Overeating is a physical and psychological problem, which may trigger different health issues starting with weight gain to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. To give up on destructive overeating behavior is a challenging task, which needs commitment and dedication. But still, it is attainable.
So, if you suffer from this health issue, but don’t know how to stop overeating, this article will help you to gain motivation to stop eating the excessive amount of food and become healthier.
Negative Effects Of Overeating
Overeating is an adverse condition, which has many negative effects. They are the following:
- Weight Gain
Overeating leads to weight gain as you consume more calories than you burn. It is recommended to consume about 2,000 calories per day and the excessive calorie amount leads to the weight gain as the body stores them as fat for the future.
- Physical Health Problems
Overeating may trigger both short-term and long-term consequences. Short-term effects are apathy, shortness of breath, bloating, nausea, heartburn. Long-term effects include the risk of obesity, coronary heart disease, stroke, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, allergy, sleep apnea, problems with the digestive system, skin issues. Besides, according to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, overeating may lead to bone and joint pain.
- Mental Problems
Overeating is dangerous both for your physical and mental health. This condition may lead to lower self-esteem, depression and an unhealthy body image due to the metabolic imbalance. As a result, the person has problems with socializing and work.
How To Stop Overeating
“Hunger is a physical cue that you need energy,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, author of The Flexitarian Diet.
So, you should listen to your body, but in the meantime, you should control your hunger, a number of calories you consume and lead an active lifestyle. Here are some strategies and tricks to stop overeating.
Use The Hunger Scale
The body gives you the cues and you should interpret them in the right way. It takes 4-5 hours for the body to reach the stage of full-fledged hunger after a balanced meal. So, you should know how to identify the type of hunger. Here is the scale, which will help you to recognize your true body needs:
- Starving
This is an uncomfortable state, which may be accompanied by a headache, dizziness. They are caused by a low blood sugar level, which appears due to the lack of food. This is a health-threatening condition.
- Hungry
You have a desire to eat and think about it constantly.
- Moderately hungry
The stomach is growling, you plan the next meal. It is believed that this period is the perfect eating time.
- Satisfied
You are not hungry, but not full. You feel comfortable.
- Full
The food doesn’t taste as good as in the beginning and the stomach may feel slightly bloated.
- Stuffed
You feel uncomfortable and may experience heartburn.
Eat Wisely
Healthy eating habits maintain a healthy weight, keep healthy levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular diseases. If you want to stop overeating, stick to these tips:
- Eat a balanced breakfast
The underlying reason why you feel hungry before noon is that your breakfast wasn’t nutritious enough. The breakfast should contain at least 250 calories, so make sure your meal has them. You may go for some breakfast ideas: one cup of yogurt and fruits, and oatmeal with cut fruits and a cup of fat-free milk or soy milk. Always eat small portions, it will prevent you from overeating. If your body hasn’t used to early breakfasts, you may wait until 9 or 10 a.m. and then have a late breakfast at work, it will help you to tune in and will delay the onset of hunger.
- Go for solid foods with a high fluid content
One of the tricks to stop overeating is to eat fewer calories by eating more food. Fruits and vegetables with a high water content give you the feeling of being full, but in the meantime, you don’t consume many calories. You may consider these ways to fill up: always choose fresh fruits over dried fruits as the number of calories is different. For instance, a cup of grapes and three tablespoons of raisins have the same amount of calories. Also, you may boost the volume of the low-calorie dinner by adding veggies such as steamed broccoli or spinach.
- Eat much fiber and protein
Getting enough fiber helps you feel full for a longer period of time as the body needs much time to digest fiber. Fiber-packed foods are high in volume but have not many calories, which makes them a perfect option for people, who want to give up overeating.
Some people link the high intake of cereal fiber with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and a lower body mass index. So, all you should do is to consume fiber-rich products (apples, carrots, whole grains) and aim to eat at least 25 g fiber a day.
As for protein, some researchers state that people, who eat at least 30 percent of calories from protein, feel more satisfied and less hungry. So, try to incorporate these protein sources into your diet: chickpeas, black beans, soybeans.
- Stay hydrated
Water helps the body to digest food, it transfers necessary nutrients to the cells. And what is more important, water helps you to decrease the amount of food you consume. If you want to tame your hunger and stay hydrated, drink about 13 glasses of water throughout the day. Besides, it is important to drink two glasses of water right before the meal as you’ll feel full.
Deal With Emotional Eating
Overeating may be the result of emotional problems and the food is used as a tool to relieve stress, depression or melancholy. So, if you want to put an end to overeating, you should cope with emotional eating. For this, do the following steps:
- Consult the emotional eating therapist. Discuss your toughest problems, which trigger overeating and the specialist will help you to go back to a normal eating plan.
- Start a food journal, which will help you to deal with emotional eating. Write down the list of meals you eat, the size of portions and your thoughts as for your current emotional state. Besides, write how you feel just before and after eating both physically and emotionally.
- Make the list of things which upset you. Also, distract yourself each time you have a food craving for high-calorie foods with minimal nutritional value and think about other activities you can do instead of eating. Besides, plan ahead your eating plan when the peak of your anxiety comes.
Do Sports
Physical exercises release the hormones of happiness – endorphins and dopamine, which is the pleasure chemical. Studies have found that a brain with a dopamine receptor deficiency is more prone to weight gain because eating quickly easily raises dopamine levels. Consequently, if the person has fewer receptors, he needs more dopamine to reach the same level of satisfaction as people with normal amount have. So, you need to work out regularly in order to keep overeating at bay.
Physical exercises help to control your appetite and lose weight. If you need to normalize eating or reverse diabesity, then go for severe and vigorous training. You should focus on cardio training, which boosts up your heart rate and helps the body to burn calories more effectively and improves heart endurance. But if your aim is to control appetite, start with 30 minutes of walking every day. Besides, don’t forget that if you want the training to bring certain benefits, it should be safe and comfortable. For this, wear appropriate outfit and footwear.
Thereby, use these strategies to control your appetite, normalize your eating pattern and then you will stay healthy and active.
Written by Helen Rogers http://thecrossfitshoes.com/
