Ever overindulged, or completely pigged out, and felt guilty later? Food isn’t just a source of sustenance. Sometimes it’s a form of entertainment – we keep eating because it tastes good. Other times it soothes us emotionally. Ever heard of comfort food? Sometimes people overeat without even being aware of it. Let’s look a little closer at why we overindulge. Here are some of the most common reasons.
Why you Overeat: Too Easy Access to Food
Ever had a candy jar on your desk or another snack within easy reach and caught yourself dipping into it on and off all day? When your mind is focused on other things, you may not be conscious of how often you’re reaching into that candy jar – but the calories add up and so does the sugar. How about trips to the grocery store where you pick up a few samples? Some people don’t include those little unplanned nibbles when they tally up their calorie consumption, but grocery store samples are typically higher in calories and some of the least healthy offerings. Clear your desk, workspace and kitchen counters of snack temptations and train yourself to think before eating everything – including samples at the grocery store. Keeping a food journal can help too.
Why you Overeat: Skipping Meals
If you’re restricting calories too much or going for longer than three hours without eating, you run the risk of overindulging at your next meal out of sheer hunger. A study carried out at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that women who skipped meals lost less weight relative to those who ate regularly. One meal you definitely don’t want to skip is breakfast. Skipping breakfast is linked with greater calorie consumption later in the day and a higher risk of obesity. Meal skipping to save calories can backfire on you.
Why you Overeat: Poor Sleep Habits
Burning the midnight oil? It could cause you to eat more. One study showed that men deprived of sleep for a night purchased more high-calorie foods when grocery shopping the next day. Another study showed that individuals who skimped on sleep consumed an additional 500 calories the next day on average. It’s easy to see how that can lead to weight gain! Numerous studies have linked short sleep duration with increased calorie consumption and obesity. Lack of sleep sends levels of ghrelin, an appetite hormone produced by your stomach into overdrive while reducing leptin levels. It also increases the desire to snack on foods high in carbs and fat. The take-home message? Turn in for the night at a reasonable time.
Why you Overeat: Stress Eating
Like lack of sleep, stress can also do a number on your appetite. According to a study published in Physiology and Behavior, stress not only contributes to overeating, but it also encourages people to make the wrong food selections, foods higher in calories, sugar, and fat. It’s those comfort foods again! If you’re a stress eater, find “foodless” ways to deal with it like meditation and exercise.
Why you Overeat: Feeling Entitled after a Workout
One reason people fail to lose weight with exercise is they make up for the calories they expended by snacking more. Most people overestimate the number of calories they burned during a workout and eat based on how many calories they believed they burned. It doesn’t take much snacking on the wrong foods to offset the calories you burned from a workout. Exercise isn’t a license to overeat. Diet and exercise are both important when it comes to controlling your weight.
Why you Overeat: Eating Too Fast
Studies at the University of Rhode Island show a link between BMI and eating speed. Heavier people tend to eat faster while slimmer ones dine at a slower rate. A prior study showed that a group of women who ate quickly devoured a total of 646 calories in 9 minutes while their counterparts that stopped to chew each mouthful 15 times or more ate only 579 calories in 29 minutes. Pretty impressive difference!
When you slow down the pace of a meal you give your appetite hormones time to kick in. This can take as long as 20 minutes. Stop to appreciate each mouthful and pace yourself during a meal. Try timing yourself when you eat and then try to make each meal gradually last a little longer. Soon it will become second nature and you’ll get more enjoyment out of what you eat too!
The Bottom Line?
Simply being more aware of your eating habits – how quickly you eat and how often you eat mindlessly will help curb overeating. Combine that with healthier sleep habits and stress reduction techniques and overindulging will become less of a problem.
References:
Reuters. “Keep a journal, don’t skip meals to shed weight: study”
Am. J. Epidemiol. (2003) 158 (1): 85-92.
Science Daily. “Sleep Deprivation Increases Food Purchasing the Next Day”
Physiology & Behavior. Volume 87, Issue 4, 15 April 2006, Pages 789–793.
The University of Rhode Island. “URI researcher provides further evidence that slow eating reduces food intake”
Related Articles By Cathe:
5 Ways to Curb Mindless Overeating
Add This to Your Next Meal & You Might Make Healthier Food Choices
Does the Texture of a Food Influence How Much You Eat?
Meal Timing: For Great Fat Loss, Eat Dinner Early?
5 Things to Do When Your Eating Habits Get Off Track
