One of the biggest causes of overweight is emotional overeating – that is, eating for emotional reasons rather than physical hunger. If this has been an issue for you in the past, or still is, take a look at the coping strategies below:

- Eating for Pleasure

Sometimes people with very stressful or painful life circumstances eat because they don’t know any other way to feel happy. They eat to soothe themselves; to find at least a few moments of pleasure in an otherwise uncomfortable life experience.

Stopping this habit is as simple as finding other ways to feel good. To do that, you may need to make some hard decisions about your life circumstances – for example, saying no to unnecessary obligations, or taking time for yourself when others may not like it.

The good news is that once you start making your own happiness a priority, you’ll find that the urge to eat emotionally subsides.

- Stress Eating

If you are one of the millions of people who eat in order to calm themselves down, you are a stress eater. Stress is a powerful force in our lives, and few of us are taught how to manage it in healthy ways.

However, it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to manage stress, it just requires a bit of dedication to change the habit to a more positive one.

There are a few ways you could tackle this: reduce the pressures in your life by changing jobs, hiring help around the house, or cutting back on unnecessary activities to free up some time for yourself. If making external changes is impossible for you right now, you could focus on better managing the stress you have, rather than trying to eliminate it.

This will require a bit of research, as you learn new ways to relax, let go, and center yourself.

The next type of emotional eating is:

- “I Don’t Want to Be Left Out” Eating

Do you feel left out if others are eating and you aren’t? Very often this is the result of feeling like you’ll never have the chance to eat that particular food again, so you eat as much as you can right now, even if you weren’t hungry to begin with.

If you are at home, you can simply set some of the food aside in the refrigerator or cupboard to enjoy later when you are hungry. If you are out at a party or other event, you may be able to bring home a “doggy bag” for later.

Most importantly, remind yourself that you aren’t missing anything. You have an entire lifetime to enjoy many different varieties of food – you don’t have to eat them all right now. (In fact, just reminding yourself of that may lighten the mood a bit and give you a good chuckle.)

Of course, there are many other reasons why people eat for emotional reasons – take some time to think about your most common reasons, and then come up with some effective coping strategies to combat them. Usually all it takes is awareness and determination to change old habits.