Frequently asked questions

There are various ways you can get help with cravings which lead to overeating. Seeking help from a mental health professional is one way – they can help you understand what triggers your eating and provide strategies to help with food cravings. Engage in a conversation with your doctor to discuss your food cravings and explore management strategies.

Hedonic eating is the preoccupation with and desire to consume food solely for the purpose of pleasure, even when there is no physical hunger present. It might present as addiction-like eating (where you are compelled to eat for the endorphin hit), subconscious eating (where you eat while distracted or tired) or emotional eating (where you eat for comfort or when you are in a low mood).

Binge eating means compulsively eating a large amount of food in a short amount of time, followed by feelings of guilt or shame . Food addiction is a term used when someone feels like they lose control of how much they eat, accompanied by an increased drive to find and eat certain foods, even if it’s bad for them.

The body mass index (BMI) is used because it is easy to measure, reliable and correlates to the percentage of body fat and body fat mass, providing a better estimate of total body fat than weight alone. However, it’s important to know it is not a perfect system. BMI calculations can overestimate the amount of fat in someone who is very muscular, or underestimate it in people who have lost muscle mass, like the elderly.

Chronic diseases are long-lasting and have persistent effects on a person’s health. Because obesity is a long-term condition, and it comes with a host of complications that can have a long-term impact on health, obesity fits the criteria for a chronic disease.

Obesity occurs as a result of energy intake exceeding energy expenditure over a long period of time. While this may sound as simple as eating too much and not moving enough, there are more contributing factors, such as genetics, early life experiences, the surrounding environment, certain medications or health conditions. For more information read A guide to obesity and weight management

The articles on Break The Crave is one resource to learn about food cravings and weight management. Explore the articles covering a range of topics, from understanding eating behaviours like emotional eating, subconscious eating and addictive-like eating, to partnering with your doctor for weight management and more.

Help is available from doctors that specialise in obesity and weight management. You can also get help from other allied healthcare professionals like dietitians, counsellors, exercise physiologists. Your doctor can help you put together your team. You can get started and talk to a doctor online, or face-to-face.