Khloe Kardashian sought therapy to break out of her "shame spiral" of binge eating.

The 41-year-old reality star has reflected on her old unhealthy patterns of emotional eating and how there would be "no stopping" her from tucking into food when she was unhappy with her life.

Speaking on her Khloe in Wonder Land podcast when answering a fan question about weight loss, Khloe said: "When I was younger, I used to binge eat.

"I went to therapy about it. It was something like any emotional thing. I turned to food and just there was no stopping me.

"I would eat, eat, eat, literally get sick, then feel disgusted with myself or how much I ate. Then be in such a shame spiral that I start eating again because I'm in such shame. So, it was like this vicious cycle."

After her split from first husband Lamar Odom in 2013, Khloe knew she wanted to change her habits, particularly because her diet was having a "ripple effect" on other parts of her life, including poor self-confidence and bad skin.

She said: "My divorce was really the catalyst to why I became obsessed, in a healthy way, with working out.

"I realised during my marriage that I ate so much, and I would eat my feelings and I didn't like how that made me feel.

"I was like, I'm over this, I'm over feeling this way. I'm over never feeling like I could be in a bathing suit.

"I compared myself to everyone. People compared me to my sisters… something just sort of awakens inside of you that you're like I don't want to live like this anymore."

The Good American founder - who has children True, seven, and Tatum, three, with former partner Tristan Thompson - decided she wanted to tone up and feel confident showing off her stomach, but her exercise journey "started slow" and was "torture" for the first six months.

Khloe started with solo workouts twice a week and then hired a trainer and was thrilled with her progress.

She said: "The first six months to a year, it's just uncomfortable because you feel you're still insecure, you're busting your a-- in the gym, you're not really seeing a big shift on the scale, but you got to keep going.

"For me, it was mental that kept me going. I loved how I felt. I felt so accomplished that I did something I set out to do. But for me, it was baby steps.

"I honestly feel that the more you exercise, the clearer your mind will feel, and the stronger you will feel mentally."

Khloe went on to again stress the benefits of therapy.

She said: "Going to therapy is so helpful. It did wonders for me when I went through breakups and [was] not feeling like myself, feeling like people took a part of me away.

"Just talking out your problems, you really start to get this closure on things, and you start to get strength that you forgot you had."