Do you eat beyond feeling full? Do you feel guilty after overindulging in food? When you're upset, do you go straight to the pantry? If so, you may be an emotional eater and it's a serious problem that puts you at risk for obesity, heart disease and depression.

"With emotional eating, we're using food to fill an emotional void, to block out emotions," explains Lauren Grant, founder and CEO of The Hungry Heart -- a counselling program for out-of-control eating -- and certified hypnotherapist and nutritional counsellor. "There are a lot of other addictions that fall under the same guise, but food is our easiest default." 

Along with weight gain, emotional eating can ignite a sort of psychological warfare in your mind. "There's a lot of shame and embarrassment about it," Grant explains. "At first you overeat, then you feel like, 'why can't I gain control of it? I should be able to get this under control.'" And then you may start to believe you can't get out of a harmful cycle and you turn to food again, as a way to self-soothe.

The winter months and holiday season can be particularly bad times for emotional eating. Spending more time indoors, just steps from the kitchen, and festive get-togethers unleash new opportunities to overeat.

You might feel more overwhelmed by expectations from family and friends, and you could have more responsibilities to take on. With all that rushing around during the holidays, you may go too long without eating, and hunger sets you up to overeat later. And then there's the constant social pressure to look your best. 

But there are effective ways to stop emotional eating and be free of its vicious cycle.