7 reasons to overeat

Today, everyone knows the “fashionable” eating disorders: bulimia nervosa and anorexia, when a person cannot control food intake, its volume and quality. Roughly speaking, he is either overeating or malnourishing. Anorexia is often associated with an obsessive desire to lose weight. With bulimia there is a fear of obesity, but there may be no desire to lose weight – a person eats a lot, with pleasure, and often gains weight. In obese people and those who are losing weight, the most common eating disorders associated with overeating.

Signs and consequences of overeating

Signs of overeating are experienced by many, but they do not attach importance to them. It is manifested by heaviness in the stomach after eating, drowsiness, loss of performance. With frequent overeating, the digestive process slows down, the stomach is overstretched, which leads to a decrease in the secretion of gastric juice, a slowdown in gastric and intestinal digestion.

As a result, a decomposition process occurs in the food mass, flatulence (gas formation, bloating), intoxication, and a feeling of general discomfort appear. Overeating causes additional stress on the heart, which in some cases provokes the development of arrhythmias, angina attacks, arterial hypertension. The endocrine system experiences additional stress, which aggravates metabolic disturbances.

The most common causes of overeating

The most common causes of overeating are stress, fast food intake, indiscriminate diet, thirst, uncontrolled snacking, social and cultural influences, and over-focusing on healthy eating. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

1. Stress overeating – the most interesting, at first glance, and the most common type of eating disorders is the so-called hyperphagic stress response. That is, overeating in response to a stressful situation. This usually happens in people whose mood changes often and quickly, in people with an anxious character or prone to dependence, dependent, unwilling to make decisions. Sometimes they are also characterized by unstable or low self-esteem.
2. Fast food intake – the signal of saturation from the digestive organs does not enter the brain immediately, but only 15-20 minutes after the start of the meal. For 5-10 minutes, a person does not wait for the saturation phase, eating more than necessary. Therefore, nutritionists advise you to eat slowly, focusing on the taste of food and how you feel.
3. Indiscriminate nutrition – people have lost their selectivity in relation to food and, unlike animals, are guided when choosing food by such criteria as appearance, accessibility, speed and ease of preparation, aroma (often due to artificial flavors). In addition, television and other advertising has its effect on the subconscious. This is also common among adherents of a healthy diet. These people know what is healthy and what is not, but the lack of knowledge about the calorie content of foods makes them overeat healthy foods. For example, nuts and dried fruits are healthy, but very high in calories, you can’t get enough of them, but it’s easy to overeat. Liquid calories in the form of smoothies, protein and other drinks also lead to overeating.
4. Thirst – often hunger is a manifestation of the need for water (thirst) or for additional nutrients: vitamins, amino acids, trace elements and other useful substances that are practically absent in instant food. It seems to you that you are hungry, but in fact you are thirsty. In this case, nutritionists advise, if you feel hungry, drink a glass of water and, if you still want to eat, then eat.

5. Uncontrolled snacking (or biting) Is one of the common reasons for overeating, when people, in addition to their main meals, constantly snack during the day. I tried it there, then I took a bite, and ate it after the child. Sometimes we snack at work without even noticing it, thanks to our involvement in business. Almost no one takes these calories into account, but they create a huge load, especially if nuts, crackers, fruits, juices, smoothies are used. Nutritionists recommend setting a comfortable number of meals, including scheduled snacks, sticking to a plan, and controlling calorie intake.
6. Socio-cultural influence – food often acts not only as a hunger saver, but also in another capacity. For example, a business lunch in a restaurant implies that everyone present will eat, regardless of whether they are hungry or not. Plus, food outlets tend to serve large plates, making it much easier to overeat. In the same way, some women “seize” stress or bad mood, not even realizing it.
7. Excessive focus on proper nutrition – healthy foods are associated with low calorie content for most people, but this is not the case. Nuts, dried fruits, oils, cereals, meat, eggs, some types of fish, as well as a number of popular slimming recipes using different types of flour and other high-calorie ingredients are proof of this. According to nutritionists, it is important to focus not on the conditional correctness of food, but on its calorie content and composition.

How to avoid overeating

It is possible to avoid overeating. As a rule, the first step is to independently control food intake. For this:

1. Eat on time! Every meal counts! Concentrate on your food. Avoid distractions while eating, or you may overeat.
2. Snacks lead to overeating. To avoid them, eat your fill at every meal.
3. Always eat while sitting. This will help you adhere to a regular diet, avoid snacking, and concentrate on food. Try to stretch your meal for 15-20 minutes.
4. Don’t turn food into a stimulant or reward. Find other ways to do this.
5. Try not to eat for at least the first 15 minutes after you get home. When you are tired and hungry, this is the most dangerous time in terms of uncontrolled eating.
6. Think about your behavior in case of stress. If you have a tendency to seize stress, write a list of things to keep you busy when you experience it again. For example, you can drink aromatic tea without sugar, do a short set of exercises, meditate, watch a funny or interesting video, pet a cat. Anything that distracts you from eating.
7. Use small cookware. In small plates, a portion of food seems large, which psychologically sets you up for a quick satiety.

If a person spends a third of his life in a dream, then about an eighth of his wakefulness he devotes to nutrition. This is an impressive part of our life, and in many respects it is regulated not only by the true physiological needs of the body, but also by the psyche. And when it comes to human feelings and desires, then a lot turns out to be not at all what it seems. Therefore, if we want to lose weight, then before declaring war on appetite, it is worth considering why it appears more often and turns out to be stronger than we would like? Simply put – what the desire to eat really means.