Dietitians Thoughts on Amberlynn Reid’s Diet & Mukbangs (This Might Be Hard to Watch...)

oh this one's gonna be hard to watch hey everyone i'm abby sharp welcome to abby's kitchen in today's highly requested video we will be reviewing amber lynn reed now i've received so many requests from you guys to review amberlynn since i began this series but especially since i did my review on nicocado avocado so similar to nick whose review you can watch right here amberlynn's channel has been the subject of a lot of hate a lot of bullying and a lot of controversy largely to her extreme weight gain and the inconsistent nature of her content and while it has taken me a long time to figure out how to best approach this video i want to say that i think i'm finally ready so today we're going to be taking a look at the evolution of amberlynn's channel and her corresponding weight gain my thoughts on her problematic mukbang content and some of the reasons why dieting might be failing amberlynn's weight loss goals we will also once again be joined by eating disorder dietitian alessandra magisano to gain a little bit more insight into some of these hot topics but of course before we get started a few quick disclaimers number one the information in this video is for entertainment and educational purposes only so you should always speak to a healthcare provider about your unique healthcare needs two this video is not intended to diagnose or pathologize amber lynn the intention of this video is to simply discuss the themes on our channel in an educational and compassionate format three don't forget to please be kind in the comments both here and on amberlynn's channel for a trigger warning that some graphics and discussions may be disturbing to some my viewers particularly those who may have battled or are battling disordered eating so of course feel free to skip this video if that sounds like it could be you and finally do not forget to subscribe to this channel and ring that little bell so that you never miss out okay so for those of you who are unfamiliar with amberlynn reed she initially started her youtube channel back in 2013 to document her weight loss journey at the time she was around 368 pounds however since starting her channel she continued to steadily gain up to about 200 pounds and reached her highest weight in january 2020 at 572 pounds now despite trialing a variety of different popular weight loss diets during this time viewers have questioned amber's authenticity and commitment to her weight loss journey as she continues to steadily gain weight despite repeated efforts to improve her diet and start fresh tomorrow now in addition to her weight loss journey amberlynn is also known for her mukbang videos which have really generated a lot of negative feedback critics of amberlynn are quick to point out some of the contradictions of someone in a larger body seeking weight loss who is simultaneously participating in a trend that encourages eating large volumes of food in one sitting so this begs the question are mukbangs okay acceptable and fun to watch when the youtuber is generally thin healthy or fit and are they otherwise disturbing and problematic when the milk bangers nutritional health is already in question we're gonna be diving deeper into these questions later on in the video so definitely be sure to stick around for that now with all of that said many of amberlyn's viewers have repeatedly expressed concern about her size and the implications that this may have on her health and well-being now i can understand this concern as we do know that obesity specifically higher amounts of body fat may put one at a greater risk of a number of chronic diseases including cancer unfortunately amberlynn did recently share that she was diagnosed with stage one endometrial cancer which is a cancer in the lining of the uterus now i will say that there are a number of risk factors for endometrial cancers including age genetics and use of certain forms of contraceptives but research does suggest that obese and overweight women with higher amounts of body fat are two to four times more likely to develop endometrial cancer and extremely obese women are about seven times more likely one explanation for this is that excess fat tissue produces higher amounts of estrogen which has been associated with not only endometrial cancer but also breast and ovarian cancers another possible explanation is that individuals with higher body fat often have increased blood levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 which may promote the development of some cancers including endometrial cancer but of course i am not an oncologist nor am i part of amberlynn's healthcare team so obviously i cannot speak to the root cause of amberlynn's diagnosis but what we can say just by looking at the research is that there may be an association between higher body fat and the development of some cancers now with that said since sharing her diagnosis amberlynn has also had a hysterectomy to surgically remove the uterus so i do want to of course wish her a full and safe recovery and remission from her surgery and condition now moving on to her diet i do want to start by acknowledging that amberlynn has shared that she suffers from binge eating disorder and overeating as usual it is