Overeating is an all-too-common problem in the United States and around the world. In fact, the World Obesity Federation recently predicted that over half of the world’s population (more than four billion people) will be either overweight or obese in the next 12 years. But besides the social stigma of appearing to be fat, a pattern of overeating is known to lead to a variety of serious health concerns like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Health risks like these can be mitigated, however, by training yourself to eat less and make better food choices.
The basic definition of overeating is to consume more food than a person’s body needs or is hungry for. This is typically measured in calories, a unit that represents the energy value of a food. In some ways, overeating is quite normal and harmless, such as during a holiday like Thanksgiving when it’s socially and culturally acceptable to eat a large amount of food in one sitting. When overeating becomes a habit, though, the pattern can lead to increased fat storage and subsequent weight gain.
There are many reasons why people may overeat, but it often is connected to a psychological or emotional need. In fact, overeating is also one of the main symptoms and manifestations of binge eating disorder, a known mental health condition that involves frequent episodes of binge eating. Bulimia nervosa is a related condition, but it differs from binge eating disorder in that it also involves purging after bingeing. The fact that overeating is linked with these mental health conditions is an indicator of how challenging it can be to stop overeating and adopt a more healthy eating pattern.
As American life has evolved over the last few decades, our day-to-day lives have become more sedentary; at the same time, processed foods that are high in fat and refined carbs have become increasingly prevalent. All of these factors combined have led to the widespread increase in food intake and correlated weight gain, but overeating isn’t necessarily a problem until it becomes significant enough to start affecting one’s health. Below are some signs that you might be overeating:
Under almost any circumstance, changing one’s eating habits is a difficult task because of how entrenched those habits become. One of the biggest reasons for this is the complex array of brain chemicals that are involved. For example, eating foods like ice cream and french fries contain compounds that increase dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is involved in the brain’s reward system. Choosing to not eat foods that have this effect can be really hard because the brain wants and expects a certain amount of dopamine.
Making substantial changes to your eating behavior will therefore require a focused and concerted effort. Suddenly eating less is somewhat of a shock to the body, and most people experience strong cravings for their favorite foods. To mitigate those cravings and develop a new set of habits, you’ll most likely need to adopt a number of different strategies:
If you’ve been trying to train yourself to eat less, you already know how hard the process can be. The same kind of challenge exists for a weight loss journey, and for many people all the effort expended never really gets them the freedom they’re looking for. At True You Weight Loss, we have helped many people find a new approach to weight loss that is sustainable over the long term. Our non-surgical solutions can help you get past the kind of roadblocks that have hampered your progress in the past. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you, please contact us today to solicitar una consulta.
Dr. Christopher McGowan, MD, a leader in endobariatrics, specializes in non-surgical obesity treatments and is triple-board-certified in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, and Obesity Medicine. Renowned for pioneering endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) with over 2,000 procedures, his global influence and research contributions define him as a top expert.