Lifestyle tips

I have a lot of stress in my life but I’ve never been able to stress eat, instead I tend to end up barely eating at all when I am badly stressed (sometimes just a few hundred calories a day). When I am stressed, eating becomes agonizingly miserable and it can take me hours to eat a tiny portion of crackers when I’m in that state, and then I don’t feel like eating again for ages. Obviously this is not good for someone who wants to become fat, and it is severe enough it isn’t even safe.

I know stress eating is very common and it causes many people to gain weight, even unintentionally. If I could learn how to do it then it’d help me a lot. Is there anyway to teach yourself to stress eat or is it just a case of your natural tendencies?

Big time stress eater here. For me, I associate food with comfort and love. So, eating good food is something that takes me back to simpler times. Doesn't matter if it's home cooked or not. That being said, I do gravitate to certain foods more so than others. Carbs and dark chocolates are my favorite.

I suppose you could associate certain foods with comfort or joy. From there, you could train your brain to eat.

Another option is drinking your calories. I assume you get thirsty and drink even when you are stressed. You can also switch to something with more calories when you are feeling stressed out. See if that helps.

As a stress eater I can say that for me the payoff is the stress relief from a belly full of carbs, I don't know what chemicals get pumped into my brain but it is so comforting and soothing (plus it distracts me with thoughts of fatness, which is a great way not to be stressing about whatever it is that has me stressed).

It might be a bit like the runner's high, that some people get easily and others not at all. If a belly full of comfort food doesn't leave you feeling relaxed and vaguely euphoric, then it makes sense why your response to stress is not eating.