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Some links in this article are affiliate links. We may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we find useful to our readersIt doesn’t matter if you are eating “healthy” or “unhealthy”, overeating will tend to have similar negative impacts irrespective of what you are eating. There are multiple ways to stop overeating, the only thing you need to keep a note of is to ensure that you keep track of the enthusiasm and stay motivated through and through.
Many may ask, “Why overeating is bad for your health?” The answer to that does have multiple reasoning behind the same, irrespective of what you feel and believe in. If you wish to lead a healthy lifestyle, it is important for you to adhere to a healthy diet altogether.
By the end of the article, you will have a better and much more clarified idea about the ways to stop overeating to lead a healthy life ahead.
Effects Of Overeating On Body
Let us take a look at some of the major ones, shall we?
Affects the stomach and gut function
Indulging in overeating on a regular basis does have the potential to end up sending up mixed signals to the brain about satiety.
The overall neurological functionality of the stomach does get affected, causing the overall gut to malfunction. This does have the potential to prevent you from realizing that you are full, thus making you eat unknowingly.
Risks of fatty liver
The liver is possibly one of the most important organs in our body, if not the most. Overeating has been found to overwork your liver. What this does is end up making the liver to store more fat, thus enhancing the risks of fatty liver.
The liver does play a very crucial role in maintaining and regulating the blood glucose levels in the body.
When we consume more than what our body is capable of burning at a go, it promotes our body to store the excess in the form of fats in the liver.
The presence of excess fats in the liver ends up contributing to the inflammation of the liver and even in the induction of insulin resistance.
Read: 12 Important Signs you have Toxic Liver
Risks of heart disease
Our heart is very susceptible to the associated risks that come with overeating. It goes without saying that overeating does have the potential to end up contributing to the risks of obesity.
Obesity is one of the markers of heart disease, mainly because of the accumulation of fats in the arteries, causing the heightened risks of atherosclerosis.
This is the primary reason why it is important to ensure that you do manage your eating habits and make healthier switches to be able to avoid the risks associated with heart disease altogether.
How To Stop Overeating?
When it comes to the ways to stop overeating, the options are quite a lot but it all comes down to how you plan and how you manage the condition that ends up making the difference in the long run.
Here, we are going to be sharing some of the best and the effective tips to stop overeating.
1.Be mindful while eating
In one of the review studies (R) comprising of 24 different studies, it was found that one of the most common reasons behind overeating was being distracted while eating.
Keep your phones and your television away while you are eating and just focus on the food.
Read: 10 Most Addictive Foods According To Science You Didn’t Know Of!
2.Think of the consequences
Often times, we do end up being stuck eating more than we are capable of when we don’t necessarily think about the consequences. That’s when the problem arises. If you are surrounding yourself with unhealthy foods and such, chances are that you are going to reach out for the same time and time.
One of the best ways to stop overeating is making you think about the consequences that come along with this. Think about what will happen when you consume this amount of food. Given the fact that if you are consuming more unhealthy foods, chances are that your body will crash and make you feel tired all along.
Look ahead on the consequences and that itself should most definitely be an amazing way to handle the situation for the better.
3.Start it off with a glass of water
The thirst quencher has been found to have amazing impacts in helping fill you up all the while ensuring to cut down the unnecessary overeating.
Water has been found to help manage your hunger and help prevent you from overeating. If you wish to regulate your hunger, the best way to go about with the same is by keeping some water with you while you are eating.
Read: 12 Health Benefits Of Sparkling Water – Sizzling Benefits
4.Take your time
This is the reason that one of the best ways to stop overeating is by eating slowly rather than rushing the process through.
Once you start eating, the stretch receptors in the stomach and gut get activated, thus helping in signaling the brain directly through the vagus nerve that technically has been found to connect the gut with the brainstem.
This processing of the signal can take you anywhere from 5-20 minutes depending on the efficiency of the stomach and gut function.
5.Concentrate on portions
What this does is help in limiting the amount that you are eating.
Many people have this wrong notion that portioned eating means that you have to eat less. That is not how it works. Portion eating doesn’t mean that you have to eat less. You just need to ensure that you eat the optimal amount of food, rather than going out of your way with overeating.
You can technically bulk the meal with healthier alternatives and that will not just fill you up but also help ensure that you don’t technically have to worry about the amount of food you are consuming.
Read: How To Stop Our Love Affair With Junk Food and Aim at Healthier Foods
6.Know what makes you weak
If you are here struggling with abstaining from eating something, make sure you first know what the weakness is. Once you know what your weakness is, it makes it a lot easier for you to handle the condition without any issues whatsoever.
When you know what you are struggling with, it does make it a lot easier for you to cut out the trigger and then move forth from the unnecessary overeating.
Additionally, preparing and consuming healthy foods has been found to be quite helpful in getting rid of the unhealthy choices of food.
7.Control your stress
Stress makes you overeat. It is as simple as that and there is nothing worse about the same because of the fact that even science has proven it right.
Your bout of stress can most definitely stem from anything and if you are here worried about what the consequences of the same, overeating is most definitely one of them.
Stress not just impacts one’s overall physical well being but has also been found to have negative impacts on one’s habit of eating as well. One of the best ways to stop overeating is by ensuring that you handle and manage your stress in a constructive way.
