Actually, it's one driver. So it's the reason why you cannot maintain your weight. Emotional eating is actually when you're eating because of your emotions, not because of hunger. And the end result of that will be the weight struggles, the yo-yo diet, you go up and down with your weight. So emotional eating is very, you know, a lot of people think 'but I don't have emotional eating' and then I ask a few questions and then it is very common. We all have emotional eating. I've never seen one person who doesn't have emotional eating, but to different degrees.

Thank you.

So when we say dietetic, we always think about calories, what we need to eat, different types of diets. But what I do is I do not talk about diets, I do not count calories. What we do is we tackle the weight struggles from an emotional perspective and a mental perspective. So what the person is feeling, what he's thinking about when he eats. How he's eating, where he's eating, why he's eating. Not what he's eating.

I believe that people know now what they need to eat, they know how to count calories, they might be even better than me at counting calories. They've tried it all. And you have ChatGPT, you can ask any question you want... So I really need to give an added value. And when we're talking about this, you need to tackle the emotional part, the mental part. ChatGPT cannot replace the human side of it. I've done so many interviews over the past 17 years about the diets, specific types of food, magical potions... I'm done with that. I really want to bring an added value, and it is the emotional and mental part because very few people talk about it. People know what they need to eat but they cannot maintain it. And that's the problem, and this is where I would like to be interviewed about.

Actually, it's one driver. So it's the reason why you cannot maintain your weight. Emotional eating is actually when you're eating because of your emotions, not because of hunger. And the end result of that will be the weight struggles. A lot of people think 'but I don't have emotional eating' and then I ask a few questions and it is very common. We all have emotional eating. Some people think 'but I don't eat when I'm sad, I don't eat when I'm stressed'. Some people eat when they are happy, to celebrate! So if you want, it's any reason you're eating not because of hunger.

I've seen all emotions with people. You have some people who eat just because of two emotions, like sadness and loneliness, and others have a big spectrum. But definitely stress eating. Some people identify with stress eating more than emotional eating, especially men. They don't really like the 'emotional eating' word, so when I talk about stress eating, they directly feel 'yeah, that's me'. Stress eating is very common, especially in Dubai with the fast-paced lifestyle. But also loneliness, people are busy here, expats without their families, so at night they come back, sit in front of the TV and start eating because of loneliness.

That's another thing, how accessible it is with the easy apps that we have. In one click you can have anything you want. And if you're feeling the craving, instead of having time to think and go and get what you want, it's just one click. So definitely this makes it worse, especially at night when you're alone and bored. When I say sadness, people look at me, but boredom is sadness, loneliness is sadness. When you look at the emotional wheel, loneliness and boredom are on the sadness spectrum.

That's very important. It's not like every time you're gonna just eat a chocolate you say 'I'm emotionally eating'. First, the physical hunger is biological. You have signs in your body... the stomach growling, feeling empty, you can have a little bit of a headache, you become moody, cranky... hangry, exactly. This is when your body really wants fuel and calories to function. Whereas emotional hunger is a craving. It's not in your stomach, it's not in your head. It comes suddenly, unexpected. It could be right after a huge lunch or you even wake up and feel it... we call it night eating syndrome. It's the need for dopamine or serotonin. The body needs it, and the body got used to taking it from the food. Emotional hunger is a specific thought or desire for a type of food, like salty or sugary, like 'I want a donut'. But physical hunger can be satisfied by anything.

Yes. And if you want to test yourself, imagine a dish that you don't really like, but if you're really hungry you're gonna eat it. If it's the only thing on the table, you'll eat it. This is how you will differentiate between I'm really hungry and I'm emotionally eating.

First we need to realize that we're feeling bad about it, because honestly I put polls on Insta and ask 'do you feel guilty after you eat emotionally?' and always you get 'no'. Especially for men, they do not feel guilty at all. But we need to watch our thoughts. The guilt came so many times that the brain told them 'we're not gonna feel guilty anymore, we're gonna just enjoy it', so they shut it down. Why the guilt? Because basically you understand when you eat that you were not hungry. Food is here to nourish our body. And we know deep down 'I'm eating but I'm not hungry, I might have finished a big meal, and now I'm having this and it's not enough'. And they feel guilty because they start feeling it physically. They feel so bloated, so stuffed, like they want to vomit. They feel 'I did something wrong to my body, I didn't care for my body by stuffing it'.

No. And I wouldn't be here if willpower could be a solution. Willpower is not the solution because it's not the problem. The problem resides in the nervous system, in the emotions, and in the thoughts, the inner dialogue. If we're relying on motivation or willpower, it's not gonna work. Guess what? When we're stressed, there's no willpower. In the best scenario, beautiful life, willpower could work. But when we are stressed, motivation is gone, willpower is gone. And that's why we need to look at how is my nervous system, how are my emotions, and how am I talking to myself.

Actually men, they eat more when they are in social settings and when they are bored at night. Versus women, they tend to eat more to comfort their emotions, when they are sad or want relief. We're seeing a difference in how they have their emotional eating, but also the types of food. Women, because they want comfort and relief, they go for chocolate, sugary food, donuts. Whereas men, they go for fast food, steaks, burgers, and alcohol. You might not think directly that this man is emotionally eating because he's not eating a chocolate or a donut, you always have that picture of a woman at night with ice cream.

I think it's the type of food, so men look always for survival. And fat will make you feel full for a longer period of time, whereas the chocolate gives you a quick, instant energy and the dopamine and serotonin hit that you need. It's really wired in your nervous system. It's really interesting.

