‘You’ve chosen to eat healthier and lose weight, and you’ve begun by creating a weekly food plan. However, as the time for lunch, lunch, or dinner approaches, you begin to experience an insatiable hunger and urges.
Essentially, this is the time at which the majority of your healthy eating plans have been tossed out the window. You become dissatisfied and frustrated with yourself, and you are ready to abandon your weight-loss objectives. You believe you lack willpower and will be unable to achieve your objectives.’
We’ve all been there, and it’s normal to be frustrated and discouraged. The most important thing to remember, though, is to never give up.
One of the best methods to keep pushing towards your objectives is to establish a list of tools and construct your toolbox to assist you prevent overeating and also receive all of the required nutrients.
The following are some of the most prevalent reasons we see among persons who tend to overeat, as well as some strategies for dealing with the problem:
1. Protein deficiency
Protein consumption is critical to your overall health and well-being. Protein can increase your metabolism, lower your hunger, help you maintain a healthy blood sugar balance, and trigger thermogenesis.
According to research, eating 25 percent of your meal in protein leads to greater satiety, decreased late-night munching, and fewer food obsessive thoughts. [1]
Furthermore, another study found that women who consume the recommended amount of protein with each meal lose an average of eleven pounds in twelve weeks. You are more prone to overeat and want unhealthy foods if you do not consume enough protein with each meal.
2. Lack of fibre
Fiber is really important for your health. Consume a variety of fiber-rich meals at each meal. Fiber consumption should be increased to improve satiety, aid in digestion and nutritional absorption, and slow glucose absorption.
Fiber-rich foods nourish healthy gut flora, which create short-chain fatty acids and improve immune system performance.
Read – 10 Healthy Weight Loss Ways
3. Prolonged Stress
Chronic stress can lower your metabolism and affect digestion and food absorption.
Chronic stress, according to research, can boost your appetites for sugary, refined, and high carbohydrate foods, which affects your mesolimbic dopamine system, also known as our reward pathway.
When you are persistently stressed, your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA Axis) is constantly active, resulting in elevated cortisol (stress hormone) and food cravings.
Furthermore, continuous stress might cause blood sugar to rise. As a result, when you are continuously stressed, it is natural to seek highly processed meals as a stress coping method.
As a result, having non-food based stress coping techniques is vital because it will help lower cravings, balance hormones, and put an end to overeating.
Some excellent stress-reduction techniques include:
- Yoga
- Walking\sSwimming
- Meditations when spending time in nature
- Spending time with family and friends
- Taijiquan
- Gratitude and mindfulness exercises
- I’m reading a book
- Taking a soothing Epsom salt soak
- All of these workouts and habits will help you reduce stress and improve your body’s ability to deal with stress.
4. Inadequate Sleep
Sleep is critical to our health and overall well-being. Sleep deprivation can be caused by a fast-paced lifestyle and persistent stress. According to the findings, persistent sleep deprivation might result in higher insulin and cortisol levels, which can contribute to overeating.
Have you ever observed an increase in irritation and a desire for sugary meals following a terrible night’s sleep?
During sleep, your body becomes more sensitive to insulin. A single night of sleep deprivation, for example, causes a 40% drop in your ability to handle glucose.
Furthermore, when you don’t get enough sleep, your body creates more hunger hormones called ghrelin and less leptin, our satiety hormone. Leptin signals to our brain when we should stop eating, but ghrelin stimulates our hunger.
It’s no surprise that a lack of sleep can create a slew of unfavourable alterations in your sensitive hormone balance, which contributes to overeating.
In addition, sleep is necessary for the creation of growth hormone. Lean body mass is increased by growth hormone. It also aids in the burning of fat for fuel. Growth hormone promotes bone mineral density and prevents the body against ageing in general.
This is yet another reason why we must prioritise sleep in order to optimise our hormones and break the cycle of overeating.
A peaceful nighttime routine is a good place to start, as blue light from your phone, TV, and other electronics can disturb your circadian cycle and reduce melatonin production.
Reading a book, taking a bath with magnesium Epsom salt, meditating, spending time with your family, or writing are all alternatives. Journaling is extremely useful for reducing stress and anxiety by writing down your thoughts, anxieties, or to-do list.
5. Excessive Diet Strictness
Eating properly is critical, and I admire your determination to reduce weight and keep it off. However, the most common mistake I see clients make is engaging in highly restricted diets, or frequently hopping from one extreme diet to another, and/or experimenting with numerous weight reduction drugs in pursuit of a magical solution.
You might even lose some weight, but being too rigid with your eating habits generally backfires in the long run because it’s difficult to maintain long-term. Overly restrictive diets can often be maintained for a short amount of time but can eventually lead to poor eating connections, obsessive thinking, or chronic calorie tracking.
Too many food restrictions at once can result in overwhelming cravings for specific meals and, ultimately, overeating.
To avoid chronic limitation, I recommend you to start making tiny, beneficial changes every day and to adopt healthier behaviours. You will be able to lose weight and keep it off if you do this.
In conclusion – Reasons of Eating Too Much
I always tell my customers to think of each meal as a method to nourish themselves. Ask yourself, “Would this meal make me feel more energised and healthier?” When it comes to healthy eating, our thinking is crucial. Go to your local farmer’s market, try some new foods, and host a healthy cooking party with your friends or family if you have access.
Overeating can be an extremely tough habit to stop. If you have a problem with overeating, try working with a qualified health coach or a licenced therapist to help you break the habit.
Our health coaches will be delighted to answer any questions you may have and assist you in getting started on your health and wellness journey.