not my place to speculate about whether or not this is true and like i said i'm not here to diagnose or pathologize amber lynn but rather the purpose of this video is to review the content on her channel at face value in a compassionate and educational format so as to discuss some recurring themes like dieting and emotional eating with that said i really can't confirm whether or not amberlynn's what in a day videos are an accurate representation of what she actually consumes in a day but we will talk more about binge eating disorder and dieting later on for now i do want to take a brief look at what amber lynn's typical day of eating might look like at the time of filming this video which by the way is subject to change by the time that it's live let's start with her breakfast and a quick trigger warning i'm going to be giving some suggestions on how to help optimize satiety for amberlynn's weight loss goals so if this is triggering for you of course feel free to skip the section of this video so for breakfast on day one we've got a smoothie with greek yogurt some frozen berries and some spinach on day two is a bagel with some chicken breast cream cheese and some cheetos and on day three it's some pasta with onion tomato corn pesto butter and some sparkling lemonade so amberlynn has previously said that she doesn't usually consume stereotypical breakfast lunch and dinner meals instead she will usually just eat whatever she feels like in the moment great you know i don't necessarily think that meals need to look a certain way based on the time of day that they're consumed so if that's something that works for her and her palette then it works for me with that said i think there is some room for improvement here to really maximize the nutrition of these meals which would help keep amberlynn feeling satisfied longer potentially curb the desire to binge later on in the day and boost the disease fighting antioxidants in her diet for general longevity and health so for example she could swap the bag of cheetos with the smoothie from day one to pair with her bagel breakfast and this would help cut back on some of the added salt and refined carbs while adding in a serving of fruit veggies and extra protein from the greek yogurt she could also choose a nice hearty whole grain bread instead of the bagel if she wants some days which provide a lot more satisfying fiber protein and maybe some healthy fats to really keep her energy levels more steady also fyi when i'm choosing a bread i do like to look for the words whole grain as the first ingredient in the list and ideally i'm looking for about three to five grams of fiber and three to six grams of protein per two slices so that might be a good guideline for amberlynn as well now on day three i really like that she's got some veggies added to the pasta but she could definitely shift the proportions maybe by throwing in some zucchini noodles in with the regular pasta or a few extra handfuls of frozen spinach just to up the fiber content and maybe also add in some tofu or edamame as well especially because a 2015 meta-analysis found that soy intake was associated with 20 lower endometrial cancer risk she could also swap her pasta for like chickpea pasta because it's got about twice the protein and fiber on average as traditional pasta but i would say that you know just adding in more protein and fiber to her breakfast meals would definitely help keep them a little bit more balanced and up their staying power to keep her feeling more satisfied until lunch and we know also that a mediterranean-style diet rich in whole grains fruits and veggies is associated with lower risk of endometrial cancer so just something to really keep in mind let's take a look at lunch okay so for lunch day one she's at a restaurant and she has some tilapia with cream sauce broccoli and zucchini looks so good day two is just a luna bar for lunch and day three is a second bowl of that pasta she had on day one now with her lunch on day one which is the fish and veggies from ruby tuesdays which looks delicious amber lynn also mentions that even though this meal was low calorie it did help her feel full and i'm really not surprised by this because if you guys remember my hunger crushing combo we want to aim for a source of fat protein and fiber with our meals so this meal in particular is getting protein from the shrimp and tilapia fat from the cream sauce and fiber from the veggies so super satisfying i'm sure and i also love that this meal is not so like overly restrictive it's not like you know plain broiled fish and and steamed or boiled vegetables we're getting that cream sauce in there to make it a little bit more satisfying so that really helps with reducing the idea of kind of mental scarcity as well on day two amber lynn opts for a luna bar and while the luna bar is a great on-the-go snack it's just not likely going to provide enough fuel to get her through to dinner i mean literally these have less than 200 calories the problem is if we let ourselves get too hungry with low calorie meals we're more likely to overeat whatever we can get our hands on really quick so even if she didn't have time for a formal sit-down meal she could beef this up with like a handful of nuts a hard-boiled egg and a piece of toast or some whole grain