that he turns to food for emotional relief.
Getting emotions. Food can be a way of temporarily disabling or avoiding unpleasant emotions, including anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, resentment and shame. While a teenager distracts himself with food, he can avoid emotions that he does not want to feel.
Boredom or a feeling of emptiness. Have you ever eaten just to do something to get rid of boredom, or as a way to fill the void in your life? When a teenager feels emptiness, he can use food as a way to take his mouth and his time. It distracts him from a sense of purposelessness and dissatisfaction with his life.
Baby habits. When parents rewarded the baby's good behavior with ice cream or pizza, or sweets, it was nice, was not it? These emotional bases of children's eating a teenager often carries into adulthood.
Social influence. To sit with friends in a restaurant or cafe is a great way to relieve stress, but this can lead to overeating. This way is easy to abuse simply because there is such a possibility, and because everyone else is eating - so what's wrong with that? Overeating is always easier with the group - it gives the teenager a sense of rightness.
How to check that you are an emotional eater?
- Do you eat more when you feel stressed?
- Do you eat when you are not hungry or fully fed?
- Do you have other ways than food to feel better (when you are sad, boring, anxious, etc.)?
- Do you often want to reward yourself with food?
- Does it mean that food makes you feel safe?
- Do you feel powerless if you can not eat well?
The difference between emotional and physical hunger
Before you can get rid of emotional hunger, you first need to learn to distinguish between emotional and physical hunger. This can be more difficult than it seems, especially if you regularly use delicious food to combat your sensations.
Emotional hunger can be very powerful. As a result, it is easy to accept for physical hunger. These tips can help you figure it out.
Emotional hunger arises suddenly. He overtakes a teenager in an instant and makes you feel depressed. Physical hunger comes gradually. The desire to eat does not make you feel guilty after a teen has eaten.
Emotional hunger requires specific products. When you are physically hungry, almost everything is good for satisfying hunger, including healthy food such as vegetables. But emotional hunger is a thirst for fatty foods or sweet snacks that provide instant pleasure.
Emotional hunger is a lot of high-calorie food without any purpose. Before you realize this, that in fact you were not hungry, you already ate a whole package of chips or a triple portion of ice cream. When you feel physically hungry, you better understand what you are doing.
Emotional hunger does not give a feeling of satiety. You want to eat more and more, but the feeling of satiation does not come. Physical hunger, on the contrary, gives a feeling of satiety. You feel satisfied when your stomach is full.
Emotional hunger does not occur in the stomach. Instead of giving the stomach hungry rumbling signals, as happens in physical hunger, the desire to eat can not get out of the head of a teenager. At the same time, it focuses on specific products, tastes and smells.
Emotional hunger often leads to feelings of regret, guilt or shame. When you eat to satisfy a physical hunger, you are unlikely to feel guilty or ashamed, because you just give the body what it needs. If you feel guilty after having eaten, then most likely, you do not eat because you are hungry.
| Emotional hunger arises suddenly. | Physical hunger comes gradually. |
|---|---|
| With emotional hunger, a teenager feels that he must be satisfied immediately. | Physical hunger can wait. |
| Emotional hunger craves specific foods that give a sense of comfort. | Physical hunger is a lot of food choices, not specific foods. |
| Emotional hunger does not give a feeling of satiety. | Physical hunger stops when the teen is full. |
| Emotional eating causes feelings of guilt, helplessness and shame. | Food to satisfy physical hunger will not make you think badly of yourself. |
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Keep a diary of emotional nutrition
Many adolescents probably recognized themselves at least in some of the situations described. But even in this case, of course, I would like to understand myself even better. One of the most good ways to identify the causes of emotional hunger is the diary.
Every time you overeat or are forced to reach for your favorite foods because of stress, take advantage of the moment and find out what caused this desire. Write down when, what food and what mood you eat. Answer in the diary a few questions: what did you eat (or wanted to eat), what upset you, then you reached for your favorite food, how you felt, before you ate, what you felt when you ate, and how you felt yourself after that.
Over time, you will see clear pictures of your eating habits. Maybe you eat a lot by spending time with a certain person. Or, perhaps you want to eat after a difficult test or exam. Once you determine your emotional hooks, you can take the next step - replace unhealthy foods with other ways of obtaining pleasure.
Tip # 2: Find other ways to please yourself
If you do not know how to manage your emotions without delicious food, soon you will not be able to control your eating habits at all. Know that diets are practiced so often not at all because they offer logical dietary advice, but in order to try to somehow control the tendency to overeating. But diets work only if a teenager can consciously control his food. They do not work when emotions take precedence over the mind. To stop the emotional hunger, you must find other ways to please yourself emotionally. This is a huge first step. You should find an alternative to food, and the same quick.
Alternatives to emotional nutrition
If you are depressed or lonely, call someone who always helps you feel better, play with your dog or cat or watch your favorite photos - or go in for sports.
If you have exhausted all the ways to cheer yourself up, drink a cup of hot tea, take a bath, light an aromatic suppository or wrap yourself in a warm blanket.
If you are bored, read good books, watch comedies, take a walk in the open air or do what you like playing the guitar, twisting the hoop, scrapbooking, etc.).
Tip # 3 Pause after a wild desire to eat
The most emotional teenagers feel powerless before craving for tasty food. When the desire to eat prevails over other feelings, try to endure 10-15 minutes. Tell yourself: "I'll eat this piece of cake, but only after 15 minutes. Very often, with this approach, the desire to eat passes, and you can do without a cake. So gradually you will learn to own your sense of hunger, and not it you.
Learn to accept all your feelings, even bad ones
A teenager may think that the main problem is impotence before the feeling of hunger, but it is not so. In fact, emotional hunger arises from a feeling of impotence in front of his emotions. He does not feel able to control his emotions, and leaves them, taking food.
When you allow yourself to feel uncomfortable, emotions may not be controlled. You can be afraid that it's like a Pandora's box - as soon as you open it, you can not close it any more. But the truth is that when we suppress our emotions, even the most painful feelings weaken relatively quickly and lose their power. There is much evidence to support the fact that mindfulness is effective. It not only helps the teenager to learn to understand themselves, but also helps them during stress to keep their feelings under control.
Moreover, your life will become richer when you open yourself emotionally. Our feelings are a window into our inner world. They help us understand and open our deepest desires and fears, our present disappointments, and what will make us happy.
Tip # 4. How to maintain a healthy diet?
When you are physically strong, relaxed and well rested, you are better coping with stress. But when you are exhausted and overwhelmed with information, it's very easy to rush to the fridge without thinking. Exercise, sleep and a healthy lifestyle will help you cope with a difficult period without emotional food.
Do daily exercise. Physical activity does wonders, raising the mood and level of your energy, it is also a powerful stress reducer.
Sleep at least 8 hours every night. When you do not get enough sleep, your body craves sweet food, which will give you a quick burst of energy. A good rest will help control your appetite and reduce craving for food.
Take time to relax during the day. Allow yourself at least an hour after classes to relax and relax, and every day. It's time to take a break from your duties and recharge your energy.
Communicate with other people, but only positive. Teenagers should not underestimate the importance of good friendships. Spend time with positive people who, through their positive attitude, will help protect you from the negative consequences of stress.
Cope with emotional hunger is quite within the power of a teenager. You only need to regularly devote time to this, and the result - a good mood and success in everything - will not slow down.