How to Cope with Boredom Eating
Obesity is a serious problem worldwide, and a significant part of this problem is the result of unhealthy lifestyles and emotional eating behavior. Boredom eating is one dangerous type of emotional eating that can be remedied through education and positive lifestyle change.
The Obesity Problem
In the United States, obesity is one of the leading causes of disease and death, and the trend is growing worldwide. This presents a serious problem for all areas of society, including healthcare. On a personal level, obesity is also a large concern, not just because of the poor health that can result from being seriously overweight, but also due to the overall reduction in quality of life suffered by the obese.
Increasingly, there are coordinated efforts at all levels to reduce the incidence of obesity. From federally funded awareness campaigns to academic research efforts, much energy is being devoted to tackling this problem. Some forms of obesity may be linked to genetic issues or conditions such as hypothyroidism, about which relatively little is known. However, lifestyle is undoubtedly a crucial factor contributing to the number of overweight individuals around the world. Thus, individuals must become educated and undertake concerted efforts to live a more healthy life in order for there to be any serious reduction in the scale of the obesity problem.
Emotional Eating
One common factor that can contribute to obesity in otherwise healthy individuals is the phenomenon known as boredom eating. In the world of psychology, boredom eating is categorized as one specific type of a larger group of emotional eating behavior. Emotional eating occurs when an individual responds to emotional triggers, whether negative or positive, by consuming food. In the case of boredom eating, the emotional trigger is, unsurprisingly, boredom.
Does Eating Cure Boredom?
Some people develop the habit of heading to the kitchen for a snack whenever they are not immediately occupied by some other task. The act of eating serves to alleviate boredom by occupying the individual in deciding what to eat, performing the steps of getting the food ready, and sitting down to actually consume the food. During this process, boredom eaters may have an idea about how to further occupy their time when they have finished eating. Often, however, people who exhibit boredom eating behavior will not be able to occupy their minds for long and will soon return to the kitchen to repeat the process.
Listening to the Body's Signals
One of the most important ways to maintain a healthy weight is to listen to the body's signals regarding hunger. The physical symptoms of hunger serve to alert people when they need to eat. This rule, of course, has plenty of exceptions, such as in people with hypoglycemia, who often need to eat snacks when they are not hungry in order to maintain appropriate blood sugar levels. However, in such cases the body sends different signals to indicate the need for food. In general, therefore, it's usually best to listen to the body when deciding when and how much to eat. This is where boredom eaters run into trouble. Rather than eating in response to their bodies' hunger symptoms, they eat in response to emotional cues.
Boredom Eating and Weight Gain
Perhaps it goes without saying that people who eat when they are not hungry will tend to consume more calories than they burn, resulting in weight gain. Chronic boredom eaters may experience continual weight gain if they do not engage in a level of physical activity appropriate to their diet. And it stands to reason in many cases that if they were engaged in physical activity, they wouldn't be so bored. For many, however, boredom eating is a serious problem that is not nearly as straightforward as it seems at first glance.
Feelings of Inadequacy
Boredom can be a frustrating emotional state that can carry with it a whole complex of other psychological issues. For example, people who feel that they have nothing to do may fill the space in their attention with anxious thoughts, having nothing to keep their more sinister worries at bay. These worries could include feelings of inadequacy and uselessness, which are only compounded by the boredom itself: "If I weren't so worthless/lazy/untalented, I would be doing something useful right now." These emotional difficulties make boredom eating especially dangerous. Eating can be a powerful mood elevator, and in addition to temporarily alleviating the boredom itself, food can assuage the negative self-image that the boredom has caused.
The Vicious Cycle
When boredom and its attendant emotions being to trigger eating on a regular basis, boredom eating becomes a pattern behavior that can become worse over time, leading to unhealthy weight gain. So how can boredom eaters break this dangerous cycle? In the most serious cases, of course, boredom eating may require professional intervention in the form of psychiatric help or hospitalization. However, in most cases understanding and positive lifestyle change can be a solution.
How to Cure Boredom Eating
As with any pattern behavior or addiction, one of the best ways to correct the behavior is to remove the emotional triggers to lead to the behavior. In the case of boredom eating, the trigger is boredom and the negative emotions that go along with it. The best way to beat boredom eating, then, is to find a way to be bored less frequently, and to find better strategies for coping with the boredom when it occurs. Here are two key suggestions for those struggling with chronic boredom eating:
- Find a few easy, fun activities to turn to when boredom strikes. These can include drawing or painting, reading a book or magazine, writing in a journal, playing a card game on the computer, or any other healthy leisure activity. It's important to have several potential "boredom-busters" at hand in case some of them don't seem appealing at any given time. Even if you don't engage in these activities for long, turning to them instead of to food will help to break the vicious cycle.
- Tell a close friend or relative about the problem behavior, and call them to chat instead of eating when the negative mood arises. This will help by distracting you from your boredom and possible feelings of inadequacy.
