Quote:
Originally Posted by DhaniCauldwell
There are many reasons why people eat when they are not hungry- it's usually because of some underlying emotion (boredom, fear, loneliness). You have to evaluate your own life to find that emotion that triggers you to eat when you don't need to.
Dhani
For over thirty years I believed this. I spent decades evalutating my life and trying to find the emotional triggers. I even chose psychology as my field of study because I wanted to figure myself out and fix me. A bachelor's degree and a master's degree in psychology later (and therapy for myself), and I wasn't any closer to controlling my hunger or my weight.
I finally discovered, though that the emotions weren't causing the hunger, the hunger was causing the emotions. Fixing the physiological, fixed the emotional.
When I stopped crash dieting - the severe binge eating stopped (almost "magically"). When I started taking birth control for PMDD (killer PMS) the TOM cravings/insane levels of hunger dropped dramatically. When I found low-carb eating, I found a way to virtually eliminate, or at least dramatically control hunger.
I don't think emotions are nearly as much to blame, as it's popular to assume. I think it can feel that way, because carbohydrates, especially in excess can trigger emotional responses (through the the release of serotonin and other biochemicals) - it's easy to blame the emotions, but it may not be true as often as we think.
I'm not discounting emotional eating, but I don't know that we can say that excessive hunger and/or cravings are "usually because of some underlying emotion." It's just as likely that the emotions are a result, not a cause of what you're eating.
Hubby and other close relatives are astonished and have remarked on the personality difference in me when I am eating sugar and other carbs and when I'm controlling my carb intake. On sugar (or high glycemic carbs that the body turns to sugar, such as breads), I get angry (and generally emotional) very easily. When I'm eating lower carb, I'm almost unflappable. Almost nothing can upset me. I feel more confident and in control of my life.
I never would have believed this, if I hadn't experienced it.