Click here to register for the free webinar.
Today I want to talk to you about hormones and emotional eating. We don’t talk about this much, even though I get asked about it frequently. That’s going to change.
Hormones, Cravings, and the Truth About Emotional Eating
Hormones drive so much of our eating. Something like one in eight Americans is on a GLP-1 medication, injecting themselves weekly to quiet the food noise in their brain. That’s how powerful hormones are.
I remember being pregnant and in the shower, crying hysterically because the shower curtain fell. It wasn’t about the curtain. It was hormones.
Another time when I was pregnant, I couldn’t write down my food or manage what I was eating without feeling nauseous. I barely wanted to eat, so I put together these bizarre meals—like raw tofu with tomato sauce. A few months went by, and suddenly I could eat anything. Hormones again.
Years later, I found myself crying in the shower again every day. I talked to my dad about it, and he was sure it was menopause. Absolutely sure. I was 46, and my periods were regular. But he remembered his mother’s severe perimenopause, which led to her taking her life—and insisted that I see a doctor.
Soon after, I stopped sleeping through the night. That finally pushed me to get help stabilizing my hormones.
My Experience With Hormone Therapy
When I sought treatment, I was prescribed a high dose of testosterone. It wasn’t the appropriate treatment, but I felt amazing. I was calm, decisive, and free of emotional eating.
When I came off it, the contrast was striking. It showed me just how powerful hormones are in shaping behavior, mood, and appetite.
Why Hormones Change Your Appetite and Cravings
Hormones don’t just affect your mood. They shape hunger and cravings.
Take estrogen. It rises after your period, peaks around ovulation, and then drops in the luteal phase. When estrogen is higher, you tend to feel more confident, need less food, and experience fewer cravings. When it drops, cravings and food obsession may increase.
Estrogen suppresses ghrelin, the hunger hormone, boosts appetite suppressing hormones like CCK, and increases dopamine binding, so you feel more satisfied when you eat. It also makes insulin more sensitive which helps regulate blood sugar.
In Bright Line Eating, we help level the playing field by removing sugar and flour, which stabilizes blood sugar and reduces the hormonal roller coaster during cravings.
Emotional Eating is Real—And It’s Not Just Hormones
Emotional eating is about more than just hormones, though. It’s also driven by relationships, stress, boredom, celebration, comfort, and relief. These patterns of eating are real, and they deserve attention.
One powerful shift is moving your identity from “I’m an emotional eater” to “I am learning emotional regulation skills.” That’s worth striving for.
Some people are naturally more hormonally and emotionally stable. Others, like me, are more intense. I’ve always been that way. But I’ve learned tools to navigate it, and that’s what I want for you.
Join Me to Dive Deeper Into the Science
We’re starting a conversation on this topic with a live webinar this Thursday, March 26, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. It’s called “The Hijacked Brain: The Neuroscience of Emotional Eating.”
From there, we’ll go deeper, taking a look at stabilizing hormones and building practical tools for what to do in those moments when you want to eat emotionally.
I hope you’ll join me.
Click here to register for the free webinar.
