Coping with Emotional Eating After Bariatric Surgery

You’ve already had bariatric surgery. But you know that what you do next is also vitally important.

Some people get surgery and proceed to lose weight, keep it off, and get back to the joyful and loving and active lives that they deserve to live. Others lose some weight, but then they go right back to their old eating habits and the scale starts to climb back up again.

What’s the difference, and how do you avoid becoming a part of the second group? One key is in how you cope with the desire to eat emotionally post-bariatric surgery.

How Do You Overcome Emotional Eating?

The good news is that after surgery, your desire to eat emotionally or compulsively will probably diminish. One reason is that, when you suffer from obesity, your brain’s dopaminergic pathway can become dysfunctional. Dopamine is part of your brain’s reward system, and is responsible for why you feel pleasure after eating a big meal (especially if it has sugar). As a result of this pathway malfunctioning, people who suffer from obesity suffer from lower self-control when it comes to eating.

But weight loss surgery can appropriately regulate your dopaminergic system, which can reduce your cravings. A study published in Eating and Weight Disorders found that patients who experienced an addiction to food before surgery often found their addiction cured post-bariatric surgery. Their food cravings after surgery were no more intense than those of individuals who had never suffered from food addiction in the first place. In other words, simply undergoing bariatric surgery can help to reduce your desire to eat emotionally or compulsively.

But many people who suffer from obesity eat in order to try to fill a hole inside of them; and sometimes, that hole can still be there after surgery. If this is you, then you need to look inside and see what’s causing that hole in the first place. Often, it’s caused by guilt or shame. Sometimes, it’s caused by feeling bad about yourself or like you don’t have the same worth as other people. This hole can often be caused by childhood wounds. This is why our center includes integrated psychosocial providers that help patients discover and fill in these emotional deficits and work to resolve damage. Resolving these issues is foundational to long-term success.

What Are Effective Coping Strategies For Managing Emotional Eating Tendencies?

If you still suffer from emotional or compulsive eating after bariatric surgery, one reason might be that you feel like there’s a hole inside of you. Filling that hole can be a profound way, not just to lose weight and keep it off, but to step more fully into the beautiful and active and joyful life that you were born to live.

Joining a support group can be one way to fill that hole. As humans, we weren’t made to go it alone; we were made to live in community. Research shows that joining a loving community can be a powerful way to improve your emotional wellness. This is even more powerful when the other community members know you deeply and truly see you. This is one reason that at the BMCC, we offer post-surgery support groups full of other weight loss surgery patients just like you.

You may also wish to see a good psychologist. A good psychologist can help to heal childhood wounds and help you to let go of any shame or feelings of being worth less than other people so that you can live your best life. If you feel so inclined, deepening (or pursuing) a connection to God can also be a powerful solution. A deep connection to a higher power has helped many people just like you to let go of their feelings of guilt and shame and to feel their Creator’s boundless and infinite love for them.

Another great way to reduce your desire to eat emotionally or compulsively is to eat mindfully. If you’re wondering, “How can I differentiate between physical hunger and emotional hunger after bariatric surgery?” one easy solution is to slow down your eating and to be fully conscious as you eat.

In the United States, so many of us rush through our meals with our minds on other matters. We finish our meal having never really tasted it. As a result, the food doesn’t satiate us; and so we want more. If this is you, try putting your fork down between bites. This slower eating will give your body more time to feel the food in your stomach and to tell you when you’re full. It will also help you to be fully present to the meal so that you can taste each delicious bite. If you practice mindful eating habits like this, you can more easily tell when your body is physically full and put the rest away, rather than keeping eating because you’re emotionally hungry.

Setting Yourself Up For Success Post-Bariatric Surgery

Now that you’ve undergone bariatric surgery, you have a wonderful opportunity to set yourself up to lose the weight, keep it off, and get your life back. Our team will be there to help you every step of the way.

“It hasn’t always been easy. The life changes though have been worth every second. My advice: Stop waiting. Don’t blame yourself. Find a care team you can trust. Play with recipes. Play outside. Find protein you love. Include your friends and loved ones on your journey. Don’t give up.

“I’ve lost more than half of my weight. I no longer take prescription medications and am no longer diabetic, hypertensive, etc. We hike and cross country ski, kayak, ice skate, remodel our home and go for long walks. Who could have imagined? The only thing left is to start that family, which we hope to do this year. Thank God for Dr. Long and his team!”—Angie Goodger, gastric bypass patient.

If you have any questions about how to stick to your new dietary plan or anything else, please don’t hesitate to give our friendly office staff a call.