Most Americans are overweight simply because they eat too much.
Duh! Saying that is like a no-brainer – right?
Let’s get a better handle understanding the reasons of why you overeat
The most important question that you want to ask to ask yourself: “Why Do I Overeat?”
It all boils down to simple psychology. Before the dawn of civilization, eating well was often hit and miss. When food was plentiful, people back then knew lean times were just around the corner.
Humans are hard-wired to overeat
As Chris Huntley says in his article, “The Food Addicts Guide to Losing Weight”,
Therefore, to succeed in weight loss, we must create an environment where we psychologically “need” to lose weight. Only then will weight loss be important enough to motivate us.
Consequently, when the hunters scored that caribou herd, you ate till you burst. Mind you back then when we were wearing animal skins. Hunger was one of the major stressors of the day. Fill your belly and that stress factor is gone.
In many ways, this still lingers deep inside of us.
The food industry knows it too!
Let me ask you this:
When you have a craving for food –
“How many of you say you have a craving for spinach, broccoli or cauliflower?”
I’ll bet none of you do.
One way to better understanding of the reasons why you overeat is to recognize the foods we are drawn to eat.
Food addiction and eating addiction generally revolves around 3 particular food items:
• Salt
• Fat
• Sugar
Sound familiar? When you look at all the foods you crave and overindulge in – one or more of these 3 ingredients will likely make up the central theme for your particular food craving.
From donuts to pizza, fried chicken, gravy, potato chips, fries – well, you get the drift.
But – “Can you See the Pattern?”
Those 3 main items are what so many nutritionists are fighting to reduce in our fast food culture.
And, these are also 3 of the main things you will find in the ingredients you buy off the shelf in your grocery store.
The American Food Industry is a multi-billion dollar business. They are in the business of making money. They do this by selling you their products. The food industry knows marketing and they want you to eat more so they make more money.
Well, that’s just the way business works. The way things are now will not change anytime soon.
Once you see how the industry operates then you have a better vision of understanding the reasons of why you overeat.
So, if you want to stop being overweight, then it’s going to be up to you to take control.
What you need to do is to learn and understand the psychology of overeating.
As the author says in “Compulsive Overeating and How to Stop It”,
Eating too much every once in a while is normal. So is eating for emotional reasons. “From the moment we’re born, we’re nurtured with food, rewarded with food, and so emotional connections to food are normal,” says Michelle May, MD, author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat.
Overeating in many ways simply becomes a mindless habit that we don’t pay attention to and overcomes us.
There’s no escaping it.
As Psychology Today says in its article, “The Truth About Overeating”,
Food choices are everywhere. In our current world, avoiding the sight and smell of food is fairly impossible. These sights and smells have been found to trigger parts of our brain to crave the food or just feel hungry, in general. (This is why restaurants love to bring out the dessert tray and why TV ads for food go to great lengths to show off their products).
Obesity and overeating can stem from a variety of causes and can also be different from person to person.
The basis for overeating and obesity can be a result of many factors. This includes biological/genetic reasons.
It might arise from psychological reasons because of lack of sleep, depression or stress for example.
Or, it can also stem from environmental reasons such as our food culture in general. Food portions are generally way too large, And, we are constantly bombarded with marketing images of all those tasty salty, fatty and sugary food options.
In some respects many Americans are food addicts and/or eating addicts. Once you recognize this then you will have a clearer vision of understanding the reasons of why you overeat.
As noted in their article, “Food Addiction vs. Eating Addiction: Why A Single Word Makes All The Difference”
“But obesity and diabetes is a vastly greater health issue than drug abuse, involving vastly greater numbers of people, and it’s important to remember that the formulas used by the processed food industry to get us to not just like their products, but to want more and more of them, are just part of their strategy.”
You have to try and really learn and analyze what you eat, how much you eat and ask yourself why you want to eat or drink certain types of foods or beverages.
Ask yourself why you are eating these unhealthy foods?
As we said before in numerous articles here at Living Phit – We don’t advocate that you simply give up your favorite foods altogether. Nor do we suggest that cheating is wrong because you should cheat once in awhile.
It’s about taking control 1 step at a time. Making small changes step by step and over a period of time leads to creating new habits when it comes to eating and losing weight in the process.
Changing bad eating habits takes time. It’s is most effective when it’s a slow and gradual process. Bad habits are hard to break.
You can’t change bad eating habits overnight, and there is no such thing as a “Quick Fix.”
Forming healthy and good eating patterns start in your head first. This is why we recommend you read out article, “10 Paradoxical Commandments of Losing Weight”
And…
“10 Best Mental Hacks for Achieving Your Health Fitness Goals”
Now you know and a better understanding the reasons of why you overeat.
HEALTHY EATING ROCKS!
