My Problem with Overeaters Anonymous: A Christian Perspective

“How we see ourselves determines how we treat ourselves.”

– Kimberly Taylor

Many years ago, before I became a believer in Christ, I participated in Overeaters Anonymous (OA) for a while.

I know OA has helped many people, and I respect that each person must prayerfully decide what kind of support is right for them.

But one aspect of the approach I experienced eventually became difficult for me: repeatedly identifying myself by my compulsive eating behavior.

Before I go further, I want to say again plainly: OA has genuinely helped many people, including some who’ve shared their own stories in the comments below. It’s free, it offers real community, and for many, saying the truth out loud for the first time is where healing begins. If it’s helped you, I don’t want to take that away from you.

What follows is specifically about the one aspect of my own experience that I couldn’t reconcile — not a wholesale dismissal of everyone’s journey through it.

Now, here was my experience: In the meetings I attended, I was directed to introduce myself with, “I’m Kim, and I am a compulsive overeater.”

At the time, I did not understand why that bothered me so deeply.

Years later, after becoming a Christian and learning more about my identity in Christ, I began to see the issue differently:

A struggle may describe something I am contending with, but it does not have to define who I am.

That distinction became an important part of my own journey toward freedom from compulsive and emotional eating.

Here is what I learned.

Problem #1: When a Struggle Became an Identity

In the meetings I attended as I mentioned, I regularly introduced myself by saying:

“I’m Kim, and I am a compulsive overeater.”

At first, I did not think much about those words. I was simply following the meeting format.

But over time, something about repeatedly defining myself by the behavior began weighing on me.

Instead of helping me picture freedom, the statement seemed to reinforce the idea that compulsive overeating was simply who I was…and always would be.

I began asking myself questions like:

Where is the victory? Where is the peace? Where is the hope that this pattern can truly change?

Eventually, I stopped attending.

Years later, after becoming a believer in Christ, I understood why that identity had troubled me so much.

Scripture taught me that my deepest identity is not found in a struggle, a habit, or my past behavior.

My identity is in Christ.

Compulsive overeating was something I had practiced. It was something from which I needed freedom.

But it was not who God created me to be.

Problem #2: When Fear Became Part of the Pattern

There was another effect I noticed from identifying myself this way: I began to fear that compulsive overeating would always have power over me.

Even when I was not overeating, part of me remained watchful and afraid of falling back into the behavior.

That fear kept food at the center of my attention.

After becoming a Christian, I began learning that Scripture calls me to renew my mind…not around the expectation that I will always remain trapped, but around the truth of who I am in Christ and the transforming work God is doing in me.

Romans 12:2 says:

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

That changed the question for me.

Instead of asking, “How do I keep this compulsive overeating under control for the rest of my life?”

I began asking:

“Lord, what does freedom look like, and how do You want me to walk in it?”

I could acknowledge honestly that I had practiced compulsive overeating without making that behavior my permanent identity.

And I could take the struggle seriously without living in fear of food or fear of relapse.

My confidence was no longer in my ability to control myself perfectly.

My confidence was in Christ and in His ability to continue transforming me as I learned to renew my mind and follow His leading.

That gave me something fear never could:

Hope.

God’s Way: A Future and a Hope

What changed everything for me was learning that I did not have to define myself by the behavior I was trying to overcome.

My deepest identity was already settled.

I belonged to Christ.

That did not mean pretending the compulsive overeating was not real. I needed to face the pattern honestly, understand what was driving it, and learn new ways to respond.

But I could do that from a place of hope rather than condemnation.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Those words reminded me that being stuck today did not mean I had to remain stuck forever.

God was not asking me to deny where I was.

He was inviting me to trust Him with where He was leading me.

As I renewed my mind with His Word and learned to recognize the emotional and Spiritual patterns beneath my eating, my relationship with food began to change.

• I learned that I could experience a difficult emotion without automatically eating over it.
• I could feel an urge without obeying it.
• I could make a mistake without turning that mistake into an identity.

And I could practice self-control without living in constant fear of relapse.

My freedom did not come from pretending I had never struggled.

It came from anchoring my identity in Christ and allowing Him to transform how I thought, responded, and lived.

That journey began for me in 2003.

More than 20 years later, I am deeply grateful that the Lord showed me there was another way to live.

A struggle may be part of your story.

It does not have to become your identity or the final chapter of your story.

Is There a Christian Approach to Emotional Eating?

Yes.

For me, freedom did not come from continually defining myself by compulsive overeating or living as though food would always have power over me.

It came as I learned to bring the struggle to God differently.

Rather than focusing only on controlling the behavior, I began looking beneath it.

What was I feeling?

What was I trying to escape, soothe, or avoid?

What did I actually need in that moment?

What truth from God’s Word needed to renew my thinking?

That became a very different way of approaching emotional eating.

Instead of seeing every urge to eat as proof that something was wrong with me, I began learning to recognize that my eating could be revealing something that needed my attention.

Then I could bring that need to God, respond with wisdom, and practice a different choice.

Over time, those choices became new patterns.

This is the approach I now teach through Take Back Your Temple™.

Take Back Your Temple is an online Christian emotional eating program and supportive community for women who want to understand what is happening beneath their eating and learn Biblical, practical ways to respond differently.

The focus is not on giving yourself another food-related identity.

It is on renewing your mind, understanding the emotional and practical patterns beneath the behavior, developing Spirit-led self-control, and learning to faithfully steward the body God has given you.

If you have been wondering whether there is a different Christian approach to emotional eating—one centered on Biblical identity, mind renewal, practical wisdom, and supportive community—you can learn more here.

Explore the Take Back Your Temple Program →

Two ways to join: 30-Day Access for $59, or Lifetime Membership for $199 (one-time payment) — both include a 14-day refund guarantee.

Frequently Asked Question

Your Struggle Is Not Your Identity

If you are struggling with compulsive or emotional eating today, be honest about the struggle, but do not confuse the struggle with who you are.

You belong to Christ.

You can bring what is happening beneath your eating into the light, renew your mind with God’s truth, and learn new ways to respond one choice at a time.

Freedom may be a journey, but you do not have to walk that journey without hope.

Be blessed in health, healing, and wholeness,

Kimberly Taylor
Founder, the Take Back Your Temple Program™