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Writer's pictureRhea Lewandoski R.D.
Oct 22

Feeling “Out of Control” Around Food

Author: Rhea Lewandoski R.D.


Your relationship with food can be impacted by many factors throughout your life and is individual to you. When it comes to feeling “out of control” around food or the fear of this, there are a few common experiences that show up, which are listed below. If you have or are getting curious about whether you have disordered eating or an eating disorder, the topics below are good ones to do some further exploration on. It is not uncommon for someone with disordered eating or an eating disorder to fear the loss of control around food and/or have experienced what felt like a loss of control. This feeling or fear can lead to binge eating, purging, restriction, or any other number of eating disorder behaviours. Sometimes understanding what is contributing to this experience can help to challenge the associated disordered behaviours.


Drivers of feeling “out of control” around food (Some may experience more than one).


1. Overcontrol: If you have an urge to control all things, including food, sometimes anything outside of “full control” can feel “out of control”. Some things that may increase someone’s urge for control or overcontrol:

  1. Food restriction

  2. Perfectionism

  3. Trauma; hypervigilance; stress

  4. Childhood experience

  5. Some disorders ie. OCD; anxiety; personality


2. Physical Restriction: any behaviour that results in you eating less than you need. Examples:

  1. Calorie or macro counting

  2. Portion control with an aim of less or fear of too much

  3. Cutting out specific food groups (e.g. carbs, dairy, sugar)

  4. Avoiding foods that you enjoy

  5. Skipping meals (whether intentionally or unintentionally)


3. Mental Restriction/Restraint: this refers to any restrictive thinking about food. Examples:

  1. Food rules ie. Timing; “good vs. bad”

  2. ‘Healthifying’

  3. All-or-nothing thinking

  4. Self-shaming for eating certain foods or amounts. The “shoulds” or “shouldn’ts”.


4. Food Scarcity: having limited access to food in the past or present. Examples:

  1. Food insecurity (having limited access to food that is out of your control)

  2. History of dieting

  3. Scarcity with specific foods (ie. certain food rules when growing up)


5. Uncomfortable Emotions: food can be comforting and eating behaviours can serve as coping tools

  1. Eating to cope with uncomfortable sensations and/or emotions

  2. Coping using ED behaviours that increase the fear of being out of control

  3. Cycle of restrict/binge and/or purge


6. Trauma: trauma can affect your relationship with food and body, regardless of when it occurred or the type. Examples:

  1. Eating/restricting to numb or distract or to change your body

  2. Even if the trauma response is to restrict your food intake, this is physical restriction, which can still contribute to feeling/fear of being out of control.


7. Habit/Routine: an eating behaviour can often become part of your routine. Examples:

  1. Bingeing/purging may be part of your routine

  2. Eating past comfortable fullness may be what you are used to

  3. Not eating enough throughout the day (intentional or not)

8. Medication/stimulants/appetite suppressants: certain substances can impact our appetite. Examples:

  1. Appetite changes may be a side effect of a medication

  2. Cigarettes and caffeine may decrease appetite leading to physical restriction


Let this be a guide to exploring and validating why the fear or feeling of being out of control around food might exist for you vs. shame and/or self-blame. Support exists for all points listed above to help you find peace with food. I always encourage further conversation with supports about any insight you may have had while reading this.


Resources:

  • Bridgepoint Center for Eating Disorders (no date) BridgePoint Center for Eating Disorders · BridgePoint - Center For Eating Disorder Recovery. Available at: http://www.bridgepointcenter.ca/ (Accessed: 11 October 2024).

  • Gilbert, K., Hall, K. and Codd, R.T. (2020) ‘Radically open dialectical behavior therapy: Social Signaling, Transdiagnostic utility and current evidence<p></p>’, Psychology Research and Behavior Management, Volume 13, pp. 19–28. doi:10.2147/prbm.s201848.

  • Hazzard, V.M. et al. (2020) ‘Food insecurity and eating disorders: A review of emerging evidence’, Current Psychiatry Reports, 22(12). doi:10.1007/s11920-020-01200-0.

  • Levinson, C.A. and Williams, B.M. (2020) ‘Eating disorder fear networks: Identification of central eating disorder fears’, International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(12), pp. 1960–1973. doi:10.1002/eat.23382.

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