Client Insight: “My emotional eating led to weight loss—it was celebrated, but I felt awful.”
It’s true that we never really know what someone else is going through. We’ve covered in another post how not all emotional eaters are overweight, and sometimes emotional eating can lead to weight loss in an unexpected way.
For some clients, when emotions run high, they feel the need to control their eating as a way of trying to control their lives. For them it feels like the only thing they have power over is what they put in their mouth—not their kid’s tantrum, their boss’s feedback, or their partner’s attitude.
While in this scenario there is an absence of food, instead of a binge, it is still emotional eating because a person’s eating pattern has changed in response to emotional experiences. For example, this can look like telling yourself you’re too busy to eat, believing you’re not worthy of nourishment, not having motivation to cook and eat, or feeling a physical surge of anxiety that makes your stomach queasy. Experiencing these actions long enough can lead to weight loss.
The problem is that our society, from social media to doctor’s offices, celebrates weight loss. So even if you are suffering on the inside—with angry thoughts, a racing heartbeat, or depression—your weight will be commented on because it is assumed weight loss is always desirable (no matter the root cause).
Clients will often say they’ve found themselves in a situation where people who don’t know what they are going through make positive comments about their smaller body size. If this is ever the case, you can:
- Be short and simply say “thank you” and move the conversation along.
- Be honest and tell them it’s not intentional and that you’re struggling.
- Be bold and tell them comments about your weight are inappropriate.
Choose the response that is going to bring you the most peace and then try to let their comments go. Your weight, up or down, does not determine how smart, capable, creative, funny and kind you are!
💛 Your peace awaits.
