Why Do I Feel Guilty After Eating?
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Picture this. You get home from a long day of work. You’re tired and you haven’t eaten in a few hours because you had an afternoon jam-packed with meetings. You sit on the couch to binge Netflix, and before you know it, you’ve eaten a whole bag of chips. When the episode ends, you realize what happened and are hit with a wave of guilt. You can’t believe you managed to eat the whole bag in one sitting!
If you’ve had this scene play out in real life, you’re not alone. Feeling guilty after eating is unfortunately pretty common, and it’s a sign of an unhealthy relationship with food.
Here’s some good news! You don’t have to stay stuck feeling guilty after eating forever. Keep reading to learn what food guilt is, what causes it, and how to stop feeling guilty after eating.
What is food guilt?
Merriam Webster defines guilt as, “a feeling of deserving blame for offenses” or “the fact of having committed a breach of conduct especially violating law and involving a penalty”.
So, food guilt means that you feel like you deserve blame for some sort of offense or misconduct. In this case, the offense or misconduct is eating–something necessary to live!
Being trapped in a cycle of feeling guilty after eating can be really tough and emotionally draining. It’s often a part of the binge-restrict cycle, where you move through restriction, food obsession, binge eating, and food guilt and shame on repeat. It’s not a fun place to be, but it’s where many people are stuck thanks to diet culture.
Food guilt vs. guilt eating
Before we dive further into food guilt, let me clarify the difference between food guilt and guilt eating (yes, there is a difference!). Food guilt is the emotion you feel after eating; whereas, guilt eating is when you eat in response to the emotion of guilt.
For example, maybe you tried to set a boundary with someone and it made you feel guilty (props to you for setting a boundary!). But in order to cope with the guilt, you turn to food. That would be guilt eating. We have a whole blog post on emotional eating if you want to learn more!
Binge eating and eating disorders
Guilt after eating is very common with eating disorders, including binge eating disorder. In fact, one potential symptom of binge eating disorder is feeling very guilty after eating (here’s the full diagnostic criteria for binge eating disorder).
Even if binge eating is not present for you, feeling guilty after eating a certain type of food or after eating anything may also be a warning sign of disordered eating or an eating disorder. If you think you may be at risk, the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) has resources to help.
What causes food guilt?
There is no one cause for food guilt, but oftentimes, it’s related to diet culture related food beliefs, internalized weight stigma, and/or food restriction. Learn more about each cause below.
Diet culture driven food beliefs
Diet culture makes us think black and white thoughts about food. We label some things as “good” and others as “bad”, some as “healthy” and others as “unhealthy”. Not only that, but diet culture has made us think that we’re bad if we eat a “bad” food.
Food should not have morality attached to it in that way. Cake is not bad and eating it does not make you a bad person. Your cultural foods are not bad and eating them does not make you bad. You’re simply a human who likes good tasting food! It’s totally okay to derive pleasure from food.
Given that diet culture has made us think we are bad if we eat certain foods or certain amounts of food, it makes sense that you’d feel guilty if you don’t abide by diet culture’s arbitrary food rules (but it doesn’t mean that diet culture is right!).
Internalized weight stigma
According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), weight stigma is, “discrimination or stereotyping based on a person’s weight”. Weight stigma is so pervasive in our society. It happens in doctor’s offices, in the media, amongst family and friends, and more.
When you start to keep an eye out for it, it’s hard to find places where weight stigma isn’t present. Since weight stigma is so pervasive, many people are constantly trying to lose weight.
Diet culture teaches us that weight loss is the cure to all of our problems. Feeling a lack of confidence? Struggling with health issues? Feeling knee pain? Can’t find a romantic partner? Diet culture will tell you to just lose weight and these issues will all go away.
Weight is the basis of true discrimination in our society, and especially for those living in larger bodies or with other marginalized identities, attempting to lose weight can be a means of trying to achieve safety. This is a super nuanced topic and we will never judge anyone for wanting to lose weight.
That being said, oftentimes, getting stuck in a cycle of dieting or restriction with the hopes of losing weight only leads to constant weight cycling, a fraught relationship with food, periods of restriction and bingeing, and lots of guilt when you can’t stick to the diet (even though diets simply don’t work).