By understanding the patterns involved in boredom eating and coming up with ideas to change problem behavior, boredom eaters can improve their own lives and help to stop the growing problem of obesity.
In the United States, obesity is one of the leading causes of disease and death, and the trend is growing worldwide. This presents a serious problem for all areas of society, including healthcare. On a personal level, obesity is also a large concern, not just because of the poor health that can result from being seriously overweight, but also due to the overall reduction in quality of life suffered by the obese.
Increasingly, there are coordinated efforts at all levels to reduce the incidence of obesity. From federally funded awareness campaigns to academic research efforts, much energy is being devoted to tackling this problem. Some forms of obesity may be linked to genetic issues or conditions such as hypothyroidism, about which relatively little is known. However, lifestyle is undoubtedly a crucial factor contributing to the number of overweight individuals around the world. Thus, individuals must become educated and undertake concerted efforts to live a more healthy life in order for there to be any serious reduction in the scale of the obesity problem.
Emotional Eating
One common factor that can contribute to obesity in otherwise healthy individuals is the phenomenon known as boredom eating. In the world of psychology, boredom eating is categorized as one specific type of a larger group of emotional eating behavior. Emotional eating occurs when an individual responds to emotional triggers, whether negative or positive, by consuming food. In the case of boredom eating, the emotional trigger is, unsurprisingly, boredom.
Does Eating Cure Boredom?
Some people develop the habit of heading to the kitchen for a snack whenever they are not immediately occupied by some other task. The act of eating serves to alleviate boredom by occupying the individual in deciding what to eat, performing the steps of getting the food ready, and sitting down to actually consume the food. During this process, boredom eaters may have an idea about how to further occupy their time when they have finished eating. Often, however, people who exhibit boredom eating behavior will not be able to occupy their minds for long and will soon return to the kitchen to repeat the process.
Listening to the Body's Signals
One of the most important ways to maintain a healthy weight is to listen to the body's signals regarding hunger. The physical symptoms of hunger serve to alert people when they need to eat. This rule, of course, has plenty of exceptions, such as in people with hypoglycemia, who often need to eat snacks when they are not hungry in order to maintain appropriate blood sugar levels. However, in such cases the body sends different signals to indicate the need for food. In general, therefore, it's usually best to listen to the body when deciding when and how much to eat. This is where boredom eaters run into trouble. Rather than eating in response to their bodies' hunger symptoms, they eat in response to emotional cues.
Boredom Eating and Weight Gain
Perhaps it goes without saying that people who eat when they are not hungry will tend to consume more calories than they burn, resulting in weight gain. Chronic boredom eaters may experience continual weight gain if they do not engage in a level of physical activity appropriate to their diet. And it stands to reason in many cases that if they were engaged in physical activity, they wouldn't be so bored. For many, however, boredom eating is a serious problem that is not nearly as straightforward as it seems at first glance.
Feelings of Inadequacy
Boredom can be a frustrating emotional state that can carry with it a whole complex of other psychological issues. For example, people who feel that they have nothing to do may fill the space in their attention with anxious thoughts, having nothing to keep their more sinister worries at bay. These worries could include feelings of inadequacy and uselessness, which are only compounded by the boredom itself: "If I weren't so worthless/lazy/untalented, I would be doing something useful right now." These emotional difficulties make boredom eating especially dangerous. Eating can be a powerful mood elevator, and in addition to temporarily alleviating the boredom itself, food can assuage the negative self-image that the boredom has caused.
The Vicious Cycle
When boredom and its attendant emotions being to trigger eating on a regular basis, boredom eating becomes a pattern behavior that can become worse over time, leading to unhealthy weight gain. So how can boredom eaters break this dangerous cycle? In the most serious cases, of course, boredom eating may require professional intervention in the form of psychiatric help or hospitalization. However, in most cases understanding and positive lifestyle change can be a solution.
How to Cure Boredom Eating
As with any pattern behavior or addiction, one of the best ways to correct the behavior is to remove the emotional triggers to lead to the behavior. In the case of boredom eating, the trigger is boredom and the negative emotions that go along with it. The best way to beat boredom eating, then, is to find a way to be bored less frequently, and to find better strategies for coping with the boredom when it occurs. Here are two key suggestions for those struggling with chronic boredom eating:
- Find a few easy, fun activities to turn to when boredom strikes. These can include drawing or painting, reading a book or magazine, writing in a journal, playing a card game on the computer, or any other healthy leisure activity. It's important to have several potential "boredom-busters" at hand in case some of them don't seem appealing at any given time. Even if you don't engage in these activities for long, turning to them instead of to food will help to break the vicious cycle.
- Tell a close friend or relative about the problem behavior, and call them to chat instead of eating when the negative mood arises. This will help by distracting you from your boredom and possible feelings of inadequacy.
By understanding the patterns involved in boredom eating and coming up with ideas to change problem behavior, boredom eaters can improve their own lives and help to stop the growing problem of obesity.
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