How to stop overeating

While the occasional over sized meal or snack won’t do too much harm, regularly overeating can lead to weight gain and associated health risks such as diabetes and heart disease so it’s important to try to stop it. This is especially important as you get older as it can become harder to shift excess weight.

If you find yourself regularly struggling with overeating, here are some tips to try.

The first step is understanding your eating habits. Try to determine the reason why overeating or eating too many unhealthy foods. If you aren’t sure, keeping a food diary can help. Make a note of when you overeat, what you eat, where you were eating and how you felt at the time.ating or eating too many unhealthy foods. If you aren’t sure, keeping a food diary and noting when you overeat, what you eat, where you were eating and how you felt at the time can help.

Are you overeating because you genuinely feel hungry? Because you don’t realise how much you are eating? Because you can’t avoid the temptation of certain foods? Or just don’t know why you do it?

Understanding the triggers

I overeat because I feel really hungry

1. Eat regular meals

Don’t skip meals. If you do it’s very easy to overeat during the meals you do have or end up eating large snacks. It can also lower your metabolism, meaning you are burning less calories.

2. Eat fibre rich foods

Include fibre rich foods like these in your meals as these promote a feeling of fullness, meaning you are less likely to overeat:

• whole grains
• beans, peas, and lentils
• leafy green vegetables and sweet potatoes
• most nuts and seeds
• oats and oat bran
• whole fruits, especially berries and fruits with peels

3. Eat protein rich foods

Protein helps keeping you feeling full throughout the day. Starting the day with a high protein breakfast like oats or eggs can help avoid overeating later in the day.

I overeat because I don’t realise how much I’m eating

1. Know your portion sizes

Measure out your portion sizes until you become familiar enough to visualise the right amount.

2. Eat slowly

Eating slowly gives your brain more time to realise that your stomach is full and send the cue to stop eating.

3. Avoid eating from containers

Eating chips out of the bag or ice cream out of the carton means it’s difficult to keep track of how much you’ve eaten and to end up consuming more than is recommended as a serving size. Instead, portion out a single serving size on a plate or in a bowl to help control the number of calories you consume in one sitting.

4. Use a smaller plate

Studies have shown that when serving food onto a larger plate people will often serve much more than a recommended serving and will eat what’s on the plate, so use a smaller plate. Seeing the smaller plate full can also help avoid that feeling that you are depriving yourself.

5. Eat mindfully

Try to be mindful of what you are eating. Eat meals seated at a table.  Don’t eat in front of the television or your computer or doing something else that might mean you don’t notice how much you are eating.

I overeat because I can’t resist some foods

1. Don’t ban all your favorite foods

Trying to completely eliminate many of your favorite foods may cause you to feel deprived, potentially leading you to binge on forbidden treats. Focus on providing your body with mostly healthy, nutritious food and balanced meals while giving yourself the freedom to enjoy a treat every now and again.

2. Remove temptation

It’s hard to treat unhealthy foods as an occasional treat when they are readily accessible so try not to keep them in the house. Instead of having unhealthy snacks like ice cream or chips at home, visit a shop and buy a small serve when you want to treat yourself.

I overeat when I’m stressed

If you overeat because you are stressed, that’s probably because chronic stress drives up levels of cortisol, a hormone that increases appetite. So it’s important to find ways to reduce the amount of stress in your daily life.

If possible remove yourself from the situation causing you stress. If this is not possible, try techniques to reduce stress such as yoga , meditation, or breathing techniques, listening to music, chat to a friend or seek some professional help with coping with stress. 

I overeat when I’m with friends

Numerous studies have found that food choices are heavily influenced by the people you eat with. We tend to eat portions similar to those we are eating with, so dining out with friends who overeat may cause them to overeat as well and we are more inclined to order unhealthy options if your dining partner does.

Choosing to eat with family and friends who have similar health goals can help you stay on track and reduce your chances of overeating.

Breaking the habit

Ditch the diet mentality

Dieting probably won’t help you stop overeating in the long run. Short-term, restrictive diets may lead to rapid weight loss, but they are often unsustainable and can set you up for failure.

Don’t diet, instead, make long-term lifestyle changes that promote health and wellness. It’s the best way to create a balanced relationship with food.

Slowly cut out not-so-good habits

It’s usually easier to focus on changing one habit at a time instead of trying to break several patterns all at once. It is also usually best to try dealing with minor issues first before tackling more significant ones.

Find a healthy habit to swap for your bad habit can also help. For example, grab a bottle of water and single-serving bar of ice cream instead of eating from the tub. Go for a walk every 45 minutes instead of sitting at your desk all day, and keep your snacks anywhere but the desk drawer within reach.

Food habits can take a while to break. Be gentle with yourself while making dietary changes and focus on taking things a day at a time.

Avoid last minute food choices

Making last-minute meal and snack choices is a common trigger for overeating. When people make impulsive food decisions, it can be easy to pick nutritionally poor, calorie-dense foods. Being unprepared when hunger strikes can make it more likely that you’ll make poor food choices that can lead to overeating.

To avoid overeating, prepare or plan meals for the week or days ahead. Keep the fridge and pantry stocked with healthy, filling foods. Get into the habit of healthy cooking.

Watch your alcohol intake

While having a drink or two with a meal generally won’t have a huge effect, having several drinks in one sitting can cause overeating by lowering your inhibitions and stimulating appetite. Drinking too much can also leave you craving a load of carbs the next day. Alcohol is also full of empty calories, meaning that it can cause weight gain. Again, if you enjoy a glass or two of wine, don’t totally deprive yourself, just do so in moderation and think about the food choices you’re making at the same time.

When to seek help

It’s important to understand that there’s a difference between having poor eating habits or overeating for the reasons above and having an eating disorder. Binge eating disorder and bulimia are complex mental health conditions. If you suspect you may be suffering from an eating disoder, it’s important to seek professsional help.

If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your doctor, there are free online services which can help. The Butterfly Foundation has some very helpful resources.