Internalized weight stigma can make you feel guilty eating certain foods or certain amounts of foods. This can be because you didn’t stick with a diet or because you’re worried that you’ll gain weight from whatever you ate.
Restricting certain foods
If you feel guilty eating certain foods, part of it may be because you’re restricting those foods, physically or psychologically. You may have a specific idea of what healthy eating is, and when your eating doesn’t align with that, it brings up guilt or shame.
Restricting certain foods can also make you more likely to binge on those foods, and binge eating often brings up feelings of guilt or shame for people. As I’ll address more later in the blog, letting yourself eat all foods will help you to find food freedom over time.
Restricting your overall energy intake
Whether you’re following a restrictive meal plan, tracking calories in an app, or counting macros, you may not be eating enough. I know, it may be hard to believe because we’re often told that we could all stand to eat less, but there’s a lot of misinformation out there about how much we actually need (no, 1200 calories is not enough for an adult!).
Just like when you restrict certain types of food, when you make food choices rooted in restriction or diet culture’s “less is better” ideology, it could lead to food guilt.
Think about it. If you have internalized the idea that you should only eat a certain amount per day, you’ll probably feel guilty if you exceed that.
Plus, having a caloric maximum set for the day can impact your eating habits, making you more likely to binge since your mind and body will feel deprived.
How to stop food guilt
Now that you understand some key causes of food guilt, let’s talk about how you can overcome it.
Reframe all-or-nothing food thoughts
As I mentioned above, diet culture makes us think all-or-nothing thoughts about food. We make certain foods off limits and hail others as the cure-all for our ailments.
To prevent food guilt and dismantle this hierarchy of foods, it helps to reframe these thoughts. Remember that it’s okay to derive pleasure from food. Food is meant to taste good! If it didn’t, we wouldn’t have the drive to eat, which we need to do to survive.
Invite your forbidden foods into your regular eating pattern so you can stop fearing them and reduce the power they have over you. As you start to trust yourself around them, you can stop feeling guilty after eating them.
Eat enough
Eating food is a necessary part of not just staying alive, but thriving. If you deprive yourself of the amount of food you need and the variety of foods you love, you won’t be able to thrive.
Eating enough also opens the door for you to practice more mindful eating over time. By that, I simply mean being more present with your food and noticing what is satisfying.
If you’re constantly operating from a place of either restriction or binge eating, it will be really hard to be present with your meal and notice your body sensations. And if you’re not eating enough, you’re more likely to binge, feel guilty, and perpetuate the binge-restrict cycle.
Practice body acceptance
Since poor body image can be related to food guilt, fostering a healthier body image can help. This obviously takes time, work, patience, and reflection, but it is so worth it.
You may initially think of body positivity or body love as your goal, but these feel out of reach for many people. For that reason, it may help to start by working towards body acceptance or body neutrality.
You don’t have to immediately try loving the part of your body that you may currently hate or struggle to look at in the mirror, but can you work to accept them?
If you can start to accept your here-and-now body, then you may be better able to handle natural body changes.
It can help to remember that everyone’s body is unique. We were not meant to all have the same body and even if we all ate the same and worked out the same, our bodies would still be different.
We have a few blogs on this topic, from how to handle bad body image days to 10 tips for respecting your body to 5 tips for body trust, and more.
Work with an anti-diet dietitian
Of course, having someone to talk with about these struggles can be immensely helpful. An anti-diet dietitian could be a great support person to help you connect with your body’s cues, ensure you’re eating enough, and find ways to incorporate your favorite foods, even if you’re managing a chronic health condition.
Here at Your Latina Nutrition, Dalina and I talk with clients everyday who are working towards food freedom. We get to support them towards making peace with food and their bodies after decades of chronic dieting and poor body image.
Final Thoughts
Experiencing food guilt is no fun, but you can take steps to reduce guilt after eating. Since it’s often caused by diet culture related food beliefs, food restriction, or internalized weight stigma, it helps to reframe black and white thoughts about food, make sure you’re eating enough, and practice body acceptance.
If you’re looking for support to start your intuitive eating journey and make peace with food once and for all, our 3-part masterclass is the perfect resource. We break down how to find food freedom and implement nutrition without letting diet culture run the show.
If you liked this post, you may also like:
What Is The Binge Restrict Cycle?
