10 Strategies to Overcome Overeating for Good
10 Strategies to Overcome Overeating for Good
If you could only eat and never stop, you would probably do so. Well, when all your favorites are on the table, why would you even think about stopping, right? Reality is however, staying healthy and fit will mean having everything in moderation and spreading your insatiable hunger for food over your next meals. Easy to say but really hard to do because an even deeper reality is that you tend to overeat from time to time. You probably have your diet all planned well at home but when you go out, you can be surrounded by all sorts of temptations to binge eat. Even more so when you are out with friends and they invite you to a party where there’s unlimited food. Or you are very successful with eating only the foods on your diet plan but they taste so good you go way beyond your portions.
There are many other horror stories that you can relate to but it all boils down to struggling with self-control and bad habits that eventually lead to weight gain, chronic diseases, and low self-esteem. This year, make a commitment to yourself to be better and apply these strategies so you can deal with and overcome overeating for good!
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- Enjoy your food without distractions
It is indeed the digital age of distractions and multi-tasking prowess but it is wreaking havoc on your health. A working lunch is so commonplace and you are also used to nibbling on something while working on your computer. Yes, you probably are increasing your productivity but you are also setting the stage for overeating. Twenty four studies have been reviewed and it revealed how eating while being distracted increases the tendency for individuals to consume more calories for that particular meal. Additionally, it resulted in having to eat more the rest of the day in comparison to those who paid attention to their food only and nothing else.
If you want to overcome overeating, you have to keep your priorities straight and put healthy eating on top of it. You cannot sacrifice your health for tasks that you need done for the day. You have to manage your time well and make time for eating without any sort of distraction – that is if you want to eat for your health. Put away any distraction like your mobile, laptop, or your favorite movie series. It will help you eat mindfully and prevent overeating.
- Put your blood sugar under control
You overeat when you skip meals and avoid eating until you feel very hungry you could eat a horse. If you want to stop overeating, you have to do the exact opposite and make yourself feel full through proper eating. One important strategy you can employ is to eat to keep your blood sugar well-controlled. Instead of putting sugar to your non-caloric drinks or to enhance the flavor of your food, give vinegar and cinnamon a try. There are lots of other flavoring and spices that you can incorporate into your food to make it both tasty and healthy. In particular, vinegar adds that acidic, flavorful taste to sauces, salad dressings, and roasted vegetables without adding up too much to your calories. Meanwhile, cinnamon makes anything you add it to sweet-smelling including your coffee, smoothies, or chili. What cinnamon does is that it slows down the rate by which food is transmitted from your tummy to your intestine so you feel fuller for longer and prevent that post-meal slump. Give vinegar and cinnamon a shot then say goodbye to overeating for good.
- Go for water instead of your usual sugary beverages
This will require a good amount of willpower on your end especially when you cannot live without soda or feel that your meals are no good without your juice and other sugary beverages. Thing is, sugar can be indeed addicting and you know that you really overeat when you consume your meals with such beverages. Now is the time to deal with that addiction and go for water even if you feel it will affect your appetite. Besides, the whole point of doing all these is for your own health so you better sober up. You also do not want to gain more weight or worse, increase your risk of having diseases like diabetes. Overeating is a direct result of sweetened drinks and this association has been shown in various studies. After reviewing 17 studies, it was found how adults who consumed sugary beverages with their meals ate more food at 7.8% than the adults who only had water with their meals. You have to avoid sweetened beverages at all costs and replace them with water for a better, healthier you.
- Check out volumetrics and give it a try
If you are serious about trying to overcome your overeating habits, then you have to strategize seriously. Volumetrics is a method of eating that helps you focus on foods that are low in calorie but high in fiber. High-fiber and low-calorie foods consumed before meals together with water is effective in curbing your chances of overeating. Volumetrics recommend the consumption of non-starchy veggies, salad greens, beans, grapefruit, low-sodium broth, and tomatoes. For instance, when you have a broth-based, low-sodium soup before your meals, it can already make you feel full and thus prevent you from overindulging in unhealthy foods. Give volumetrics a shot and it just might work for you.
