How to Stop Overeating

You’ve tried everything but you are still struggling with overeating.

You’ve tried diets, you’ve tried cutting yourself off from food, you’ve tried not having any “tempting foods” in the house…

Nothing works.

The thing with all of these methods you’ve tried is they won’t work because they don’t get to the root of the problem and why you’re really overeating.

So today I want to walk you through 4 reasons why you overeat and how to solve for them.

1. Undereating

The number one reason I see women overeating is actually that they’re undereating. When you don’t eat enough throughout the day, you’ll find yourself ravenous at the end of the day. Your body is trying to “make up” for not eating enough all day. So, your hunger drive goes way up and you find yourself feeling out of control, unable to be satisfied, and raiding your pantry.

So, the fix for this is to eat more during the day. If you aren’t eating breakfast, eat breakfast. Eating more earlier on in the day and listening to your hunger cues throughout the day is how you will get to the end of the day and not feel so out of control.

2. Mental restriction

Even if you are physically getting enough calories in the day, if you still have lingering “good food/bad food” thoughts, this will impact your eating. If you are still thinking “I shouldn’t eat these chips” and feeling guilty about it, it can lead you to overeating. Because when you feel guilty for eating food, a couple of things may happen… you may have the thought “What the heck, I already screwed up so I might as well keep eating” and find yourself finishing the whole bag and not listening to your body. Or you have the thought “I just want to get this out of my house” because it’s a “bad food” and find yourself eating it even when you don’t necessarily want it or amounts that you don’t actually want.

So, this is a lot of what I work on with my clients. We work through your mindset and all the thoughts that are keeping you in a “diety” mindset. When you heal your mindset and relationship with food, practice a “all foods can fit in a healthy diet” mindset and let go of the “good food/bad food” mindset, you’ll feel so calm around food and be able to eat all your favorite things without guilt AND without overeating.

3. Emotional eating

If you’re finding yourself turning to food to cope with hard emotions, you’ll probably find yourself overeating. Because when you turn to food for emotions, food never “fixes” the emotion. And because of this, you’ll keep eating and eating to try to feel better… but you’ll overeat and still have these emotions.

So instead of turning to food to cope, you want to allow yourself to actually FEEL your emotions. Feel sad and let yourself cry. Feel angry. Feel disappointed. Emotions aren’t bad. They won’t kill you… they’re part of the human experience. And by feeling your feelings and finding more productive ways to cope instead of eating, you’ll move through the emotion faster AND not find yourself also overeating. It’s ok to have some ice cream after a hard day. But just know that the ice cream isn’t going to solve the fact that you feel stressed after a hard day.

4. Mindless eating

And lastly, eating mindlessly. This is eating when you’re distracted, not paying attention to the food or your body. This can lead to overeating.

So, the way to not overeat is to be more mindful. Try less distractions and tuning into your body and how you feel as you are eating.

These are the 4 reasons why you overeat and what to do if you struggle with any of these as the reasons you’re overeating.

And as a reminder… overeating happens. Judging yourself and shaming yourself doesn’t help you learn. So when you overeat, remember that this is all a learning process. Practice getting neutral about it instead of judging and shaming yourself. And get curious… ask yourself “I wonder why I overate” and look for the answer so you can keep getting better and overeat less often.

And if you still need help, BOOK A FREE CONSULT and I’ll help you figure out what’s keeping you stuck.

Enjoy podcasts? Find and listen to this episode of the Redefining Health Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Google.