Dr Nick Fuller
Leading Obesity Expert at the University of Sydney and founder of Interval Weight Loss.
Have you ever reached for a tub of ice cream after a stressful day or found yourself snacking out of boredom rather than hunger? It’s a familiar pattern for many people, and one that can quietly sabotage even the most disciplined weight loss efforts.
Emotional eating is significantly prevalent, affecting 44.9% of individuals in overweight and obese populations. Over time, this pattern can lead to weight gain, poor nutrition, and a frustrating cycle that’s hard to break.
But how exactly does emotional eating affect your ability to lose weight? And more importantly, what can you do about it? In this blog, we’ll explore the signs, triggers, and real impact of emotional eating, along with practical tips to help you develop a healthier relationship with food.
Emotional eating isn’t always easy to spot, especially when it becomes a regular response to stress or difficult emotions. But recognising the signs is the first step toward change. Research shows that emotional eating is strongly linked to higher body weight and disordered eating patterns, particularly when it becomes a go-to coping strategy.
Here are some common indicators to watch for:
Craving specific comfort foods suddenly: You’re not just hungry; you want chips, chocolate, or ice cream right now. These cravings are often linked to emotional needs, not physical ones.
Eating when not physically hungry: You’ve eaten recently, but you're reaching for food anyway. Emotional hunger tends to come on quickly and isn’t tied to an empty stomach.
Eating more when stressed or upset: If you notice that your food intake increases when you’re anxious, angry, or overwhelmed, emotional triggers may be at play.
Feeling guilt or shame after eating: Unlike physical hunger, emotional eating often leaves behind feelings of regret, which can harm your mental well-being over time.
Using food to feel better or calm down: Eating becomes a way to self-soothe, distract, or avoid uncomfortable emotions instead of addressing them directly.
Eating in secret or late at night: Hiding food habits or eating in isolation, especially outside typical mealtimes, can signal emotional dependency on food.
Losing control over how much you eat: You may start with one snack and end up bingeing, even when you're no longer hungry. This can lead to a cycle of overeating and guilt.
Emotional eating is rarely about food alone. It often starts with an emotional cue, something that creates discomfort, stress, or emptiness, and eating becomes a quick way to cope. Stress and negative emotions are among the most common triggers for overeating, especially in women. Understanding what sets off this behaviour can help you manage it more effectively.
Some common triggers behind emotional eating are:
Stress from work or relationships: Ongoing pressure, conflict, or burnout can drive the urge to self-soothe with food. Stress increases cortisol levels, which are linked to increased appetite and cravings for sugary or fatty foods.
Boredom or lack of purpose: When you’re under-stimulated or feel like your days lack meaning, eating can become a way to fill the void or pass the time.
Sadness, loneliness, or depression: Emotional pain, especially when tied to isolation or low mood, can make comfort foods feel like a source of relief, even temporarily.
Anxiety or nervous tension: When your body is on high alert, eating may serve as a distraction from racing thoughts or restlessness.
Fatigue or lack of sleep: Poor sleep disrupts hunger hormones like ghrelin and leptin, increasing the likelihood of cravings and emotional eating the next day.
Childhood habits tied to food rewards: If you were often rewarded with treats for good behaviour or cheered up with snacks when upset, those patterns can follow you into adulthood.
Sudden changes in routine or environment: Major life shifts, like moving house, changing jobs, or losing a loved one, can throw off your usual coping mechanisms and lead to emotional eating.
Emotional eating doesn’t just affect what’s on your plate. It can also impact nearly every area of your physical and emotional health. Let’s take a closer look at the ways emotional eating may be affecting your well-being.
When you eat in response to emotions, you’re more likely to choose high-calorie, high-fat, or sugary foods, and in larger quantities. Over time, this increases your overall calorie intake, making it harder to maintain or lose weight. Unlike mindful eating, emotional eating tends to bypass hunger cues, which can lead to overeating. One study found that emotional eaters are more likely to have a higher BMI and face challenges with sustained weight loss.
Frequent emotional eating can contribute to serious health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome. Comfort foods often fall into the category of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which are typically low in fibre and nutrients but high in saturated fats, added sugars, and additives. Over time, a diet high in UPFs has been linked to an increased risk of chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, regardless of overall diet quality or weight change. Researchers have also linked emotional eating behaviours to increased inflammatory markers and higher long-term disease risk.
Stress and emotional distress can negatively affect gut function and increase gastrointestinal symptoms. Eating too quickly or when you're not physically hungry can put stress on your digestive system. You may experience bloating, gas, indigestion, or even reflux, especially after eating large or rich meals in a short period of time. The body digests food best when you’re relaxed and eating mindfully, something emotional eating tends to disrupt.
Emotional eating usually involves high-glycaemic foods like sweets, pastries, or fried snacks that cause blood sugar spikes followed by crashes. This rollercoaster effect can leave you feeling sluggish, irritable, or mentally foggy. With repeated patterns like this, your energy levels may dip more frequently, and your ability to concentrate can suffer. Notably, cohort studies and clinical trials have found that high-glycaemic diets are associated with a greater risk of depression, highlighting how diet quality can affect not just energy levels, but emotional health as well.
