Prevent Stress Eating
7 Ways to Prevent Stress Eating When You're Stuck at Home
Being stuck at home can lead to some unhealthy behaviours, including overeating due to stress and boredom. While taking comfort in food during times of stress is a normal reaction, overeating regularly can negatively affect your health and increase your stress and anxiety levels.
- Check-in with yourself
One of the most helpful ways to prevent overeating is to understand why it's happening in the first place. There are many reasons why you may be compelled to overeat, including being stressed out or bored. If you find yourself eating too frequently or eating too much in one sitting, take a minute and check in with yourself. First, it's important to determine whether you're eating because you're hungry and need nourishment, or whether there's another reason.
Before you eat, pay special attention to how you're feeling, such as stressed, bored, lonely, or anxious. Simply pausing and evaluating the situation can help you understand what compels you to overeat and may help prevent overeating in the future. That said, combating overeating is rarely easy, and you may have to seek professional help, especially if it's a common occurrence or you eat to the point of discomfort and experience feelings of shame or guilt afterwards. These may be signs of disordered eating.
- Remove temptation
Though having a jar of cookies or a bowl of colourful candy on the counter may add to the visual appeal of your kitchen, this practice may lead to overeating. Having tempting foods within eyesight can lead to frequent snacking and overeating, even when you aren't hungry. Research has shown that visual exposure to high-calorie foods stimulates the striatum, a part of your brain that modulates impulse control, which may lead to increased cravings and overeating.
For this reason, it's best to keep particularly tempting foods, including sugary baked goods, candy, chips, and cookies, out of sight, such as in a pantry or cupboard. To be clear, there's nothing wrong with enjoying a tasty treat occasionally, even when you're not necessarily hungry. However, overindulging too often can harm both your physical and mental health.
- Maintain a healthy meal schedule
You shouldn't change your normal eating schedule just because you're stuck at home. If you're used to having three meals a day, try to continue that schedule while you're working from home. The same goes for if you typically consume only two meals and a snack.
Though it's easy to stray from your normal dietary pattern when your day-to-day schedule gets disrupted, it's important to maintain some semblance of normalcy when it comes to eating. You may find yourself adapting your eating pattern to accommodate your new normal, and that's okay. Just try to maintain a regular eating pattern based on your individual needs and your preferred eating times.
If you're really thrown off and find yourself constantly snacking, try making a schedule that includes at least two solid meals per day and following it until you feel that you have become comfortably consistent with your eating habits.
- Don't restrict
One of the most important nutrition rules to follow to prevent overeating is to not deprive your body of food. Oftentimes, being overly restrictive with food intake or consuming too few calories can lead to binging on high-calorie foods and overeating. It's never a good idea to follow a highly restrictive diet or deprive yourself of food, especially during stressful times.
Research has shown that restrictive dieting is not only ineffective for long-term weight loss but also can harm your physical and mental health and increase your stress levels.
- Stay hydrated
Being stuck at home gives you more time to focus on healthy habits, including drinking enough fluids. Maintaining proper hydration is important for overall health and may help you prevent overeating related to stress.
In fact, research has found an association between chronic dehydration and an elevated risk of obesity. Plus, being dehydrated can lead to alterations in mood, attention, and energy levels, which can also affect your eating habits.
To combat dehydration, add a few slices of fresh fruit to your water to boost its flavour, which may help you drink more water throughout the day without adding a significant amount of sugar or calories to your diet.
- Get moving
Being stuck at home can take a serious toll on your activity levels, leading to boredom, stress, and increased snacking frequency. To combat this, make some time for daily physical activity.
If you're feeling lost due to the closing of your favourite gym or workout studio, try something new like a home workout on YouTube, taking a hike in nature, or simply walking or jogging around your neighbourhood.
Research has shown that physical activity can boost mood and reduce stress, which may reduce your chances of stress eating.
- Keep your overall health in mind
During stressful times, it's more important than ever to keep your overall health in mind. Eating nutritious foods is just one part of keeping yourself healthy and happy.
Practising self-compassion and doing the best that you can given the current circumstances is what's most important.
This is not the time to restrict, over-exercise, try a fad diet, compare yourself to others, or focus on weaknesses. If you're struggling with insecurities, body image issues, or anxiety, use this time to foster a new, healthy relationship with your mind and body.
The bottom line
While indulging in comfort foods occasionally, especially during times of stress, is completely normal, overeating regularly can take a toll on your physical and mental health.
The evidence-based tips above may help you control stress eating and improve many other aspects of your health as well.
Disclaimer: The content of this page is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. References are available on request.