You know that feeling you get when you have eaten too much? It’s commonly referred to as a food baby.
I wanted to spend a little bit of time looking at why we overeat. Often if we understand the reasons behind why we do something we can begin to address these reasons why and then change our behaviour.
Top reasons why we overeat
// Emotion
Emotions have a lot to answer for when it comes to overeating. Far too many of us (myself included), eat emotionally. This doesn’t even have to be a sad emotion, many of us also eat (or drink) when we are happy and have something to celebrate as well.
We associate certain foods with pleasure or certain activities which also encourages us to overeat. Whenever it’s someone’s birthday we feel as though we have to have cake and/or alcohol and when going through a break-up or particularly difficult time we reach for the chocolate.
// Societal Norms
Were you ever told that you had to finish your plate before you could leave the table as a child? Have you ever seen the size of meals served in restaurants? These things alone have meant that we have slowly over time been increasing our serving sizes and therefore lead us to overeat.
What about eat your vegetables or you won’t get any pudding? Effectively meaning we feel as though we have to eat everything on our plate and then get more food as a reward for overeating. And how about when we feel as though a certain activity requires us to eat a certain food, we couldn’t possibly go to the movies without having popcorn right?
// Not knowing when to stop
Sometimes overeating is simply a matter of not knowing when to stop. Many people have no idea of how much they should be eating and of what types of foods.
Because food has become emotional and we have fallen pray to societal norms when it comes to eating we have no idea what is actually ‘normal’ and when we should stop eating. It would only take a little bit of education and listening to our bodies to get back to a point where we eat to nourish ourselves.
// Not feeling satisfied
Not feeling satisfied can come in many forms and is often as a result of different emotions we are feeling (see above). However sometimes not feeling satisfied can actually come from an imbalance of hormones in our body.
If our hormones are not in balance they can send signals to the brain to tell us that we are not satisfied or not full and therefore we keep on eating even though we may in fact be overeating.
// Skipping Meals
Something which is very common is for people to skip breakfast (for various reasons) and then to find themselves saying that they could ‘eat a horse’ later in the day and then proceeding to stuff anything remotely edible into their mouths.
Skipping meals is not an ideal situation and should be avoided as much as possible as it quite often leads to overeating later on in the day.
If you find yourself overeating and identifying with some of the reasons why we overeat I have described above then please do check out my 6 tips for reducing mindless eating which may help you.
How do you manage overeating?? – Comment below and let me know, I love hearing from you!
I overeat quite easily. I think also, our stomachs get stretched and we feel like we need more and more food. Trying to just get back to a good ‘normal’ can be difficult when there’s temptation everywhere!
I am definitely an emotional eater.
Sometimes I also catch myself eating out of habit even when I’m not hungry – for example, if it’s lunch time but I am still full from breakfast. If I just waited and had a light afternoon meal I would probably feel better!
I’m always working on this. Sometimes it can be as simple as waiting a craving out. The other day I got over a desire to over eat (instead of having my well portioned healthy go-to) for lunch, but I waited it out half an hour and got over it. Other times, a craving can go on for days. If that happens, I indulge it and just get over it. Often I realise it wasn’t as great as I’d built it up to be and if it’s junk food, I often feel crappy afterwards and learn a little lesson! x
I find I overeat when I’m bored but also if there’s no portion control. I was really proud of myself last night when I was out with colleagues. We went to a Wellington institution that is the Green Parrot. It’s known for its huge meals and it didn’t disappoint. I had a huge Wiener schnitzel and it came with coleslaw, chips AND potato salad! A bit too much potato for my liking. So I left the potato salad and managed to leave half a steak. Normally I would have probably worked my way through all the meat, and honestly I was picking at what was left, just because it was in front of me. But I made the conscious decision to stop eating because I realised I didn’t need it.
A few strategies:
– eat slowly to give your brain the chance to recognise you’re full
– put your cutlery down while you’re chewing, it will help stop you shovelling more good too quickly
– chew your food until it’s pretty much mush. It sends signals to your brain that you’re getting fuller, faster and the action of chewing releases stomach acids that will digest your food better, getting you nutrients more efficiently
Good post Amanda 🙂 I’m working on something similar at the moment. It’s so easy to overeat today as food is available almost everywhere (stationary shop, mitre 10, petrol stations….) and portions and plates are both much larger than they used to be!