Last Updated on June 7, 2021 by Martin

Finally, you have started your weight loss diet and is looking forward to the great result you are getting in a few months from now. But there is one big problem. You don’t know how to stop comfort eating!

No matter what you are doing, you keep falling for those two o clock cravings, and the sugar rush for sweets you are getting around nighttime. They make you feel that your attempt to lose weight that day was a failure.

Comfort eating is often the biggest issue people are dealing with when they want to lose weight. In this article, we are going to take a closer look at what you can do to stop your comfort eating and move on with your weight loss diet.

What is Comfort Eating?

To be able to deal with comfort eating the best feasible way, we must define exactly what comfort eating is all about. Putting it into context makes it easier to cope with.

“Comfort eating is the feeling of release that takes away the pain temporarily when you feel discomfort.”

“Comfort eating provides you with a temporary escape by giving you a temporary feeling of pleasure.”

For both, it means you don’t have to deal with discomfort at the present.

The Consequences of Comfort Eating

Comfort eating is the main reason people fail their diet. It is the main cause of why people give up and fall right back into their old eating habits.

Not dealing with this discomfort will often make things even worse. If you are comfortable eating, you may end up in the evil spiral causing you to eat even more.

Distancing yourself from these issues will make you end up becoming overweighted and obese.

When you are on a diet, comfort eating is the evil black devil sitting on your shoulder trying to persuade you to eat bad foods and that way sabotage your diet.

You must resist comfort eating and deal with your discomfort to become successful with your diet.

What You Have to Do on How to Stop Comfort Eating

In the following, we have gathered a couple of tips that will help you to stop comfort eating so you can move on to your weight loss diet.

Remember, our tips is not a replacement for professional medical care. The reasons why you are dealing with comfort eating can be some deeper going issues; that need professional healthcare.

Shift Your Mindset from Emotional to Functional Eating

When you start your weight loss diet, growl like a lion, push yourself up, and keep telling yourself, no more emotional eating.

When starting your diet, it is also an excellent time to shift your mindset to become more functional. Instead of thinking, what food makes me happy, you must think about what food does my body needs, when, and how much of it.

To keep yourself in a functional state of mind, just remember, every time a thought about bad food comes to your mind; it will usually disappear within a minute or so.

At the beginning of your diet thoughts regarding bad emotional food will keep coming to your mind. But remember, these feelings will gradually fade out and become rarer with time.

Also, remember all the successful milestones you are getting on your way to a thinner, will make it easier to keep thinking about functional eating.

Stay in Contact with Yourself and Be Real

Staying in contact with yourself and be real is an excellent way of avoiding comfort eating issues.

Remember, it is OK to feel sad, tired, mad, crazy, or even ugly. They are feelings that are normal and a part of being human.

The more you are in touch with your feelings and just feel what you feel, the easier it will be to cope with emotional eating.

How to Cope with These Feeling on How to Stop Comfort Eating?

There are quite a few methods you can use to deal with negative feelings that may cause comfort eating. One excellent way is to alienate yourself from these feelings and put yourself above the negative.

You can ask yourself loud “Is that a negative feeling present here that makes me comfort eat?”. Taking out the issue and make it wide open makes it much easier to deal with.

You can also close your eyes and take a deep breath for them to blow out all the air, imagining dark clouds being pushed away from your body.

Learn to Know Your Weak Spots

Do a little self-investigation is a splendid idea to overcome your comfort eating. What exactly causes you to comfort eat? Stress at work? Boredom? Or something different?

When you have done your investigation and knew that for example, stress causes you to comfort eat.  Or perhaps you eat because you are bored. Then you can categorize it as your weak spots.

The next step in the process is then to find out what you can do to deal with your weak spots and avoid comfort eating.

An example, if you comfort eat because you are stressed, you can replace unhealthy food with healthy nuts. Or if you eat because you are bored, you can either read a book or make sure you keep yourself occupied.

Taking it a Step Further

When you are ready for it, you can decide if you want to find out the root of the problem and do something about it. Often, even small issues can cause us to binge eat, so it does not have to be a big problem.

Only Eat When You are Hungry

Yes sure, but how do you know that you are physically hungry, and it is not comforting eating you are dealing with?

A simple solution is to ask yourself if you can eat vegetables or a salad right now? If the answer is yes, it means that you are hungry. If no, it is binge eating.

This idea originates from the so-called Broccoli Test that uses the same approach.

But many people don’t like Broccoli. So, think of a salad or vegetables you like instead. Just make sure not to use anything with a sweet flavor.

Keep Yourself Busy

Keeping your mind busy will help you to stop thinking of food all the time. When you start to think about food and making up excuses to eat, keep yourself busy. It can be trivial things like taking a walk, reading a book.

You can also reach an agreement with yourself: every time you must keep yourself busy to avoid comfort eating, you do something kind to yourself. It can be a body treatment, prepare your new wardrobe, or a pleasant experience.

Make a Food Diary to Stop Comfort Eating

It can be done as simple as keeping a notebook where you write down exactly what you are eating during the day.

You can also go more advanced and make your food diary online at myfitnesspal.com/which claims to have the biggest food database in the world. Here you will be able to track exactly what you eat and get support from other users as well.

Make Realistic Milestones and Goals with Your Weight Loss Diet

If comfort eating is a big issue of yours, going on a crash diet with the goal of losing 20 pounds in a month is one of the worse things you can do.

Instead, make your weight loss diet healthy and a fun ride. Focus more on making lifestyle changes that will make you happy. These changes are often not only based on changing what you eat. They are also a question about increasing your confidence and self-esteem.

This approach is the way to go. Crash and low-calorie diets can make things worse because they create an unhealthy relationship to food.

What About PhenQ and Comfort Eating?

Besides the tips on how to stop comfort eating the best you can do is to make sure you feel full and satisfied. A way to do this is to suppress your appetite.

PhenQ gives you appetite suppressing abilities that will help you to maintain portion control. This weight loss supplement comes with a couple of ingredients including Nopal that can help you to suppress your appetite.

You are also getting light mood-enhancing abilities using PhenQ. Raising your mood is an excellent way to stop comfort eating as well. The happier and more positive you are, the easier it will be to avoid emotional eating.