12 simple ways to stop overeating

Overeating occurs when you eat more than you need. The reasons can be many, and you might not even be aware of the amount you are eating. Check these tips for how to stop overeating.

Making a bad decision now and then won’t be what causes you to gain weight in the end. Having a bite or two too many during Christmas dinner isn’t the worst. It is the daily decisions and habits that can lead to overweight and sickness over time. Researh says there are easy ways to stop overeating:

1: Limit distractions

A typical reason why you can’t stop overeating is that you do other things while you eat. This causes you to not pay attention to what or how much you are actually eating. In 2013, Eric Robinson and colleagues did a meta-analysis on the topic. They examined how food intake and attention was related and found so-called “attention eating” to be correlated with amount consumed. Paying attention to the food would make you less prone to eating too much.

2: Eat slowly

Research shows that those who eat slowly has a lower BMI and eat smaller portions. Eating slowly can help you stop overeating because it allows your brain more time to realize when you are actually satiated. If you chew your food well too, more enzymes will get to work, and you will make more use of the nutrients in your food.

3: Plan your portions

An efficient way to stop overeating is to plan your meals in both amount and content. Different foods hold different nutrients. The health directorate recommends at least half of your portions being vegetables. Vegetables are low in calories but will occupy just as much physical space in your stomach as any other more energy-rich foods. Vegetables are rich in vitamin, minerals and fiber. In addition, they help you fill your stomach and make you feel satiated. Hence, it might be clever to think about how you fill your dinner plate.

4: Remove temptations

You can do yourself a big favor by simply removing temptations. When you get home from work all tired and hungry, reaching for the frozen pizza will be a whole lot easier than to start preparing a juicy seafood meal. Don’t fill your freezer with unhealthy foods and plan your meals for success. It is much easier to stop overeating when you don’t have temptations in every cabinet.

5: Get plenty of fiber

Fiber make you feel satiated for longer. Both soluble and insoluble fibers must be part of your diet. Several studies point towards participants who ate oatmeal for breakfast feeling full for longer and eating less for lunch than participants who didn’t eat oatmeal for breakfast. Oatmeal is a great source of fiber and can certainly help you stop overeating. Fiber is also found in wholegrain, beans, vegetables, nuts and fruits.

6: Eat regularly

Keeping your blood sugar levels stable can surely do wonders to help you stop overeating. Having a stable blood sugar level will keep your mood even too and increase your self-control. This will help prevent eating more than you need. Instead of eating few, big meals through the day, try having smaller, more frequent ones. This prevents overfilling the stomach and will keep your energy supply more even. This makes it easier to resist temptations as they appear, and you will be more suited to control hunger and cravings also during the evening.

7: Reduce stress

Stress greatly affects both body and mind and might therefore be a brilliant way to stop overeating. By limiting the everyday stress, you may also reduce the amount of hunger provoking hormones that is released when you are stressed. There are many ways of reducing stress, from regular exercise to relaxing activities such as yoga or meditation. Often-time a change of focus is all it takes to get your stress level down.

8: Get an overview of your diet

You don’t necessarily have to count every single calorie or write down the exact number of grapes you eat. Yet, science point towards overview making it easier to stop overeating. If you know what and how much you eat, reducing the number of unnecessary calories gets a whole lot easier. As a matter of fact, the simple act of writing down what you eat is often enough to make you think twice of what you eat. It is also a lot easier to see what you actually eat when you have a list.

9: Limit alcohol consumption

Quite a few studies show a correlation between alcohol and the amount of food you eat. Alcohol is so-called empty calories, which won’t give you a feeling of being satiated. Yet it adds huge amounts of energy. When drinking alcohol your limit of resisting extra foods will be lower. Researchers aren’t quite sure of what causes you to crave more when drinking alcohol, but one theory is that the alcohol provokes a feeling of hunger. Ethanol, the active ingredient in alcohol, may cause hyperactivity in the same brain cells that typically is activated by hunger. Under the influence of alcohol, your self-discipline decreases, and you will have a much harder time to stop overeating compared to when being sober.

10: Avoid last minute decisions

We all know how unclever it is to go to the store hungry. Your shopping list may be as short as 5 products, yet you can bet a chocolate, bag of nuts or some protein bar will find its way to your bag. The fact that you are already hungry when entering the store is enough to seriously affect your judgement and willpower. You might be able to stick to a normal portion of dinner afterwards, but the fact you ate that little something something while waiting for dinner already added those extra calories to your day. A good way to stop overeating is therefore to plan your meals well enough to avoid those last minute decisions.

11: Drink enough water

Your body needs water to a whole lot of processes. When you’re dehydrated you may think you are hungrier than you actually are. Giving your body good enough water supply throughout the day is an easy way to stop overeating. A study carried out in 2016 found a significant relationship between dehydration and an elevated BMI or obesity. An extra tip: drink water rather than juice or similar to the meals. Water is free of unnecessary sugar and calories. Besides, having other drinks may cause you not to feel satiated as quickly, causing you to continue eating even when the body has already gotten what it needs.

12: Eat with like-minded people

It might sound odd. Although, we do have a tendency to make choices similar to the one sitting next to us. Food choices are no different. The social aspect of the meals may overwrite the personal preferences if you aren’t aware of it. Make sure to consume your meals with someone who shares the same goals and values for diet as yourself to make it easier to stop overeating. If your companion makes good choices foodwise, chances are you will be better at making healthy decisions yourself.

Get in control of your cravings

Achieving a sense of control over your appetite might be challenging. Nobody enjoys walking around all day feeling hungry and craving sweets. The dietary supplement Royal Burner holds a variety of active ingredients to address these feelings. The level of glucomannan makes you feel more satiated and eating less. Gluccomannan expands up to 200 times its own size in your stomach. This may help you stop overeating. In addition, Royal Burner holds raspberry extract, which reduces the feeling of hunger and lowers appetite. Read more about how Royal Burner can help you here.

• See also: Why you should eat less saturated fat