Stress Made Her Gain Weight, Understanding Her Emotional Eating Helped Her Lose 160 Pounds
ShantaQuilette Develle says trading chips for meditation helped her feel her best
When ShantaQuilette Develle, MBA, PhD, first started experiencing fatigue, chest pain, shoulder pain and body stiffness, she went to her doctor for help. But instead of digging into the now 46-year-old’s symptoms, doctors simply chalked it up to her weight and her former demanding job at the IRS. For eight years, her concerns were dismissed—until she had a heart attack and stroke that ultimately triggered a long bout of emotional eating that affected her heart health.
Develle’s stressful recovery was a wake-up call
In June 2018, Develle began experiencing flu-like symptoms that lasted two weeks. When her husband and daughter urged her to go to the hospital, she expected to be written off again. But when doctors ran tests, they discovered she was having a heart attack while in the waiting room. After being released from the hospital five days later, she thought she was in the clear—only to then survive a stroke in April 2019.
Develle spent the next few years recovering. She went through physical, occupational, cognitive and speech therapy. But being unable to work in the same capacity while in recovery left her stressed, depressed and anxious. She turned to emotional eating, gained weight and eventually developed type 2 diabetes.
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“My cardiologist was like, ‘Hey, you have to lose this weight, or you’re going to die in the next five years. You will not be here. You will have another stroke. It will be massive, and you will not be here,’” Devell recalls.
What is emotional eating?
“The differences between physical hunger and emotional hunger are actually pretty clear if we know to look for them,” says James Jackson, PsyD, Director of Behavioral Health and Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. “Physical hunger tends to develop pretty gradually, for example, while emotional hunger is often immediate, intense and even out of control.”
“Physical hunger is accompanied by actual physical symptoms, like your stomach growling, while emotional eating is not,” he continues. “And physical hunger tends to result in balanced food choices, while emotional hunger predictably involves foods like chips, gummy bears and snack cakes, to name a few.”
She started eating to soothe her stress
Develle’s emotional eating was brought on by the loss of independence following her stroke and the emotional toll of physical therapy. The stroke affected the left side of her body, limiting her mobility and making basic daily tasks like personal hygiene and self care difficult. One of the hardest parts, she says, was not being able to cook for her family or even use the restroom on her own. Raised by Southern parents, she found herself turning to comforting soul foods like pickled okra and smothered chicken to cope.
“Food reliably provides emotional comfort for huge numbers of people—it is often one of THE primary ways that people self-soothe and it doesn’t carry the ‘baggage’ often associated with other strategies like excessive drinking or overspending, for example, that people rely on to try to cope during stressful times,” explains Jackson.
“Food often stirs in people memories of simpler or happier times—memories of sitting around the kitchen table with grandma, memories of mom fixing piping hot chicken noodle soup when you were sick, memories of late-night Taco Bell trips with friends during final exam week,” Jackson adds. “We tend to turn to it as a source of support partly because it transports us to emotionally resonant places.”
Develle made sweeping changes
Worried for her future—and desperate to be there for her family—Develle decided to make drastic lifestyle changes to curb her emotional eating, lose weight and get her diabetes under control.
“I used a GLP-1 medication as part of a medically-supervised program, and I completely shifted my lifestyle,” says Develle. “I incorporated Pilates and calisthenics to build strength and mobility, focused on eating whole foods, managed my stress and worked through the emotional triggers behind my eating habits.”
When it came to unlearning emotional eating and identifying what would trigger her behavior, Develle relied on therapy, journaling and taking time to acknowledge her authentic emotions. She also earned certifications in plant-based eating, herbalism and reiki to take a more holistic approach to her health.
She reversed her diabetes and lost 160 lbs
“I had to learn how to sit with my feelings instead of stuffing them,” Develle said. “I started really asking myself on a continuous basis, ’What do I really need now?’ And I realized that it wasn’t chips. It wasn’t ice cream. It was meditation. So when I get hungry, I substitute that with meditation. Or if I have a snack craving, I know that I don’t have to go and get chocolate. I’ll get an apple, or I can get a peach.”
To date, Develle’s stress relief techniques and healthy habits, along with her GLP-1, have helped her lose a total of 160 pounds and reverse her type 2 diabetes. “This journey wasn’t just about weight loss, it was about saving my life, healing from the inside out and choosing to show up for myself every single day,” says Develle, who’s now a social media influencer and consultant for pharmaceutical companies focused on cardiovascular health.
Do you struggle with emotional eating?
If you’re stuck in a pattern of emotional eating, it may feel like there’s no end in sight. But Jackson shared several tools that may help break the cycle.
Consider therapy
“Therapy can help people understand why they’re engaging in patterns that feel out-of-control and often completely at odds with goals and values,” says Jackson. “It can also help them understand that their emotional eating may be a part of a larger story—often a story about unmet emotional needs and unhealthy patterns of avoidance.”
Therapy for emotional eating could involve learning tools that help you show yourself more grace.
“I especially like an approach called ‘acceptance and commitment therapy’—ACT for short,” Jackson says. “It emphasizes self-compassion, which can be a powerful antidote to shame. Shame often drives people to emotionally eat and is a consequence of emotional eating.”
Try self-help strategies
“In the world we live in, there are gigantic barriers to getting professional mental health support, especially for emotional eating,” says Jackson. “Many people don’t have insurance, they live in rural areas with few therapists, they work during the day and don’t have time to see a counselor.”
If you’re facing barriers to working with a therapist, there are still mental health-boosting strategies you can try. “Things like journaling and mindfulness, in particular, can be extremely helpful in addressing issues with emotional eating,” says Jackson. “I’m a fan of journaling, but people should figure out what methods work well for them. The key is to proactively use strategies that you can rely on for the long haul—not just for a few days or weeks.”
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