crackers hummus and cut up veggies so i totally get the amberlynn may be looking to choose really low calorie meals in an effort to lose weight fast but choosing meals that are just inadequate is a set up for a binge so we still want to think about getting enough calories particularly from those hunger crushing compounds to get us to that next meal and then as for day three amberlynn has the same pasta that she had for breakfast so again we would want to maybe bump up the fiber and ideally get some plant-based protein into this meal to make it more filling and more rich and also maybe just add a little bit more variety so we could switch up the veggies or serve it with like a green salad to get our veggie fix now let's talk about dinner okay so for dinner on day one we've got four slices of bread with mayo chicken and bacon on day two it's some macaroni with buffalo chicken sausage and broccoli and on day three it's a bowl of cereal then another bowl of cereal a few spring rolls and then six oreos so again we're seeing a variety of different types of meals that don't necessarily fall into the standard dinner category which is totally okay and as you guys know i am not into food rules even ones that say you can't have cereal for dinner i mean like this video right now if you love breakfast for dinner or like brenner brenner i guess right yes please yes please anyway so on day one we've got those sandwiches with mayo chicken and bacon i like that there's more protein in this meal but we would definitely want to see some veggies or like a simple side salad just like balance things out i also think that maybe we could go for either the mayo or bacon since there is already a lot of saturated fat in this meal and that doesn't mean we need to skimp out on flavor or fat or even reduce the calories we could totally swap the mayo for like avocado and the bacon for some flavored tempeh to boost up the plant-based protein this is particularly of interest for amberlynn because research suggests that higher saturated fat intakes are associated with increases in endometrial cancer risk by 60 to 80 percent all right so then on day two we are seeing a little bit more balance you know we've got those carbs from the pasta we've got some protein in the chicken sausage and some veggies in the broccoli though again i would probably shift the proportions just a little bit to see a little bit more green in there and again maybe that chickpea pasta would be another easy swap as for day three obviously you don't need me to tell you that it's not a super nutritious meal with the oreos and the spring rolls and two bowls of cereal for dinner um and amberlynn herself actually mentions that this was a bad eating type of day which resulted in a bit of a binge that occurred off camera so saying that we need to boost up the vegetables is kind of a moot point here but we'll be talking a lot more about amberlynn's emotional eating later on in the video but again this may come down to a combination of physical restriction and the experience of emotional scarcity but stay tuned because we're going to talk a lot more about that so in terms of my overall thoughts on amberlynn's diet at least based on what we're seeing in these 2020 what in a day videos her portion sizes are not particularly big in fact at times they might just not be big enough and that can set you up for a binge really quickly but we do have some generally balanced meals to work with there is of course some room to optimize the nutrition in some of amberlynn's meals particularly to ensure that she is satiated and then not setting herself up for a binge with inadequate calories at meal times and also to make sure that she's getting in the antioxidants for cancer prevention so for example adding in extra nutrition from protein and fiber would help to make her meals more satiating keeping her blood sugar levels in check and of course helping to keep her fuller for longer without adding in a ton of calories which may potentially reduce the urge to binge later on in the day also focusing on lots of colorful fruits and vegetables whole grains beans and soy protein may help to reduce her risk of future cancer but again these videos are just one piece of the puzzle and may not be an accurate representation of how amberlynn eats off camera or during an actual binge now one hot topic that i want to get into is mukbangs and i've shared my thoughts on the mukbang trend which you can watch right here but essentially mukbangs on youtube have now evolved from the korean trend of eating a modest amount of food in front of an audience to simulate a social eating experience virtually to now eating a large quantity of food in a short period of time aka the actual clinical definition of a binge so obviously to the average viewer amberlynn's regular mukbang activity seems at odds with her weight loss goals and this of course has led to a lot of online bullying vicious diet trolling and accusations that she isn't taking her health or weight loss seriously with that said amberlynn has recently shared that she's actively trying to rebrand her channel without doing milk bangs because even though these videos generate the most views they also generate the most hate and scrutiny sounds a lot like what we heard from nicocado on his channels