8.Add in some spice
When you are consuming spicy food, chances are that you won’t technically be able to eat a lot. You are most definitely going to slow down with the food, thus ensuring to keep the problem of overeating in check.
So, the best way to control your overeating is by adding in more spice into your food.
9.Low calorie high fiber
Not many people realize what it is but a low calorie and high fiber diet ensures to help keep your satiety in check and even prevents any kind of overeating that you might be struggling around with.
When you consume a low calorie but high fiber food before a meal, it helps you from overeating and keeps your health in check.
Some of the best kinds of examples under this volumetric diet include grapefruit, broccoli, beans, low sodium broth, etc.
Read: Importance of High Protein Low Calorie Foods
10.Take the time to decide
Take the time to think and then decide whether or not you will even need the food altogether. Oftentimes, we pile up our plate with food and when we overeat, all we do is feel like crap throughout the day.
You could have easily avoided that scenario given if you had the restraints to take the time to judge whether or not you would even end up consuming the food altogether.
If you think that you are full and there’s no possibility for you to consume the food, it is best suggested to ensure that you effectively end up not consuming it, for the lack of better judgement.
11.Binge snack
Instead of consuming three full and oversized meals during a day, it is always best to binge eat something every two hours or so. What this does is help in ensuring that you aren’t terribly hungry, thus ending up eating more than you technically should.
Eating healthy snacks throughout the day helps ensure that you keep your blood glucose levels in check and stable throughout the day.
Focus on the calories and even the kind of nutrition you are going to derive from those snacks because the same does matter.
12.Pour the food out on a bowl or plate
More than a habit, overeating is a choice that you make. Instead of simply just eating directly from the container, try and pour things out onto a plate or bowl so you have a visual of how much you are eating. This helps ensure that you don’t technically eat more than you should.
Portioning out a single size onto a plate or bowl helps ensure that you don’t end up overeating. Apart from preventing you from overeating, this also does help in controlling the amount of calories that you are consuming.
Read: 12 Ways To Get Rid Of Food Stuck In Throat – Quick And Effective
13.Pay close attention to the hunger cues
We often don’t realize this but there are technically a number of hunger cues that we tend to end up foregoing when they do need extra emphasis.
If you have been struggling to find better options when it comes to handing the overeating, the best way to do so is by ensuring that you do pay close attention to when your hunger sets in. Knowing the same helps you stay prepared to tackle the situation effectively.
There are a number of factors that are visible when it comes to the hunger cues like growling stomach, headache, low energy and even sudden irritability.
14.Keep the triggers out
Let’s be real, nobody likes to overeat the foods that they are not fond of. We tend to overeat only when the foods involved are something that we love.
More than our mouth, we eat with our eyes first. This is the primary reason why keeping the trigger foods away from your eyes does help manage the overeating effectively.
It is common that some foods are worse than the other for our health but at the end of the day, everything comes down to how we handle the same that matters.
15.Consume more fiber
One of the main reasons why people tend to overeat is mainly because of the fact that they are either very hungry or didn’t have a fulfilling meal. The best way to combat that is by ensuring that you consume a meal that is filled with fibers.
Studies have found that consuming a high fiber diet keeps you satisfied for a longer period of time, thus helping ensure that you don’t binge eat unhealthy foods or such.
16.Consume meals on a regular basis
You’d be surprised how this ends up making you overeat because when you prohibit your body from the necessary amount of food, chances are that you are going to end up losing track of how much food is a viable option for you.
This is where you need to draw the lines and find better ways to combat the problem of overeating. Instead of skipping meals to lose weight, try and ensure that you consume the necessary amount of food on a daily basis but on a healthy regime.
Studies have actually found that consuming food in frequent intervals helps prevent overeating and keeps you full throughout the day.
Read:12 Ways To Spring Clean Your Diet – Time To Switch Things Up
17.Dine with someone on a similar page
Studies (R) have found that you are more likely going to eat the same quantity of the food as what your company is eating. The best way to avoid that is by ensuring that you either hand out with people who are on the same page as you or try and avoid the crowd altogether.
Not just that, in one conducted study (R), it was found that people are going to be inclined more towards that unhealthy and uncontrollable consumption of food if their partner indulges in that too.
18.Consume more protein
Consuming a healthy chunk of protein for breakfast or even for your lunch helps keep you full for a longer period of time, thus helping ensure that you don’t necessarily struggle with the need to overeat at a later meal.
Not just that, studies (R) have also found that consuming a protein rich meal helps in keeping the levels of ghrelin in check which has been found to play a very crucial role in handling the hunger pangs altogether.
Read: High Protein Diets Can Clog Your Arteries, New Study Suggests
19.Keep your blood sugar levels in check
All that being said, maintaining a stead and healthy blood sugar level in the body can effectively help manage the hunger levels and prevent your overeating.
20.Keep a check on the alcohol
If you are looking for ways to stop overeating, the best way to do so is by ensuring that you keep your alcohol consumption to a bare minimum.
Even a conducted study (R) with college students found that the ones who did drink 4-5 pegs of alcohol were more likely going to end up overeating.
Finding ways to stop overeating isn’t that hard. It is technically the willpower and motivation that you have that matters in the end. It is very well suggested to ensure that you stick to a healthy eating regime and make healthier switches to be able to cut out the problem of unhealthy overeating in check.