When dieting doesn’t work to lose weight long-term, many people are now turning to bariatric surgery, thinking that if they don’t eat the volume of food they used to, then the weight will stay away. They can’t eat as much at a time, but when they are stressed and still turn to food to feel better, emotional eating, they may eat more often or higher calorie foods, and the weight returns. The problem is that the underlying emotional triggers to their eating habits are not addressed.
A number of clinical studies have been done on EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques, to illustrate it’s effectiveness on emotional eating habits and subsequent weight loss. Below is information from another weight loss study, but this time involving the level of emotional eating after having bariatric surgery.
Dr. Peta Stapleton and colleagues conducted this study to assess whether post-surgery care comprising Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) combined with a behavior-based nutrition and portion control eating plan in an online self-guided delivery would aid weight-loss and maintenance in bariatric patients.
Emotional eating decreased significantly from pre-intervention to post-intervention for the portion group and portion group with EFT. At 6-months the portion group with EFT experienced the greatest improvements in emotional eating (-16.33%), uncontrolled eating (-9.36%), and self-esteem (+4.43%), compared to portion group only or treatment as usual group.
One of the best ways to lose weight and keep it off, and maybe avoid surgery, is to reduce cravings and episodes of emotional eating. EFT is an excellent treatment that helps with both of these problems. More information about the study can be found at this link.
