16 tips for those who eat and can't stop

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

How to quit binge eating and switch to healthy foods without dieting and stress.

1. Eat alone

If during a meal a person is distracted and does not pay attention to his portion, he eats more. When watching TV, portions increase, on average, by 14%, and when chatting with friends - by 18%.

To get enough, it is not enough to put food in the stomach, the process itself is important. You must see food, smell and taste it. When you are driving, while reading or talking, the brain is busy with these tasks and does not receive data about food. As a result, the appetite lasts much longer.

Eat alone, put your smartphone aside, turn off the TV. Concentrate on the food and how you feel about it, and you will feel full much sooner.

2. Find your portion

If you can't concentrate on food every time, try to find your portion and focus on it.

Take time and have a mindful meal. Watch your sensations while eating and stop eating as soon as you feel full. Remember what a suitable serving looks like and use it as a reference.

3. Don't give up all your favorite foods right away

To do this, you need an iron willpower. But even she will not help if external circumstances are against you. Stress and fatigue can destroy your self-control, you will break loose and act according to the principle: "The barn burned out, burn and hut."

Shift your focus to eating healthy foods, but sometimes indulge in delicious, high-calorie foods.

There is nothing wrong with eating a slice of pizza, ice cream, or a chocolate bar as long as you are eating healthy the rest of the day. This will help you keep from falling out at first and get used to eating right.

Change your eating habits gradually. Allow yourself a tasty, high-calorie meal occasionally to keep from getting ripped off.

4. Eat more fiber

Add more non-starchy vegetables and fruits rich in fiber to your diet: grapefruit, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers.

Water and fiber will keep you feeling full, and low calories will keep you from going over your target. In addition, all of the listed fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins.

5. Do not eat from the original packaging

We decided to pamper ourselves with chips - pour into the bowl exactly as much as you want to eat, and put the bag away. Bought a bucket of ice cream - put 100-150 grams in a vase, and send the rest to the freezer. This will make it easier for you not to lose control.

6. Reduce stress

Prolonged stress increases appetite and cravings for high-calorie foods. Under the influence of stress hormones, fat builds up rapidly in the waist area, and losing weight becomes difficult.

We cannot always influence external events, but it is in our power to change our reaction to them. Try relaxation and breathing techniques to deal with short-term stress. Reconfigure your brain with meditation, get positive emotions from exercise.

Stress leads to overeating and fat retention. Deal with stress with a variety of techniques and exercise.

7. Keep a food log

Write down everything you ate during the day: main meals, snacks, drinks.

To keep a food diary, you have to control your portions. This control will prevent you from mindlessly overeating, even if you are not going to revise your diet. It will also show you when you tend to overeat and which foods make up the majority of your diet.

8. Don't eat with someone who overeats

If you can't eat alone, at least choose people with healthy eating habits.

People tend to choose junk food "for the company." If the other person eats two big macs with a liter of cola, you are more likely to allow yourself to eat more and also order something harmful.

9. Add more protein

High protein foods can help control appetite. Make a high-protein breakfast so you don't remember eating until lunchtime.

Include protein in every meal, add eggs, chicken, milk and cottage cheese, red fish, tuna, and legumes to your diet. In addition to the main meals, you can prepare high-protein snacks.

10. Choose foods with a low glycemic index

When you eat foods containing carbohydrates, your blood sugar rises, called glucose. The more the glucose level rises after a meal, the higher the glycemic index of the food (GI).

High GI foods reduce satiety by making you eat more. In addition, carbohydrates from such foods are quickly absorbed, so you will want to eat again very soon.

The highest GI values are found in white bread and pastries, sugar and sweets, starchy vegetables: potatoes and corn (popcorn, cornflakes).

11. Replace sugary drinks with water

Sweet soda is sold in fast food chains for a reason: it increases appetite. If you replace regular water with sugary drinks, you risk eating 7, 8% more. In addition, sugary drinks increase your daily calorie intake and put you at risk for type 2 diabetes, overweight and obesity.

12. Understand why overeating

Overeating is typical for people after stress, in a state of anxiety, melancholy and boredom. Bad mood makes people choose high-calorie delicious food in order to distract from negative experiences and improve their psychological state.

Awareness of the problem is the first step towards solving it. When you’re drawn to food again after stress or boredom, try another way to improve your mood: go for a walk, do a home workout, call a friend.

Find out if your overeating is related to boredom and bad mood. Find a way to improve your mood without eating.

13. Replace bad habits with good ones

Check to see if you have any habits that trigger overeating. Maybe you are used to eating ice cream in front of the TV or sitting at the table for a long time, chatting with your family and eating sandwiches and sweets along the way.

You don't have to give up your habits if you enjoy them. Try changing them up a bit: replace ice cream with delicious tea, and sweets and sandwiches with fruit slices.

14. Replace some of the carbohydrates with fats

Foods rich in fat keep you satiated longer than foods high in carbohydrates.

If you are prone to atherosclerosis, do not get carried away with saturated fats from butter and lard. Add more unsaturated fat foods like nuts, oily fish, avocados. In any case, avoid trans fats from commercial baked goods and fast food.

Reduce the amount of fast carbs by replacing them with fats. This will keep you feeling full longer and will not snack until your next meal.

15. Consider your weaknesses

Some lean on sweets, others cannot live without baked goods or French fries. Think about which high-calorie foods make you lose your head, and no longer store them at home. To fill the snacking gap, make tuna sandwiches, fruit platters, banana, white yogurt and nut desserts, and other healthy choices.

If you cannot live without sweets and chips, at least put them off the table in the closet so that you do not automatically catch a handful of junk food while passing by.

16. Get help

If you can't cope with overeating on your own, you lose control, eat without feeling hungry and are full of food, seek help from a psychiatrist. Timely treatment can help you avoid excess weight and bulimia.

If stress is associated with traumatic events in the past, seek help from a psychotherapist - he will help you find out the roots of the problem and deal with it.