as well now what i do want to point out however especially in contrast to other infamous smoke bangers like nick is that the volume of food in amberlyn's mukbangs pale in comparison to the norm in fact even though we are seeing some traditional mukbang foods like flaming cheetos and various high calorie highly processed fast foods we're also seeing a lot of less typically bingeable and more balanced meals like veggie stir fry tuna and celery with rice cakes veggie burgers or some meatloafs or with some mac and cheese and these meals are often even accompanied by a side of veggies or sliced fruit which let's be real doesn't really satisfy a viewer's desire to live vicariously through a youtuber's epic cheat meal so amberlynn's mukbangs are dare i say healthier than most youtubers all in 10 000 calorie challenges but yet if you compare the comment sections of her mukbangs compared to many others like let's say always hungry amber lynn bears the brunt of the disgust and hate let's just look at one of the most popular comments on amberlynn's mukbang versus one from lifestyle youtuber always hungry both of these people post about wanting to get or stay fit but the primary difference is that olivia adams from always hungry is already in a socially desirable body and amber lynn is not so why does someone's body size influence our perception about whether or not mukbangs are acceptable and why is eating any amount of food that is not considered diet food not socially acceptable from somebody in a larger body here's the thing i am by no means condoning mukbang videos of any kind even the more modest versions on amberlynn's channel i honestly think that this is a really problematic youtube trend that perpetuates a lot of disordered eating behaviors but these behaviors are unhealthy regardless of size repeatedly eating large amounts of highly processed foods in one sitting can lead to increased blood pressure and blood sugar water retention shifts in one's gut microflora and dysregulated mood but it's very clear that the negative public perception of anne berlin's content is unique because of her size and that's nothing new research suggests that society's negative attitudes towards obese people play a significant role in their psychological and their physical health i get that a lot of people think that trolling an obese person about their weight or offering like aggressive dieting advice might motivate these individuals to adopt healthier behaviors but statistically the opposite is true research shows that the experience of weight stigma reduces exercise frequency and increases binge eating unhealthy weight control behaviors and binge eating disorder in fact one study on more than 2 400 overweight and obese women reported that 79 of participants coped with weight stigma by eating more food and 75 percent of participants coped by refusing to change their diet in addition weight stigma can also cause psychological stress which can increase the risk of depression low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction so you can see how this experience may actually perpetuate some of these unhealthy destructive behaviors so are internet trolls the reason for amberlynn's extreme weight gain since she started her journey online well according to the research and simply by looking at the comment section of even just one of her videos i would say that this is a real possibility and considering that amber lynn's weight gain and mukbang behavior has become so ingrained in her online identity she might feel that it's understandably a really difficult pattern to break now while my own personal and professional experiences see milk bangs as often really problematic i'm also totally open to the possibility that they may play a therapeutic role for amber lynn in one of her videos amberlynn mentions that eating in front of the camera just actually increases her awareness around what she's eating and allows her to eat at a more slow pace and more mindful pace compared to how she might eat off camera which is usually in front of the television because of this she states that she actually often ends up eating less on camera compared to when she's eating when nobody's watching and there's a few reasons why this might be for one it may be that her audience gives her a sense of accountability with her weight loss goals now accountability is an important element in a lot of weight loss programs and also in eating disorder recovery plans in an effort to maintain some structure around food and normal eating behaviors in the context of disordered eating behaviors which is what i would characterize some of the mukbang binging to simulate the feeling of being watched by followers on youtube is kind of similar to what might happen in real eating disorder recovery programs where meals are supervised by a member of your treatment team we also know that most eating disorder behaviors happen in private so it is statistically unlikely that she would invite us the viewer to witness an extreme binging episode now the other potential benefit of the mukbang format is that amberlynn herself suggests that eating for the camera encourages her to eat more mindfully and slowly both of which are healthy eating practices so research suggests that eating solely without distractions