Food Guilt? What Is It?

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “chocolate cake?” Do the terms “bad,” “decadent,” or “sinful” come to mind? If so, you’re like the countless Americans who link this sweet treat with guilt.

A hard truth I learned as a dietitian is that knowing more about my food doesn’t mean I won’t crave (and eat) my fair share of chocolate cake. Knowledge also doesn’t spare your guilty conscience.

It’s important for us to learn how to manage our attitude toward food because it can work against our weight-loss goals.

Consider this: A study in the journal Appetite found that people who felt guilt-ridden by chocolate cake were less successful at losing weight compared to those who associated chocolate cake with celebration.


Related: 5 Easy Tricks To Outsmart Cravings

But enough about chocolate cake. Let’s dig into the guilt part so we can help you understand why having a guilt-free relationship with food can help you hit your weight-loss goals.

What is Food Guilt?

Feeling guilty about what you just ate, right? Duh! Not so fast. Feeling guilty is a symptom of a bigger root cause.

Food guilt is grounded in your beliefs of which foods you should or shouldn’t eat. Many of these beliefs take the form of “food rules.” These rules are subconsciously planted in your mind by your culture, those around you, and that very fit friend you have.

Examples include: “Don’t eat after 7pm,” “Steer clear of pasta,” or “No dessert.” The point is we all have subconscious food rules that act as mental shortcuts. They allow us to quickly make the over 200 eating decisions that we make every single day.

Food rules aren’t inherently bad. They often emerge from good intentions — we want to make choices that benefit our health. In a sea of conflicting nutrition info, well-picked food rules anchor us to action, so we get the results we want. Otherwise, we may as well drown in analysis paralysis.


Related: Stop Making These 12 Weight Loss Excuses Part 1

But here’s the twist: Some of us can take these rules a little too seriously. When this happens, we moralize our food choices as either “good” or “bad.” From here, it’s easy to spiral out of control when we break a food rule.

How Food Guilt Affects Weight Loss

Food rules set the standards for our eating decisions, so when we violate them (i.e. eat that slice of chocolate cake), we feel guilty about it. Guilt may be a typical emotion, but we respond to it differently.

An all-too-common response is tossing your hands up in the air and saying, “Well, there goes my diet. Might as well eat the whole cake!”

Doing so may have set back your weight-loss progress by a few hundred calories, but that isn’t even the tragedy. When you’re so worked up about breaking a food rule, you don’t experience the full of joy of eating a favorite food.

Focusing on food guilt leaves little room to savor each velvety bite. Plus, guilt can lead to feelings of helplessness and loss of control, deflating your motivation to lose weight and get in shape.

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