Nutrition Nutrition and Weight Loss

How to Get Control of Emotional Eating

Summary & Participants

Find out how Lenore lost more than 100 pounds by learning to control her emotional eating.

Medically Reviewed On: August 05, 2008

Webcast Transcript

Lenore: I see people on the street. I want to say, "so, do you want to know how to lose some weight?"

ANNOUNCER: Lenore lost more than 100 pounds by learning how to control her emotional eating. Registered Dietician Bonnie Taub-Dix taught her how.

Bonnie Taub-Dix, RD, American Dietetic Association: I think the most important thing that someone can do to gain control when they feel like they’re an emotional overeater is to have conversations with themselves. And it is really critically important.

ANNOUNCER: Lenore began a dialogue with herself to break her dependence on food.

Lenore: If I looked at the food, I would say, "well, maybe I’ll have a little something today. No, that’s going to hurt. That’s going to hurt."

ANNOUNCER: Finding alternatives to food when dealing with emotions was also critical.

Lenore: I had a business, and back to school is a very busy time for me. Sometimes I would say to my husband, "you have to stand here." I walked around the block, but I no longer used food.

ANNOUNCER: Taub-Dix also recommends keeping a food journal to break the emotional eating habit. But the most important thing is to make a lifelong commitment to change.

Lenore: This wasn’t a diet. This was changing my eating habits so that I could be healthy, so that I can be a grandma for a long time, so that I can wear the pants that have the little size 8 on them, so that I can feel good. And that, there’s no time on that.

ANNOUNCER: Thanks for joining us on today’s Once Daily.