Tips for Controlling Emotional Eating After Weight Loss Surgery

Emotional eating; It is defined as the intake of large amounts of nutrients into the body in order to suppress the negative emotions of people such as anger, sadness and stress. Emotional eating causes uncontrolled weight gain in people and causes obesity by storing fat in the body. This is more common in women than in men, and in overweight individuals than in normal-weight individuals.

Emotional eating syndrome is frequently encountered in bariatric surgery candidates, which is one of the treatment methods for obesity.

If this situation is not corrected beforehand, the rate and degree of post-operative weight loss will be adversely affected.

After the surgery, psychological changes can be seen in people due to excessive food restriction. For this reason, the desire to overeat can be prevented by distracting people and reacting to their emotional state.

It should be aimed to eliminate the unhealthy orientations (sugar drinks, repetitive small snacks, smoking, etc.) used to overcome the pre-operative emotional eating urge before the surgery. Instead, the introduction of healthy alternatives (physical activity) will positively affect the management of the process.

Alternatives to reducing emotional eating may be useful for promoting greater weight loss among adults with diabetes and overweight. In this way, the success of the surgery increases.

Studies have shown that there are significant regressions in emotional eating with weight loss in the first year after bariatric surgery. However, patients with preoperative binge eating syndrome tended to eat more frequently and in smaller amounts. Although very few people meet the diagnostic criteria for this syndrome after bariatric surgery, it has been observed that these people have less 3-year weight loss and therefore directly affect the success of the surgery.