- Loosen up on the alcohol
Aside from sweetened drinks, alcohol can likewise increase your tendency to eat excessively that is why you need to watch your intake very carefully. Alcohol at high levels both lower your inhibitions and stimulate your appetite, making it a deadly combination for overeating. Most of the time, when you have your alcoholic drinks, your mindset is that you want to relax, enjoy the moment, and not care about anything else in the world including your fitness goals. After several shot glasses, all these add up to the dangers of you landing in the overeating world till morning. It can get even more complicated when you mix it up with some friends who want to have a good time and you are in for hours and hours of overeating as your levels of hunger increase.
It has been proven in a study of college students where those who had 4-5 drinks at a time for more than just once a week are more likely to resort to overeating compared to students who only have 1-2 drinks in one sitting. Needless to say, cutting back on your alcohol is a strategic way to help yourself avoid overeating for good.
- Eat on time and don’t wait till you’re very hungry
Often, when you are trying to lose weight, you skip your meals thinking that it will help you shed the pounds off. However, you discover later that the hunger comes back with a vengeance and you end up binge eating. Meanwhile, when you overeat, your insulin levels spike up, cause you to feel tired, and guess what? You feel hungry over again, and the cycle of overeating continues. A very simple yet effective strategy in this case is to eat when you are not hungry. Instead of resisting your hunger and then give in to it anyway, beat it and eat before the hunger pangs strike. When you eat and you are not hungry or feel just slightly hungry, then you will tend to eat less and eat slowly. And when you eat less, you will feel more energized throughout the day. Yes, please. Keep the cycle of health going.
- Change your mind about fats
Fats have a negative association but there are actually healthy fats that help prevent overeating. Unlike the high-fat foods associated with increase in weight, foods that are rich in healthy fats make you want to eat less. A good number of studies revealed how those adults who consumed low-carb, high-fat diets are less hungry for 3 to 4 hours after meals. Consequently, they lost more weight than those adults who consumed high-carb and low-fat diets over time. By healthy fats we mean nuts, avocados, seeds, olive oil, and nut butters – add them to your diet and you will not only feel satisfyingly full but be able to help yourself avoid overeating as well.
- Have yourself assessed for BED
Sometimes, the problem is not just a bad habit of overeating. There are times when it already is a binge eating disorder or BED. It is critical that you be aware of this because BED is actually a serious eating disorder with symptoms that is much like overeating: from binging repeatedly on large food quantities, to distress or feelings of guilt after a binge. Binge eating disorder affects millions globally and in the United States, it’s the most common among different types of eating disorders. In case you can relate to the signs and symptoms of BED, do not hesitate to have yourself assessed and get help as soon as you can. There are psychological experts who can help you deal with it in a professional and healthy manner.
- Do not eat from containers
If there is a big no-no when it comes to avoiding overeating sprees, it would be to eat straight from containers, especially attractive and huge ones. Think eating out of a bag of chips, eating from a carton of ice cream, or holding on to a box of pizza for dear life. Most often than not, you will be tempted to finish everything that’s in the container and won’t have time to even think twice about overeating. What you need to do is to simply get some from the containers by portioning out a serving size for what you need to consume and then plate them or put them in bowl to keep with your caloric requirements. Train your eyes to know how much your recommended portions are by measuring them out for 1-2 weeks until you know them by heart. Remember, just take your portion from the package, put them on a plate, and do not go back to scoop some more from the containers after finishing your plate.
- Enjoy a flavorless snack in between meals
It was the late Seth Roberts who discovered this important strategy to control your appetite and prevent overeating. What he would usually do was drink a glass of water with a bit of sugar or take a shot of olive oil between meals. You can emulate that or do better by snacking on a handful of almonds that are unsalted. Try to do this once a day and you will notice a dramatic reduction in your appetite especially when you got lots of weight to lose. It may sound a bit weird but if it will work for you then you are helping yourself become a healthier and fitter individual. What really happens is that, the ghrelin or the hunger hormone gets regulated when the flavor-calorie association is weakened. And so if you want it to work, you have to snack on something that is bland and consume nothing else besides water for an hour before and after you snack. Apply this strategy and see it work for yourself.
Are you ready to lose weight, build muscle, or feel more fit? Join Beachbody On Demand, and get unlimited access to Beachbody’s world-famous programs, including 80 Day Obsession, 21 Day FIX®, Insanity, P90X® and 100’s more. Don’t miss out on your chance for amazing results. Sign up today!