Binge eating is a disorder. It's among the eating disorders, so we have anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder. It's really a clinical problem. Whereas emotional eating is very common and it's not really disruptive to our life in general. With binge eating, you're eating a huge quantity of food in a very short period of time. I'm emotionally eating for example if I feel sad and I go get a chocolate, it could be one or two pieces. But binge eating is when you reach a point where you're really gonna vomit because you ate too much. It's very different in terms of how disruptive it is to your life and how often you're doing it.

Well, first try to track the pattern. Let me write it down. When am I eating most often? Where is the feeling that I'm emotionally eating, is it at work, is it at night? What is the emotion that comes a little bit before? Look at your pattern to collect some insights, and then definitely go and talk about it with an expert in emotional eating to see if you really have an issue or something more serious like a binge eating disorder.

Am I really hungry, or am I craving?

No, no, just asking. Because once they ask this question and they say 'no, I'm not really hungry', then the second question would be 'what am I feeling?' And then they would start going the emotional part, to understand their emotions. You're regulating the emotion through food. To help yourself, first understand what you're feeling, and then support yourself with another coping mechanism... a healthy alternative like a walk, a shower, talking to a friend, or meditation. Sometimes you don't have to do anything else, you just have to sit with your feeling. Self-compassion is three steps: acknowledge what I'm feeling, talk to yourself as if you're talking to a friend, and remember common humanity, that everybody feels lonely from time to time.

Yes. Any habit you have, you can unlearn it. Overeating, emotional eating, smoking, drinking, overshopping, gambling, scrolling... everything looks the same. It's the same thing, but for you, you can use this tool, another person uses another tool. It's all about trying to get that little boost of serotonin. And even with emotional eating, when we work on it, it doesn't mean that you're not gonna eat chocolate anymore. Not at all! It's actually just to have it in a moderate way, not to affect your weight, and to have a healthier relationship with food.

Yeah, so you might say hypnotherapy is understandable, working with the subconscious mind... but what breathwork does? Actually, emotional eating is a nervous system problem. We're not regulated. So whenever you are in a fight or flight mode, you need something to help you regulate your nervous system. And one of the best ways to do that is through breathwork. Because your lungs function automatically, but they are also the only part of your automatic nervous system where you can control it. You can make your breath faster or slower. It's a bridge between your conscious and subconscious mind.

Obviously weight struggles, because when you don't feel good in your own body, then you struggle with weight. They are like a triangle: you have body image here, emotional eating here, and then weight struggles. Body image is not just how you're seeing your body; it's how you're feeling about it, talking to it, and how you change your lifestyle because of it. When you have a negative body image, you're gonna control your eating, restrict yourself, go into very strict diets, or over-exercise. And when you do that, you're gonna fall into the opposite.

Yeah. Definitely work on your algorithm. If we're talking about Insta, there are ways to shift the algorithm. Remove modeling, remove food, remove words so you don't get bombarded by those pictures. When you open your Insta and see pictures of yummy food, you're gonna want to eat. And the same thing for bodies. If you keep seeing very beautiful, filtered, Photoshopped bodies, your brain thinks that what it's seeing is normal and true. And we're not wired to compete with thousands of women online. So change your algorithm and feed your brain with the right nutrients.

It's definitely the nervous system, the emotions, and the thoughts and inner dialogue. And this is why the three pillars that I work on are those pillars. You need to tackle the three... how is my nervous system, how are my emotions, and what am I thinking about, how am I talking to myself.

Love your body as...

I know, I will give you tips! We always say self-love. What is self-love? One, watch what you're saying to yourself. Are you labeling yourself and your body nonstop? Saying 'I'm undisciplined, I don't have willpower, my body is not nice, I'm fat, I'm ugly, I look like a cow.' Stop the negative talk.

Yes. We got used to saying negative things that it's just a habit now. So now shift to 'I will imagine I have a friend next to me. What will I allow myself to tell that friend?' If I won't say it to her, then why would I say it to myself? Practice self-compassion, and definitely surround yourself with people who give you nice compliments, not attack you.

That's why we need to change the conditioning. Childhood conditioning is huge. It's a huge part of rewiring and making the relationship with our body healthier. We criticize ourselves more than anyone else. It's built from the messages we got, from the emotions we felt, from experiences, and it's wired in our nervous system.

You know, it helps me because my work is not only on an individual level. I work with corporates, with teams. Because when you change a behavior, you have to change it on an individual level, but you need also to work on a team level. I do understand the background of the corporate world, and to change the performance of a person, you don't punish them, it's by changing the drivers, the emotions, and the distortions they are having.

Yeah.

So first I'm a mother of twins. I have a boy and a girl, they are six years old. And I learned the yoga for kids just to train with them, to have a beautiful activity. Definitely, working with kids is important because you're building the body image and even emotional eating starts from a young age. I do awareness at schools for parents and for kids about body image and emotional eating, it is very important.

Yeah, so the first thing is we do a discovery call. It's over the phone to just understand what they are struggling with, and if they are really struggling with emotional eating and body image, then we do the six-week program. It is important before we start any diet. I do give diets, but I need to make sure that the person now understands his emotions, his thoughts, his inner critic, and his nervous system. Once he's able to support his nervous system, then I give him the diet. Then the diet will work and he won't have the relapse or the weight regain.

Thank you.