allows your body more time to release a tidy hormones in contrast eating while distracted like watching tv or on your phone can lead to faster eating and eating past the point of fullness in fact one study found that tv watching while eating increased food intake by up to 71 research has also shown that mindfulness can be a useful tool to reduce emotional eating and the frequency of binge eating episodes both of which amberlynn claims she struggles with so once that he found that obese women doing mindfulness exercises decreased their binge eating episodes from four times a week to one to two times a week that is powerful stuff so i can't say that milk bangs are a hindrance to amberlynn's weight loss efforts and it's very possible that the blatant weight stigma and trolling in the comments sections of these videos play a larger role but is an online troll really the only cause of such a dramatic shift in weight over time so i want to talk about some of the other potential contributing factors to amberlynn's public weight gain according to amberlynn she's been classified as overweight for as long as she can remember and was just 11 years old when she first went on a diet so since then she says that weight loss is kind of on her mind 24 7 and she really doesn't know what life is like without worrying about her weight she even has a video where she lists 100 reasons why she wants to lose weight which includes things like reducing her risk of disease as well as engaging in seemingly normal experiences like dancing traveling and walking on the beach so despite people's skepticism of amberlynn i think it's pretty clear that weight loss is something that she strongly desires and she recognizes that her weight gain does have implications for her quality of life so why is weight loss so hard for amberlynn to achieve well according to the literature it can be really challenging for a lot of people to achieve and maintain weight loss long term even the most liberal research tells us that most people who engage in intentional weight loss behaviors on average lose and maintain no more than six to ten percent of their weight so for somebody who is overweight or obese they will likely remain in these categories after their maximal realistic amount of weight loss is achieved we also know that there's a high rate of weight regain after a period of significant weight loss also known as weight cycling so one study found that individuals typically regain 30 to 35 percent of their weight a year later and will often regain most of the weight or more within five years this may be one reason why amberlynn regained the weight that she lost those 89 pounds and continues to gain more this is not to say that it's impossible to sustain long-term weight loss you can find tons of examples of people who do it every day and i do believe absolutely that it can be done however the data tells us that maintaining significant weight loss for over five years is more of an exception rather than the rule with that said obesity is a complex issue and cannot simply be resolved by eating less and exercising more if it were that simple we probably wouldn't be seeing amberlynn going on a diet after a diet to lose weight only to regain it back also putting oneself on really restrictive diets in an effort to lose weight often sets one up for a future binge and amberlynn herself has confessed that stages of restriction and deprivation often trigger her to binge and overeat this is why the new obesity guideline suggests that rather than suggesting somebody just eat less to weigh less it's more important to focus more on the root cause of an individual's weight gain and healthy behaviors that they can actually sustain now one of the many reasons why just eating less doesn't always work is that food is often used as an ineffective coping mechanism to soothe negative emotions so amberlynn's documentation of her emotional eating episodes are often peppered with depressive episodes and follow along the typical cycle of guilt shame regret and fear of losing control this is why one of the first steps to dealing with emotional eating is to help identify and differentiate physical and emotional hunger while working with your therapy team to really find other effective coping mechanisms to help manage those emotions i talk about this in a lot more detail in my video on emotional eating which you can watch right here however i just want to summarize the differences between emotional hunger and physical hunger physical hunger develops gradually whereas emotional hunger comes on usually pretty suddenly or abruptly often accompanied by some kind of really strong emotion emotional hunger often also can drive you towards one specific food whereas physical hunger often is a little bit more flexible and more open to what's available physical hunger often has a clear endpoint so you're usually able to experience the onset of fullness and take it as a cue to stop eating whereas when you're eating out of emotional hunger it's often more difficult to feel satisfied or full and when you don't it often triggers further feelings of guilt and shame now before we dive deeper into these topics with alessandra i want to talk about amberlynn's current weight loss plan since reaching her highest weight of 572 pounds in