Why Do I Always Need to Eat When I Watch TV?
This is one of the most frequently asked questions that I get from clients!
There is no one-size-fits-all answer here — so I’ve compiled a list of the TOP SIX REASONS I see happening with clients (and that I also experienced myself during decades of feeling troubled by the same issue).
Reason #1: You’re catching up on hunger.
When our days are busy, it's easy to skimp on meals and snacks because we feel like we can - the body is too busy to feel hungry. In the evening, when the dust settles and we get some down time (typically around TV time), this overdue hunger may start to assert itself. This can show up in the form of chronic grazing or full-blown cravings, especially for food groups it missed out on earlier in the day.
Reason #2: TV gives you permission to ignore the “rules.”
Watching TV is a time to relax, let go, check out. If you experience food guilt, it also happens to be a time when you can eat without acknowledgment -- you don't have to think about what or how much you're eating when you're distracted by TV. Subconsciously, this may be a time that you give yourself the permission to eat foods/amounts that you wouldn't be able to offer yourself standing in the kitchen or sitting for a meal.
Reason #3: TV time is reward time.
If you don't get much time to yourself (or if you do, but feel guilty about it), eating in front of the TV might be a way that you claim self-care and reward. If you have food rules, breaking them during "me time" is a way of saying "forget the rules -- I deserve this." This may extend beyond just food and TV -- ask yourself: where else in my life am I not getting what I need or deserve? This can often be expressed through food.
Reason #4: Emotions start to rise during down-time, and eating is a distraction.
When we sit down to watch TV, we are signaling to our body that it’s time to relax. Our brain switches off from work or to-do mode and into a state of ahhhhh. While this sounds great in theory, our brains will also use this opportunity to scan for thoughts that may have been more distractible during the day, like that fight you had with your partner earlier, or the millions of things you have to do tomorrow causing you overwhelm. When uncomfortable feelings like this come up, it may feel like the last thing you want to deal with — you just sat down to relax! Food is a powerful numbing agent to emotions that threaten to rise when you sit down.
Reason #5: Eating is a sensory regulating experience associated with calming (paired with TV).
TV time is down-time for many people. It’s the moment we go from DO-ing to BE-ing — and it can be a drastic shift of the nervous system to move from active mode to calm mode. One way our bodies make sense of this down regulation shift is to use sensory input to ground us and calm us down. Food is a sensory experience — it involves taste, texture, sound, aroma, vision, rhythm. You may not even realize it, but your body is trying to use it’s senses to move you into a more relaxed state.
Reason #6: Eating is demonized and we end up chronically needing more because the guilt sets in.
Eating in front of the TV has been taught to us as a no-no. It’s associated with other demonized concepts such as “emotional eating,” “distracted eating,” and “compulsive eating.” While distracted eating can, in fact, promote a lack of attunement with the body, it can also be a feedback loop of shame. For example — “I’m eating in front of the TV…this is bad…why am I doing this…I’m so bad…might as well keep eating to numb out the feeling bad…” The guilt about eating can prompt the cycle of eating, whereas a shame-free eating environment may have allowed you to eat with enjoyment and stop with satisfaction.
Do any of these reasons resonate with you?
We cover all of these topics in the group program: From Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating. If this sounds like something you need support around, apply here!
