Adam Gilbert on breaking the emotional eating cycle

Adam Gilbert is the founder and chief body tutor of MyBodyTutor, a nationally recognized health coaching company dedicated to helping people overcome emotional eating and create lasting wellness. For over 18 years, Gilbert has guided more than 10,000 clients toward sustainable health by focusing on what happens between your ears rather than what goes on your plate.

What made you realize psychology was the missing piece?

For the most part, we all know what to do, right? We know it’s good for us, we know what’s not good for us. You know, we all know vegetables are better for us than cookies. The real question is, why can’t we do it? And it really comes down to what’s going on between your ears, your mindset, your psychology, and habits. You can have the best diet in the world, you can have the best nutrition plan in the world, but if you can’t stick with it, then it doesn’t matter.

What are some of the most common emotional triggers you see?

To start, emotional eating is when you’re using food as a coping mechanism. Ideally, we want to eat when we’re physically hungry. We feel it in our stomach, we feel it in our head a little bit, but it’s a physical sensation. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, and we crave specific foods. With emotional hunger, we can eat snack after snack, food after food, and we still feel hungry. That’s because we’re not actually hungry for food, we’re hungry for something else.

The first step is identifying if you’re actually emotionally hungry or physically hungry. In terms of reasons why we emotionally eat, it could be because we’re overwhelmed, frustrated, disappointed, or sad. There’s a million reasons why we eat. What’s most interesting to me is understanding the trigger behind it and what’s driving that, then working on different responses to those triggers. Ultimately, it’s probably a feeling of discomfort on some level that we’re trying to escape from.

You created what’s known as the Broccoli Test. Can you explain it?

The idea is simple: ask yourself, would I eat broccoli right now? Feel free to insert any vegetable. If you’re hungry for vegetables, then you’re actually hungry for food. If the idea of broccoli or any vegetable doesn’t sound appealing, then you’re not actually hungry for food. You’re hungry for something else. So you pause, ask yourself, would I eat broccoli right now? If the answer is yes, then you’re actually hungry, you’re physically hungry. If the answer is no, then you’re likely emotionally hungry. It’s a good litmus test to help you check in with yourself to see how you’re feeling.

What’s the first step toward breaking the emotional eating pattern?

The first step is awareness, right? Understanding why you’re eating in the first place. But it’s also about recognizing that it’s really never about the food. It’s about what the food allows us to avoid or the void it fills. So really check in with yourself and ask yourself, what do I really want? What am I really after? When you realize it’s not the food, then you can start to open the door and think about, alright, what is it I’m after? Am I after comfort? Am I after fun? Am I after a dose of pleasure? Am I after relief?

You really want to give yourself the opportunity to check in with yourself to see how you’re feeling, so you can recognize what it is you want, and then really go after it. The truth is, the only way to overcome emotional eating and get through cravings is to identify what it is you truly want. Because it’s never about the food. It’s about what the food allows us to avoid or the void it fills. Once you realize what it is you want and you go after it, amazingly, the cravings subside.

What’s one myth about dieting that you wish more people would unlearn?

I think the number one thing about diets is that it’s not about the food, right? It’s about your mindset, your psychology, and habits. We call this your MPH. Because if you don’t change your mindset, psychology, and habits, then you’re just going on what I call a food diet. A food diet is when the only thing that changes is the food you’re eating. If the only thing changing is the food you’re eating, you’re not going to change for the long term. You have to change what’s going on between your ears.

You also want to make sure you have some accountability. Without accountability, it’s very easy to make excuses. It’s very easy to rationalize to ourselves, especially during and after a long day. The combination of really focusing on changing your mindset, psychology, and habits, and having external accountability is a massive game changer for so many people.

Can you tell us about MyBodyTutor and how it started?

I started MyBodyTutor in 2007, so it’s over 18 years now. Health and fitness has always been a huge passion of mine. Growing up, my father was sick. I witnessed him having a heart attack when I was in seventh grade. Later that year, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Seeing him deteriorate physically and mentally throughout the years until he passed away was really hard. I learned early on that health is true wealth, and I wanted to dedicate my life to doing that.

I started my career in corporate America, and I was always the go-to guy for health and fitness. I was a personal trainer, and I realized that the people I was giving plans and advice to all had the same story. They would say, I love the plan you made for me, but I got caught up with work, happy hour, kids, life. There’s just a million reasons why they couldn’t stick with it.

The big idea was these people had a plan. They just couldn’t follow through, and they needed that accountability. So I quit my job in January of 2007 to start MyBodyTutor. We’ve helped well over 10,000 people and have an incredible team of coaches. It’s been an incredibly rewarding and fun journey helping people transform themselves physically and mentally.

Why is daily accountability so crucial, and why is consistency more powerful than intensity?

Accountability is huge because without it, it’s very easy to make excuses. It’s very easy to rationalize to ourselves. It’s very easy to say I’ll start fresh tomorrow, or next Monday, or next month. So it’s really important. The way we hold our clients accountable is each day they’re sharing what they ate in their app. They’re either uploading photos of what they ate or writing descriptions of what they ate, and they’re submitting that at the end of the day.

Every day after, their very own coach, the same coach they’re working with from start to finish, is writing back with personalized feedback, suggestions, and encouragement. The fact that we’re in communication with our clients every single day, guiding them, supporting them, coaching them, holding them accountable, that is the key. That’s why we’re able to get the results we do, because we’re with our clients every single day.

How can people get started with MyBodyTutor?

The best way is to go to MyBodyTutor.com. Everything is on the website. If you have any questions, we have an FAQ on the website, and you can email us through there. You can also find me on all social media platforms. I’m @MyBodyTutor on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook. I’m extremely passionate about health and fitness and helping people. If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to reach out. I’m here to help.