If you’re thinking to lose weight, the very first step is that you have to restrict your everyday diet portions. Do you feel sometimes that you may be eating more than that required? Or do you often overeat? You may end up stuffing yourself in that dinner party or in a family outing. Or you may continuously be snacking throughout the day besides your 3 basic meals. Regardless of how overeating takes place, you may suffer its effects at that time only or sooner in subsequent times.
Most of us generally do this and later regret it. Although they realize that they’re overeating yet can’t really get over it. Overeating leads to discomfort in the form of bloating or feeling lethargic. Its another downside maybe it’s a hard time for your digestive system comprehending the food. Most of the time the overeaten food fails to get absorbed properly and that 1 extra paratha or puri in your meal, again and again, leads you to the roadway of various diseases. These include joint problems, Type 2 Diabetes, belly fat, skin problems, overweight, hair fall, lethargy, heart problems, diabetes, etc.
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Relationship between food and your body
Let’s first know the basic phenomenon that goes within your body after you have eaten a meal, that is the relationship between your body and food. Essentially, your body uses calories from food that you have taken for energy production. Now the question arises that how much calories your body needs daily. Basically, this depends on your age, sex, weight, height, and most important activity level. As per USDA, 2000 calories is recommended as the daily amount for an average person. A smaller shorter woman would need fewer calories to function than a taller, heavier man.
And here comes the stage of overeating. Overeating is nothing but the consumption of more calories than that required by your body. These extra calories are being stored in your body as fat tissues. What happens if you take lesser calories than the required amount. This calculation is done by your body itself. Your body converts these fat tissues to energy to make up the difference. This calls up to several complications that you might face some or the other point in your life.
Thereafter, I have turned up with 5 amazing strategies to stop overeating from the very next meal (once and for all). But before referring these 5 ways to stop binge eating, you should know why do we overeat?
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Key Reasons That Induces Overeating
There are various reasons out there because of which we tend to overeat every single time. Although, I have mentioned some of those which I feel are predominantly responsible for overeating.
Boredom
One reason which top the list is Boredom. We are bored, and we are looking for some stimulation. Food consumption can increase neurotransmitter production and release. You can think of neurotransmitters as mood affecting chemicals our bodies produce. When we eat, neurotransmitters are released and we get that stimulation we’re looking for.
What you can do to avoid this?
You can keep yourself engaged by reading books, listening to music, watching a movie, play your favorite games, or working on your “to do” list. You should try to stay away from any activity that prompts you to eat.
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Comfort Eating
Another reason can be Comfort Eating. Sometimes life can be tough and many people look for something that can help them to cope with such situations. Like that piece of chocolate cake, or that cheesy burger or spicy momos, it looks good, smells good, and I know its tastes good. It’s going to make me feel better, so you chomp it down, get your neurotransmitter high as I’ve mentioned earlier, and lastly, you get a temporary sense of relief. This cycle goes on to be continued.
How to come out of this?
Look for healthier options to cope up with this. Like everything just can’t be eating and binging. Right? You can do meditation, exercise, or just listen to music, as all of these produce neurotransmitters that can help to enhance your mood. Indulge in something that you find relaxing or fun, like going for a walk or watching a movie. Talk to your close friend about whatever is it, sometimes sharing your emotions with someone close gives you immense relief.
People From All Over The Place
Lastly, another reason that contributes to overeating is the people around us.
Food is one of those things that every person in the world has in common and we all need it to sustain. In many instances, it brings us together such as for celebrations or special occasions. The people around us when we eat can lead us to over-consumption of food.
People often say, come on, your plate isn’t full yet take some more, or you’ve partly eaten. Though their intentions are nothing but care or love especially we all experience this in our home or relative’s place. But in the long run, those intentions can be harmful to you as it calls for overeating.
What can you do?
Be prepared. If you’re meeting up with people for a meal, have your shield of willpower out. When they encourage you to eat more, tell them that you’ve eaten enough, you’re filled to the top and can’t take another bite. You can even tell them that you ate too much earlier and you’re feeling bloated now.
By these simple ways, you can avoid overeating but if these too fails for you, I am sure these next 5 amazing strategies wouldn’t.
