Although we often like to think it’s not, food is more than just a source of nourishment. It can be many things, including a source of comfort, pleasure, and celebration. Emotional eating often gets a bad rap, because it’s often compared to—and often used interchangeably with—binge eating, but the two types of eating are not the same. Despite what some diets, or “healthy” lifestyle programs, suggest, it’s normal—human even—to emotionally eat every occasionally. While there is overlap between binge and emotional eating, the two are distinct. If you’re worried about whether you’re emotionally eating or binge eating, this article will help you identify the differences.
Quick disclosure: This article is intended for educational purposes and is not meant to be medical advice.
What Is Binge Eating?
Binge eating disorder (BED) is a serious mental health condition that often involves consuming a large quantity of food in a short period and feeling out of control—almost out of body—while doing so. During a binge, the person feels powerless to stop and experiences intense guilt, shame, or embarrassment afterward. People with BED often eat alone because they feel ashamed of their eating behaviors. After a binge, it’s common to attempt to restrict food intake, which feeds this destructive cycle.
If you suspect you have BED or that a loved one has BED, it’s important to seek medical treatment as early as possible. This is a serious eating disorder. Many people who binge assume they are lacking will-power, but there is a powerful set of reactions at play that make it very hard to stop binging once it becomes a regular occurrence.
People with BED may use food as a coping mechanism to deal with stress, anxiety, or depression. Binge eating is often triggered by physical hunger, emotional hunger, dieting, or other restrictive eating behaviors, and there can be an emotional element to it. Emotional distress, such as feeling sad, angry, or anxious, can trigger binge eating. While people who binge eat may have a preferred binge food or type of food (cookies or carbs, for example), food is not the cause of binging in the way that people often think.
What Is Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is eating in response to a positive or negative emotion. The triggers can be anxiety, happiness, sadness, loneliness, or boredom, just to name a few. Emotional eating is a way to cope with emotions, and the person may not be hungry or even aware of what they are eating, but it typically doesn’t feel as “out of body” as binge eating.
Emotional eating is a common behavior that virtually everyone engages in from time to time. Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, who wrote the original Intuitive Eating book, devote an entire chapter to coping with emotions. It is one of the 10 principles of intuitive eating: Cope with your emotions with kindness.
In Intuitive Eating, they write:
“Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won’t fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even number you. But food won’t solve the problem.”
Emotional eating is not a disorder, but it can be a problem if it’s a habitual coping mechanism and you’re not sure how to manage your emotions in a healthy way. It can also keep you disconnected from your body, a key component of intuitive eating. If you are not physically hungry, what are you trying to solve for with food? Is it boredom, self-soothing, frustration or anger, stress, or anxiety? It’s important to explore what is driving your behavior in order to find what you really need.
If you find that you’re routinely using food as a coping mechanism, you may feel guilty or ashamed just as you would with binge eating, which can lead to further emotional distress and more emotional eating. Whether you are emotional eating or binge eating, it’s important to treat yourself with kindness, and acknowledge that your needs matter and that you deserve to have your needs met.
What Is Overeating?
Overeating, which is separate from emotional eating and binge eating, is simply eating past fullness. It’s fairly common, especially when you are dieting, or engaging in physically or emotionally restricting behavior, or when you just go too long without eating, or you’re presented with really tasty foods you don’t get often (like at Thanksgiving). When first making the transition to intuitive eating, it’s common to overeat during the honeymoon phase as you begin to tune into your hunger and fullness cues and your body gets accustomed to eating naturally.
What Are the Differences Between Binge and Emotional Eating?
Although binge eating and emotional eating have similarities, there are significant differences between the two, namely control and speed of eating.
Binge eating involves a loss of control and rapidly eating a large quantity of food (often in secret), while emotional eating involves a conscious decision to eat in response to an emotional trigger. During a binge eating episode, the person feels powerless to stop eating, while emotional eating is a more conscious decision, even if it’s a response to emotions. A binge is largely characterized by speed and loss of control.
Binge eating can be triggered by emotional distress, avoiding feeling emotions or attempting to avoid them, physical hunger, mental hunger, restricting certain foods or food groups, whether intentionally or not, or other unaddressed issues.
Emotional eating is triggered by negative emotions, such as stress, anxiety, sadness, or boredom.
Restriction is a major trigger for binging, overeating, and sometimes even when you think you’re emotional eating—your body cannot distinguish between true food scarcity or if you are simply not allowing yourself access to food when your body needs it. This is why it’s so important that we are nourishing our bodies when our bodies are signaling hunger.
How to Identify Binge Eating and Emotional Eating
If you are concerned that you or someone you know may be struggling with binge eating or emotional eating, there are several signs and symptoms to look for.
Signs of binge eating:
- Eating large amounts of food in a short period
- Feeling out of control while eating
- Eating alone or in secret
- Feeling guilt, shame, or disgust after eating
Signs of emotional eating:
- Eating in response to negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, sadness, or boredom*
- Eating to soothe emotions rather than physical hunger*
*Binge eating can also include these, but their presence alone doesn’t mean you’re having a binge.
How to Address Binge Eating
If you suspect that you or someone you know is struggling with binge eating, it’s important to seek professional help. This is a serious mental health issue, not a choice. Do not go it alone. Treatment options include in-patient programs, therapy, medication, and support groups. If you are not sure whether you are suffering from BED or emotional eating, seek professional help to be clear.
How to Address Emotional Eating and Overeating
Sometimes, when we are transitioning to intuitive eating, we cannot “hear” our hunger signals. To break the overeat-restrict cycle, which can be present in emotional eating and overeating, it’s absolutely critical that you begin eating regular meals and snacks. Eating regularly, roughly every 3-4 hours while you’re awake, will help get your body out of starvation mode that is very common if you’re a chronic dieter or restricting. Even if you overeat at one meal, you should keep to your eating schedule.
Many therapist recommend journaling to help identify triggers, which can be different for everyone. As you pay more attention to your body and how you are feeling, you may begin to identify other triggers for your binging and working with a therapist you can address them.
Joining a support group can also be helpful for people struggling with binge eating or emotional eating. Support groups provide a safe space for people to share their experiences, receive support, and learn coping strategies from others who have similar struggles.
Other Steps to Help Binge and Emotional Eating
Besides seeking professional help, there are several steps you can take to better support healthy eating habits.
1. Practice mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness can help you become more aware of your emotions and eating habits. Mindfulness involves paying attention to the present moment without judgment. Mindful eating involves paying attention to your physical sensations of hunger and fullness, as well as your emotional state, when making food choices.
2. Keep a food journal
Keeping a food diary can help you identify patterns in your eating behavior. The goal is not to track calories or amounts of food, but to help you better understand your emotional state while you’re eating. Writing down what you eat, when you eat, and how you feel before and after eating can help you identify emotional triggers and make changes to your eating habits.
3. Develop healthy coping strategies
Developing healthy coping strategies can help you manage negative emotions without turning to food. Some examples of healthy coping strategies include exercise, meditation, deep breathing, and talking to a friend or therapist.
While emotional eating is not always the best strategy for coping with emotions, it’s not life-threatening. Binge eating is dangerous and should be treated as a serious mental illness. Whether you binge, overeat or emotionally eat, it’s important to practice kindness toward yourself. Beating yourself up will not make these issues go away and will only lead to more negative thoughts and self-sabotaging behavior. Now that you know the difference between binge eating and emotional eating, you can hopefully make better decisions when it comes to food and your body.