january so in an effort to continue to lose weight and with the weight loss goal of 400 pounds amber lynn has flirted with weight watchers noom and intuitive eating but outside of diet attempts her focus has been on curbing her binge eating episodes all of which have collectively helped her lose close to 90 pounds now it's important to mention that for amber lynn these episodes are not just benign binges that can you know easily be overcome and forgotten about at the next meal or snack there can actually be a difference between a binge and what amberlynn has been diagnosed with which is binge eating disorder so to dive more into these topics i have once again invited my colleague eating disorder dietitian alessandra magisano to provide her insight and expertise on the subject thank you again for joining me alessandra oh thank you thank you for having me i'm so happy to be back so what is the difference between a binge and binge eating disorder okay so great question the main difference between the two of them is essentially clinical criteria uh or diagnostic criteria so a binge eating disorder um is a mental health condition that can be technically diagnosed and it follows very specific uh quantitative measurements so things like eating a certain amount of food in a specific amount of time um generally larger than someone would eat uh comparably to to to you and it also involves some qualitative measurements like feeling guilty feeling uncomfortably full eating when not hungry things like that but it's more quantitative in terms of recurrent episodes of binge eating at least once a week they say in the past three months whereas a binge first of all could be on something other than food and it's more subjective in nature it can be more subjective so someone can eat a cupcake and feel like it's a binge and that is completely valid so that's the main difference between them they're very similar really almost identical the only difference is one kind of is clinical and checks off boxes and the other one can actually be more subjective and takes into consideration more qualitative components amazing good to know and regardless of diagnosis what are some strategies to help kind of curb overeating and those binge cycles the main number one strategy for both is meal regulation so whenever someone is experiencing either overeating cycles or binge eating cycles it is because of some element of what we call chaotic eating or eating that either doesn't satisfy enough physically or emotionally or mentally so we want to look at it's widely known that binging comes from some element of restriction that's thankfully now pretty well known um but there's this other component of mental restriction that is less often understood and that's what i like to focus on with my clients as well is this idea that your meal regulation is not just about going through the motions of eating enough food quantitatively but it's also about feeling satisfied and feeling like it's it's um enough and that you're fueling yourself often and one of the biggest struggles that i see in in my clients is they often ask me okay but i'm working on my overeating but i feel like i'm eating more you're telling me too much and that's the biggest struggle because ultimately it feels like they're eating more when really we're taking away the binging and we're taking away maybe the grazing and the most important thing is we're taking away the mindless eating that they weren't even aware they were doing so they don't really count that but when i'm like okay for lunch have a sandwich and some veggies and hummus and a piece of fruit they're like that's a lot of food that's a lot of food but it does it feels like it is because it's mindful intentional so that's really the main strategy when we want to curb is meal regulation and satisfaction amazing great tips and in your opinion why do a lot of weight loss diets fail individuals who suffer from binge eating disorder well i think weight loss diets fail everybody and and i think in one re one way they really are unfair to people who suffer from binge eating disorder and and overeating though is because they're often again there's this stigma of that binge eating and overeating is about eating too much a loss of control and the willpower so weight loss diets offer this wonderful solution to just kind of fixing that but it fails them ultimately because it's not about um it's about deprivation again not just physically but mental deprivation but it pulls on their heart strings of you're not good enough like you're just not doing it right like if the diet didn't work you you eat too much that's the problem so it it really it they really is hard on them because they're disadvantaged in terms of the stigma of binge eating and and overeating for example so insightful and is there often a focus on weight loss when treating people with binge eating disorders or is this just like too triggering for the most part definitely too triggering it's a very much um counter-indicated so we would never uh focus on weight loss at all at least at the beginning stages of treatment so just like how we would with someone who was suffering from anorexia or bulimia or any other type of eating disorder we wouldn't weight loss cannot happen in recovery in terms of that can't be the