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5 Effective Strategies That Will Help You To Easily Get Over The Habit Of Overeating
1. Try To Compose Your Diet Of All 6 Tastes
An accomplished meal must comprise of all the 6 tastes, namely Sweet, Bitter, Sour, Pungent, Astringent, and Salty. A meal consisting of all these 6 tastes is treated to be perfectly balanced and tempting to your tongue as well. And this is the basis of our traditional thali system wherein all the 6 flavors are served in one plate in an appropriate portion. Moreover, this speaks for all the food groups along with their nutrients.
Have you ever had a feeling when you’re so full of food but still had a temptation for a dessert or a sweet dish? This happens because our body considers a meal with all the 6 flavors as a complete meal. So, next time whenever you sit to eat deliberately take less food than usual. Now after having it, take a small chunk of jaggery. Two things will take place. Firstly, you will feel gratified, and secondly, you won’t feel lethargic. You can experiment with yourself and see how you feel. You can even bite on a green chili or have a spicy or a sweet chutney with your meal whichever you’re fond of eating. The basic idea behind this is to try and wrap up the 6 tastes.
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2. Retain For Some Add Ons
It is recommended that you should try to include curd in breakfast, buttermilk after lunch, and milk after dinner. This helps a lot in constraining the habit of overeating. This works in this way as you know that buttermilk is yet to come after lunch, then you won’t end up stuffing more rather you will eat a bit less to make space for that refreshing buttermilk. Similarly, If you know will drink a glass before sleeping, then you’re happy to cut down your dinner a bit.
In this way, if you make this a habit, then it will undoubtedly curb you to overeat every time. Furthermore, you can include fresh fruit or a glass of fruit juice before your breakfast, vegetable salad before lunch. In this way, you’ll be able to feed your body healthy with a variety, eat less, and feel full for longer. In short, add more “real” foods, namely dry fruits for healthy fats, whole grains for fiber, pulses and milk products for protein on your plate rather than the processed or junk ones. Your body feels full instantly and hence, you eat less.
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3. Try to take only one serving per meal
Every time you’re about to eat make it a mantra that you must take all that you want to eat in just one serving. Don’t go for refilling your plate each time. This strategy for sure will help you to get rid of overeating. When you’re having a tempting meal, then it’s a tendency that you keep on eating and eating until you’re stuffed to the top, while refilling your plate again and again. In this way, you indulge in overeating and regret later. Rather you should make a habit to take all at once in your plate with a variety, sit quietly, and focus on eating. Don’t opt for refilling your plate the second time.
4. Avoid Distractions And Eat Slowly
The basic anomaly behind this is that your mind gets sated after chewing for 15 mins. The fact is that your brain sends a signal to your body that ‘stop eating as you have enough of it’ after around 15 mins. So, now it’s up to you, either you gulp 4 chapatis in those 15 mins or slowly chew 2 chapatis. If you want to make a habit of eating slowly, there are two means. Firstly, eat hot fresh food or another way is to take small bites.
Nowadays, we often eat while talking to others, or watching TV, or a movie, or using mobile phones, or even while working on laptops. These distractions lead to nothing but overeating. The idea is that when you try to input and output from the same channel your body gets confused and may even end up choking yourself. So, you should always try to eat quietly and slowly to overcome all these complications.
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5. Finally, Wait For The Sign
Your brain takes time of around 20 mins to send the signals nauseated by your body. However, by then you find out that you’ve already eaten that portion of regretted food. So, what to do? There is one simple trick that you can follow to tackle this. When doubt arises within your mind whether you should take or order that extra portion, then interpret that it’s time to stop eating. By this practice, you can get rid of binge eating.
Ayurveda suggests that we eat “1 Anjali of Food in 1 Serving”, which means the food that fits in your two palms is your personalized portion size. But nowadays there’s common thinking that eating less will make you weak and malnourished. Although Modern Science through the series of research shows that “for any living organism if the calorie intake is reduced by 30%, it lives longer by 30%”. Hence, eating less is much better than overeating. Thus, try to incorporate these 5 helpful ways to get over the habit of overeating.