Emotional eaters, or people who tend to eat a lot when they are feeling lonely or depressed, have the hardest time dieting and keeping weight off once they lose it, according to researchers at the Miriam Hospital and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. The team analyzed responses from adults on their eating habits and found that the more that individuals ate for internal reasons—feeling lonely, or as a personal reward, as opposed to eating for external reasons, such as in social gatherings—the harder it was for them to lose weight and keep it off.
