11 Tips to Curb Overeating

You just had to get that extra scoop on your ice cream cone? Or you couldn’t help but pick up some french fries? The buffet keeps calling you to fill your plate? Or you didn’t realize how big the order was? You were raised to finish everything on your plate and not waste food?

Food Network Guilty Pleasures

A common dilemma, there are many types of overeating:

                  • Binge Eating
                  • Oversized Meal Portions
                  • Emotional Eating
                  • Stress Eating
                  • Super Sugar Craving
                  • Compulsive Snacking
                  • Fast Food
                  • Comfort Eating
                  • Social Eating
                  • Boredom Eating

There are a myriad of reasons for overeating. Sociocultural, psychological, and even biological factors which can cause and perpetuate a cycle that can potentially lead to weight gain as wells being a symptom of two common eating disorders: bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.

Curbing the urge to overeat is a challenge that begins with listening to your body.

Hunger is a physical cue that you need energy. -  Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, author of The Flexitarian Diet 

The first step is to identify how your body feels when it is hungry.

Once you can recognize how your body feels when its hungry, you can better adapt your eating behavior.

The second step is the determine why you are overeating. If there are other emotional reasons like anxiety or depression, or biological reasons like hormone imbalances or adverse effects of medication, your overeating may be a symptom an underlying issue in which you may need some professional guidance.

Beyond these primary steps, there are a variety of actions that can help you refrain from overeating:

1. Don’t confuse hunger with thirst.
2. Drink water.
   
   
   
   
3. Don’t skip meals.
4. Make healthy food choices for meals and snacks.
5. Make mealtimes major events, but set it like you are at a restaurant with the only food on the table is the food on your plate.
   
   
   
   
6.     Eat smaller portions and/or measure your portions.
7.     When eating, give your meal your undivided attention, especially that first bite.
8.     Stop when you are full.
   
   
   
   
9. Get enough rest.
10. Distract yourself with other activities, particularly physical exercise.
11. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you slip up from time to time. Just recommit yourself to your goals.

Overeating is a relationship about how we feel about our bodies and ourselves. Changing our eating habits will require dedication and commitment.

If you’ve decided to combat overeating as part of your strategy for weight management, the experts at Metabolic Medical Center can help you assess your goals and create a plan that works for you.