Late-night emotional eating or heavy meals close to bedtime can disrupt your sleep. It may cause digestive discomfort or alter melatonin production, making it harder for your body to wind down. Poor sleep can then lead to increased cravings and reduced impulse control the next day, creating a feedback loop. A large population-based study found that people with short or poor-quality sleep were significantly less likely to follow a healthy diet or maintain regular meal patterns.
When eating is driven by emotions, it’s often followed by regret or self-criticism, especially when it contributes to weight changes or inconsistent habits. This ongoing cycle can gradually erode body image and self-esteem. The emotional toll can become just as damaging as the physical consequences, particularly when left unaddressed. In fact, research shows that emotional eating tends to rise in tandem with body dissatisfaction and is often part of a broader pattern of maladaptive eating behaviours.
Even when you’re trying to make healthy choices, emotional habits can quietly undo your efforts. Here’s how emotional eating can stand in the way of meaningful, lasting weight loss:
When emotions take over, you're more likely to reach for high-calorie foods like chips, sweets, or fast food, often in larger portions. As mentioned, these comfort foods are energy-dense but low in nutrients, meaning they don’t satisfy hunger for long.
Emotional eaters often reach for high-calorie, hyperpalatable foods, like those loaded with sugar, fat, or salt, especially when dealing with stress or other strong emotions. This pattern of eating can lead to overeating, weight gain, and disruptions in normal hunger and fullness cues.
Emotional eating often happens on impulse, without much thought about nutrition or sticking to planned meals. When you're feeling stressed, sad, or overwhelmed, it's easy to grab whatever tastes good, usually something high in sugar, fat, or salt. These quick, feel-good choices might offer short-term comfort, but they can throw off your eating routine. You might skip meals, snack late at night, or eat more than you intended, all of which make it harder to stay consistent. Eventually, this kind of unpredictable pattern can dull your natural hunger cues and make it harder to eat mindfully or listen to your body.
When you eat in response to emotions instead of physical hunger, it becomes difficult to tell when you're truly hungry or full. Emotional eating overrides internal cues and encourages eating based on habit, mood, or environmental triggers. This often leads to guilt or regret after eating, which can increase emotional stress and prompt even more eating. The more this cycle repeats, the harder it becomes to reconnect with your body’s natural signals and make balanced food choices.
Emotional eating can leave you feeling sluggish, unmotivated, or down, making it less likely that you’ll stay active or stick to an exercise routine. The emotional lows that follow overeating can also reduce self-confidence and increase avoidance behaviours. When low activity levels combine with inconsistent eating habits, it can gradually slow your metabolism and lead to a loss of lean muscle mass. In some cases, chronic stress linked to emotional eating may also raise cortisol levels, which encourages fat storage, especially around the abdominal area.
While emotional eating can feel automatic or hard to stop, small, intentional steps can help you regain control and build healthier habits over time. The goal isn’t to be perfect but to become more aware of your behaviours and create space between your emotions and food choices. Here are some practical strategies to help you manage emotional eating more effectively:
Identify your emotional triggers: Start by noticing when and why you tend to reach for food outside of regular meals. Is it after a stressful meeting? When you're feeling lonely? Understanding your emotional patterns gives you the power to interrupt them. Recognising the root cause can help you respond with more helpful coping strategies instead of turning to food.
Practice mindful eating: Slow down and focus on the experience of eating—taste, texture, smell, and how your body feels. Mindful eating can help you tune in to your body’s hunger and fullness signals, making it easier to stop eating when you're satisfied. Research shows that mindful eating is linked to reduced emotional eating and better overall eating behaviours.
Build a healthy daily routine: When your days have structure, you're less likely to rely on food for comfort or out of boredom. Try to include consistent meal times, regular sleep, physical activity, and moments for relaxation. A steady routine can reduce stress, boost energy, and help regulate your appetite naturally.
Find non-food ways to cope: Not all comfort has to come from the kitchen. Try journaling, going for a walk, calling a friend, stretching, or doing something creative when you're feeling emotional. These alternatives help break the habit of reaching for food as your default response.
Keep a food and mood journal: Writing down what you eat along with how you’re feeling can reveal powerful patterns over time. You might notice you always snack when you're tired, anxious, or avoiding a task. Once you see those patterns clearly, it becomes easier to change them. This practice also helps you track progress and celebrate small wins.
Emotional eating is a common struggle, and it's often deeply tied to how we process stress, sadness, or even boredom. While it can quietly sabotage weight loss efforts, it’s not something to feel ashamed about. The key is learning to recognise the signs, understand your triggers, and develop healthier coping strategies over time.
Change doesn’t happen overnight, but with awareness, support, and small, consistent steps, it’s entirely possible to break the cycle. Whether you're working toward weight loss or simply want a more balanced relationship with food, addressing emotional eating is an empowering place to start.
Wondering how emotional eating might be derailing your progress? Read our article Psychological & Emotional Benefits Of Losing Weight to explore how overcoming emotional eating can boost mood, confidence and help you build healthier habits for lasting weight loss.
Dr Nick Fuller is the founder of Interval Weight Loss and is a leading obesity expert at the University of Sydney with a Ph.D. in Obesity Treatment. Dr Fuller is also the author of three best-selling books and his work been published in top ranked journals in the medical field, including JAMA, Lancet and American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.