Addressing Emotional Eating and Weight Loss

Written by: Claudia Haller NBC-HWC

I love to consider new methods of exploring life and bettering wellness, whether evidence-based or super woo-woo sounding … because, why not? It’s fun to think outside the box and try new things, as long as it isn’t harmful.

When it comes to my clients, however, I’m not so loosey-goosey. (I also don’t ever discourage their exploration!) I like to keep my process and any tools I introduce as evidence-based as possible. This way, it’s less my opinion and more a game of “science says.” 

If you’re overweight and struggle to eat only when you’re hungry and stop promptly when you’re comfortably full (So maybe 99% of us?!), this new research should be music to your ears. 

Science Says:
There are a handful of high-performing techniques to consider when you’re trying to improve your relationship with food, and at the same time, drop a few pounds (if you’re overweight).  

Published just last month in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, a systematic review & meta analysis digs into the most effective behavior change techniques (BCTs) for weight loss and emotional eating from 47 studies with a total of 6,729 participants. 

Side note: if you’re not familiar, a behavior change technique is a specific strategy designed to directly influence behavior (specific action). BCTs are used to support one-off actions, as well as repeatable actions, like habits, to move you closer to a desired outcome (eg, weight loss). 

Addressing Emotional Eating and Weight Loss
Techniques that emphasize identity and self-regulation tend to perform best in the area of emotional eating and weight loss. (If you want to dive into more details, this is a great compendium of BCTs). 

What I love so much about this paper is that it highlights BCTs that are really the foundation of the coaching process. In other words, health & wellness coaching works!!

The Top 5 Techniques to Put your Eating Behavior in Check 
The top five techniques associated with statistically significant weight loss and reduction in emotional eating are: 

Incompatible beliefs (largest reduction in weight and emotional eating) 
Where is your behavior not aligned with your personal beliefs, values, and identity? In coaching and motivational interviewing, we refer to this as “developing discrepancy.” 

When you, as the client, desire change, it’s important to understand where you are now versus where you want to be. Further, we look at the mismatch between your current behavior – if you desire to be (insert #) pounds lighter or even just in control of food: 

What does that look like? 
How different is that compared to your current daily actions? 
How are your values and beliefs demonstrated in your actions? 
Is this who you want to be? 

Once you’ve identified the mismatch, you can start to explore what positive change could look like. You might then move onto another BCT to create the next step of your journey – what are you going to do, and how might you realistically make that happen?  


Goal setting, outcome
Sometimes it’s just too overwhelming to figure out where to start. So, start at the end. Dream big. What do you want for yourself? This is the outcome. 

Working backwards from there is often easier because initially, it’s almost like you’re making a plan for someone else–and we all love to tell other people what to do!  

As you’re working your way backwards, the question is always “what behavior (action) is necessary in order to get from here to there?” 

With a clear outcome in mind, you can design a path of behavior and some sort of timeline to help you get there. This process can actually be pretty fun, as it allows you to get creative. There is no one right way.

For example, if you need to increase your activity levels, instead of jumping right into the hour-long 5am bootcamp your friend raves about, you can list all the different ways you might move more. Walking, biking, swimming, yoga, rebounding, etc. 

Find what you’re interested in and willing to do.

Review outcome goals
Setting your sights on a particular outcome is helpful, but it’s not a “set it and forget it” process when you’re trying to change your life! 

Most people have goals that take a bit of time to accomplish. With these longer-term goals, it’s important to assess progress at regular intervals along the way. 

When you check-in regularly, you can determine if you’re on track… and if not, you simply make adjustments accordingly. This might look like: 

• A little tweak to your daily actions to get you back on track –or–  
• Adjusting the target outcome to be more aligned with what you’re finding out you’re actually capable of doing.​​

Feedback on behavior
Reviewing insights around the frequency, duration, intensity, etc of your new behavior can help you assess how you’re doing. 

How you perceive your progress might be very different from what a wearable might report. Looking at the trends over time might help you see your efforts in a different light. 

In the case of dietary intake, you could also get feedback from an app or simply compare your food log to published guidelines to see where you are doing well… and where you might need to make additional changes. 

Pros/cons
I think we all know this one! Lists of pros and cons is a simple decision-making tool.  Bringing attention to the reasons for or against a certain behavior, and seeing them side by side can be pretty powerful. 

Be sure to consider the weight of each. It’s not just about which column has the longest list. 

For example, you might end up with a lot of unimportant cons and only one super important pro. That one single pro could be so important that it outweighs a long list of cons! 

So there you have it! If you’re ready to take back control over food, try some of these techniques. Think of it like an experiment in the lab of real life. 

For a deeper dive on this, head over to my Substack.  If you need help, reach out and we can work together to create an effective plan, unique to you. 

If you are ready to embark on a health-changing journey but don’t want to go it alone, grab a friend or reach out to work with me 1:1.