focus of the goal because often remember it's the symptom right like wanting weight loss is a part of a symptom it doesn't mean it can't happen or can't be addressed but it needs to happen within the process in order for it to to work otherwise it is too triggering and it gets in the way because then it's just about okay but like the progress is about weight loss which um negates all the other indicators that we try and focus on when it comes to recovery and how could somebody theoretically with binge eating disorder who is at a higher weight is it possible for them to safely lose weight without feeling restricted and how would that happen it is possible the number one way it happens is time um it takes a long time and you have to go through the process so it's uncomfortable but they have to go through the process of understanding where the binge eating came from to begin with um because oftentimes what i find is when you cut when they start the process it's like okay weight loss that's what i i don't up for my body i want to lose weight and i hear them and i validate that but once we go through the actual process of recovery and healing their relationship with food and therefore body their idea of weight loss changes so it's not necessarily that they completely give it up or that we don't touch it again but it we change together the definition of that we might focus on okay well what does weight loss mean for you what does health mean for you is it about a size oftentimes those kinds of things are what they would say at the beginning it's about a gene size or it's about looking a certain way in clothes when you go through the process the definition changes to something a little bit more holistic and that's how it can safely be done because then their mindset is shifted to something much healthier than than just a body size alone so it's it can be done safely it just has to be done over time and with the right unpacking along the way and so could somebody with binge eating disorder ever get to the place of being able to eat intuitively absolutely i see it all the time it it's one of the most amazing things that can happen from binging disorder that is like pretty chaotic in eating you can go and eat really really intuitively it just again takes time and trust because ultimately it's a relationship that's that's broken and we just have to heal it and once your relationship with your body is healed and you practice that's the other thing i tell my clients you've got to practice it's not perfect you're going to have days where you don't eat intuitively because you know you're busy at work and you know you need to eat and you're maybe not really hungry but you know you have to that's not really intuitive but it kind of is because you know you need it in the bigger scheme of things so these are the ways that we talk about intuitive eating we make it practical and absolutely anyone can eat intuitively and do you see success with implementing like mindfulness strategies for people who have binge eating disorder and like what would be the most effective mindfulness is absolutely absolutely number one very effective um and ultimately it's effective because it forces the client to be aware of the present moment which is usually the opposite of what's happening when they're overeating or they've been cheating even if they're aware some clients will say like i'm pretty aware i've been cheating even so there's a disconnection with your body so mindfulness kind of brings that all to the surface so it's things like um unpacking you know your triggers environmental triggers um you know figuring out do we have to reposition things in your in your kitchen do we have to reposition where you sit at the table screen time bowls portioning all those kinds of things help to bring mindfulness to the surface as well as tons of journaling so that helps um at the beginning i'll have you know clients write a ton of notes um around their meal times i'm less concerned with their logging of the food and more about the context around it because that's the mindfulness piece and so it's very important and very effective amazing okay and finally what are some strategies to help reduce that emotional eating component that may contribute to binge eating of course in addition to therapy so um so like i mentioned journaling is very very helpful but again it's this idea of just tuning in to your body's cues so i like to use introspective awareness a lot with my clients and asking them you know how do you can you listen to your heartbeat your pulse you know how do you know you have to go to the bathroom your bladder being full do you ever question that like no and i'm like okay well let's get that's where i want you to get with food or you don't question it your body says gives you a message and you just do it so that's what we're working towards and there's little strategies that i that i i work with clients on to work towards that things like hunger scales um to figure out where am i in terms of hunger before a meal middle of the meal after a meal just to compare over time and also things like grounding techniques i find very very effective so similar to the mindfulness stream um i pull from dbt dialectical behavior therapy modalities where they talk about using grounding and using