Psychology of Eating

What we eat affects how we feel. Food should make us feel good. It tastes great and nourishes our bodies. When eaten in too little or in excessive quantities, however, our health and appearance can be altered, which can create negative feelings toward food.

By learning how to make better choices, you might be able to control compulsive eating, binging, and gaining weight. In addition to better appetite control, you might also experience feelings of calmness, high energy levels, or alertness from the foods you eat.

What factors influence our eating behaviours?

Experts believe there are many factors that can influence our feelings about food and our eating behaviors. These include:

- Cultural factors

- Evolutionary factors

- Social factors

- Familial factors

- Individual factors

There also are positive and negative consequences associated with eating. For example, food might help you to cope with negative feelings in the short-term. In the long term, however, coping with stress by eating can actually increase negative feelings because you aren't actually coping with the problem causing the stress. Further, your self-image might become more negative as you gain weight.

What role does psychology play in weight management?

Psychology is the science of behaviour; in essence, the study of how and why people do what they do. For people trying to manage their weight, psychology addresses the following areas:

- Behavior- Treatment involves identifying habitual patterns of eating and finding ways to change eating behaviors.

- Cognition (thinking)- Therapy focuses on identifying self-defeating thinking patterns that contribute to weight management problems.

What treatment is used for weight management?

Cognitive behavioral treatment is the approach most often used because it addresses both thinking patterns and behavior. Cognitive therapy addresses how you think about food. It helps you recognise self-defeating patterns of thinking that can undermine your success at weight loss. It also helps you learn and practice using positive coping self-statements.

Examples of self-defeating thoughts include:

- "This is too hard. I can't do it."

- "If I don't make it to my target weight, I've failed."

- "Now that I've lost weight, I can go back to eating any way I want."

Examples of positive coping self-statements include:

- "I realise that I am overeating. I need to think about how I can stop this pattern of behaviour."

- "I need to understand what triggered my overeating, so I can create a plan to cope with it if I encounter the trigger again."

- "Am I really hungry or is this just a craving? I will wait to see if this feeling passes."

To lose weight, you must change your thinking. Weight management is about making a LIFESTYLE CHANGE. It's not going to happen if you rely on short-term diet after diet to lose weight. To achieve success, you need to become aware of the role eating plays in your life and to learn how to use positive thinking and behavioural coping strategies to manage your eating and your weigh