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Extra-Knowledge3337 t1_jdzxxee wrote

Is there an emotional component? If you're not sure, maybe explore that. Are you eating enough during the day? I usually make lunch my main meal of the day and go light for dinner. Also, if you're crazy hungry at night, you could fill up on produce. It will be a bit easier on your digestive system.

I know there are support groups out there to help. I hope you get some good feedback for your post.

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Vq-Blink OP t1_je013xc wrote

Thanks for the input. I don’t think it’s emotional more so the dopamine high of eating a ton of food, but I’ll definitely consider produce

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qathran t1_je15g7g wrote

My therapist explained that outside of some specific medical diagnoses that cause one to be chronically overweight, if you're holding onto weight for a long time, it's not an eating problem or an exercise problem, it's an emotional problem. Using food for addiction/dopamine is a common way to self soothe and a psych professional can be very useful to identify underlying issues and get past them.

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applebeesknees18 t1_je1m1mf wrote

Every body is different. Some people's norm weight is heavier and others' are lighter. I agree that for some people food has an emotional component that could use the guidance of a therapist, but some people are just heavier and that's fine. There could be no exercise, eating, or emotional problem- just the way their genes deal with the food they intake. It's unfair to look at every bigger person and assume they haven't worked out some "issue" that thin people have "worked hard to overcome." Most of the time it's just genetics.

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Skyblacker t1_je2rmzk wrote

Every fat person I know eats their emotions. And every skinny person I know loses their appetite when stressed. So I suspect that weight in either direction is a stress response.

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fattsmann t1_je1qjhg wrote

The dopamine high IS the emotional component. The emotions are excitement, joy, and others in that bucket of feelings.

A side consideration -- what things in your life bring you those emotions beside eating? Like hobbies, success at work, sex, etc., etc.

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KeyboardJustice t1_je27yec wrote

Using the word emotional in this context just seems so wrong. Emotion is an abstract concept and isn't really complete enough to describe the problem. "The problem is related to your feelings" vs "It's a psychological or mental health issue."

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fattsmann t1_je35dsb wrote

I do agree with the point I think you are making (not quite clear so I'll just go for it): The OP doesn't necessarily need a support group. I am not saying anything about that level of problem but I think the OP needs to identify that there is something driving the behavior that doesn't lie on the rationale side of the spectrum.

Everything we do is touched by emotion -- you feel something when you eat, drink something, sleep, talk to someone, etc. That could be satisfaction, happiness, contentment, whatever.

But people think emotions have to be the extreme highs or lows... and they don't realize you are feeling everything in between as well.

"Humans are feeling animals that think some of the time."

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KeyboardJustice t1_je3cu8y wrote

My point was that emotion is part of and instrumental to mental health. Just that using it as the core concept is looking at things through a keyhole. As an aside we saw above that it's off-putting to clients too if not introduced delicately and rationally(haha). Indeed emotion will be part of a proper treatment for the issue and is part of everything. Leading with it in the ways seen further up the chain comes off as narrow.

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glenda_vajmire t1_je25uy4 wrote

I’ve had this problem recently. I’ve stopped eating out as much, I make myself smaller portions when preparing food at home (I try to make it healthier) and if I still feel hungry after I’ve already eaten then I’ll just drink water. I was mainly just eating out of boredom and also for the dopamine high after I started working from home and I put on a few pounds because of it

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aledba t1_je2c7xa wrote

So that's emotional. I also didn't know that a year ago, but I can tell you I'm down over 40 lbs, the happiest I've ever been, and I still eat things I love. Major props to my therapist and swimming lengths

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Late-Jicama5012 t1_je2wqes wrote

If you like to eat a ton of food, eat a bucket of vegetables three times a day with protein; chicken or fish.

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