your senses as a means to ground and calm anxiety in dbt they use it for anxiety so sometimes i use it when we have urges for binging so we might kind of together figure out okay well which of your of the five senses do you identify strongest and if someone says you know what i just touch is really important to me we might think of something that they can use as a touch mechanism to have with them when they are experiencing an urge or when they're coping through something like fuzzy blankets or you know like a squishy ball or a fidget spinner or things like that and any of the senses can have these these very powerful tactile grounding techniques and strategies so we create kind of like a an urge tool kit using using these strategies so that when people go into situations that are very stressful um around food or even when they're at home during dealing with a meal time you can go towards this to curb the emotion because you're whenever we got emotion we just gotta ground and get um and get present and so what about those clients who say i know i'm hungry i know i'm full but i'm what do i do about the times where i'm hungry for the wrong foods great question so my answer to that would be let's figure out why you think they're wrong foods right because that goes back to the mental restriction then so even though you might say like okay i'm i i just want i want the bad foods the reason you want them is because you think that they're bad there's a lot of emotional energy that gets charged when we have to think that something is bad so you know i get this question all the time they're like but there are foods aren't there foods that people just shouldn't eat like how can you be a dietitian and tell me that like there aren't foods right i'm sure you hear it too oh yeah all the time aren't there foods that we just shouldn't eat and i say you know like of course there is gentle nutrition of course there's foods you should have more often etc but the energy that you spend trying to villainize those foods takes away from your decision in that moment to make another choice so you don't have to choose that food but i also don't you don't have to hate it let's just neutralize it so if you know when you're hungry know when you're full but you just want the bad foods it's because you're thinking about bad foods it has too much power and potentially you're not getting enough um food also during the day right like if you're craving somewhere usually the first thing we look at with cravings is you're not eating enough um but when you are and there's the physical component satisfied then we look emotional and we say well then you're probably thinking that it's bad and that's why you want it so let's do some exposure therapy right it's kind of the difference between um kind of uh physical restriction and emotional scarcity that that strength same kind of mentality yes yes it's a it's a fine line between a restriction and a boundary yeah and that's ultimately what recovery is about is learning what is a boundary and what is a restriction and knowing that one is flexible and one is inflexible and that's the difference love that flexible and inflexible that it's so helpful uh thank you again so much alessandra for providing so much helpful insights and once again everyone i'm going to be leaving all of our contact information in the description below so that you can reach out if you're looking for some one-on-one support so thank you again my pleasure thank you so much bye bye thank you again to alessandra for providing her helpful insight so once again i'm going to be leaving all of her contact information below if you need to reach out for some one-on-one support okay so again the intention of this review is not to diagnose or pathologize amber lynn but to use her content for educational purposes to provide you with helpful insights and knowledge on emotional eating and the complicated world of obesity weight stigma and binge eating disorder i also want to strongly remind you to please be kind in the comments both here and on amberlynn's channel your words are so powerful so please use them wisely we ultimately cannot know what somebody is going through off-camera so i really do ask you guys to consider if your comments are helpful or supportive or if they contribute to the weight stigma and discrimination that people in larger bodies are so often subjected to and on that note that is all for today's video if you liked it be sure to give it the thumbs up leave me a comment below with who you'd like to see me review next subscribe to the channel and i will see you next time on abby's kitchen bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Abbey Sharp

Views: 617,117

Rating: 4.7622061 out of 5

Keywords: abbey sharp, abbeys kitchen, mukbang, mukbangs, amber Lynn reid, amber Lynn Reid weight loss, amber Lynn food, amberlynn reid, amberlynn weight loss, amberlynn weight gain, amberlynn food, amberlynn mukbang, amberlynn reid cancer, amberlynn reid what I eat in a day, amberlynn reid cooking, amberlynn reid reaction, amberlynn reid food, amberlynn reid weight gain success, amberlynn reid food what i eat in a day, korean rice cakes, amberlynn reid mukbang

Id: IBDLqO-7h3A

Length: 45min 18sec (2718 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 03 2020