Gaining Control Over Food

More than half of all Americans are overeating on a regular basis and many of them are overeating nearly every night. Are you one of them? Do you find it easy to overeat or to eat when you aren’t even hungry? Now you know you aren’t alone. Anyone can gain control over food and it isn’t as hard to do as you might imagine.

I used to overeat fairly regularly myself and while I didn’t really like how it felt afterwards or the impact it had on my weight, I felt that I didn’t have that much control over it. But that changed when I learned how to eat in a balanced, intuitive way.

It all starts by being conscious of your hunger levels and realizing that your body is communicating with you. When you are hungry, your body is letting you know that your metabolism needs to be fueled and that your body sugars are falling. When you are satisfied from eating, you know intuitively that you’ve had enough. You can see this easily when around young children. They know when they’ve had enough and don’t overeat (unless told to finish their food). And then there is the feeling of reaching fullness, when your body is letting you know that your body sugars are going up and your metabolism has been over fueled with calories that will only be turned into fat.

To get a better handle on your hunger levels it helps to have a reference or a hunger scale. Think of a bar going left to right, with 0 on the left and 10 on the right. At the far left, 0 represents being ravenous (perhaps to the point that you no longer feel hungry). At the far right, 10 represents being excessively and uncomfortably full. In between you will experience getting hungry at a 2, being satisfied around a 6 or 7, and reaching full at an 8.

The question is why would you be inclined to eat past a 6-7? There are five common reasons for this.

The first is being ravenous when you start eating. When you are extremely hungry, even if you don’t feel it, you will inevitably overeat. This is driven by a physical need for getting enough food to refuel your body’s need for energy and by an emotional need for food after being deprived.

The second reason is because you may be only eating simple carbohydrates at your meal. These refined, sugary foods get digested nearly as fast as you are eating it, so it doesn’t fully register until you’ve gone too far. Unfortunately digesting isn’t the same as burning it off, so you end up consuming far more calories than you need. You can also be driven to overeat later in the day if you’ve eaten mainly simple carbs during the day, because your blood sugars have been elevated and this leads to cravings for more food.

A third reason is mindless eating. You just aren’t aware of the quantities you are consuming because you are focused on something else like watching TV, using your computer, talking, driving or reading. You only realize you’ve overeaten when you find that your bowl, bag or plate is empty and you discover that you feel full.

Fourth is related to being deprived. If you have been deprived of enough food or your favorite foods say from doing a diet, then you will overeat (and likely binge) as soon as the diet or deprivation ends. This happens a lot when you deprive yourself of foods that you think you shouldn’t have. But inevitably you get them in the house or you find yourself around them, and the next thing you know you’ve over indulged and feel out of control. The flip side occurs when you know that you will be deprived in the near future. This happens frequently when eating out. When you are served a fabulous meal, part of you believes that you won’t get this meal again. So you eat all of it, even if that means feeling sick.

And the fifth reason is emotional eating, when you turn to food as a coping mechanism and a way to avoid dealing with things or what it is that you really need or want.

The way to deal with this is to be aware that you are overeating by paying attention to your hunger levels, and instead of judging yourself for having overeaten look to see what is driving it. That is what will help you to understand what is happening and to create strategies that will help you deal with similar situations in the future. This week notice when you overeat and if it stems from one of the five most common reasons, and then see what you can learn from this.

Alice Greene is president of Feel Your Personal Best, a healthy lifestyle coaching company located in Newburyport, MA. Contact her at agreene@feelyourpersonalbest.com or 978-465-3555×5.