Are you tired of feeling like you can’t control your eating? Do you beat yourself up because you think you just need more willpower? You’re not alone, but the truth is, willpower isn’t the answer. Overeating can have serious consequences, both physically and mentally. Physically, it can lead to weight gain, which increases the risk of developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Mentally, overeating can cause feelings of guilt and shame, potentially affecting your self-esteem. By understanding the root causes of overeating, you can be free from its consequences and improve your health and well-being. So, what are these root causes, and how can you tackle them without relying on willpower alone?

Reason 1: Giving in to Non-physical Hunger

The first reason why we overeat is when we eat based on emotional cues, not physical cues. One of the most important things you need to understand in order to stop overeating is to know the difference between physical and non-physical hunger.

Understanding Physical vs. Non-Physical Hunger

Physical hunger is your body’s biological system telling you that you need food. It’s a physical sensation you feel, like when your stomach growls and feels empty, or if you feel a tightness in your chest or throat. Physical hunger can also make you feel tired, sleepy, have difficulty concentrating, and have mood swings and get easily irritated (aka getting hangry).

Non-physical hunger is slightly more complicated. In my books, there are 3 types of non-physical hunger: emotional, situational, and sensory.

Emotional Hunger

Emotional hunger is when you eat because you’re bored, stressed, sad, lonely, nervous, or angry. Lack of sleep can increase cortisol levels, a stress hormone, which may increase your appetite and cravings. So, lack of sleep can be an indirect cause of overeating.

Stopping Emotional Hunger

• Identify the Emotion: When you feel the urge to eat, try to pinpoint the emotion driving it. Are you stressed, anxious, bored, or sad? Recognizing the emotion can help you address it more effectively.
• Find Alternatives: Instead of turning to food, find other ways to cope with your emotions. This could be through activities like taking a walk, calling a friend, journaling, or practicing mindfulness and deep breathing.
• Healthy Coping Mechanisms: Find activities which don’t involve food that help you cope with negative emotions. Reading a book, playing a game, or doing a hobby can take your mind off food and help you manage your emotions in a healthier way.
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Situational Hunger

Situational hunger is when you eat because of the situation you are in. Maybe you have to go somewhere in 30 minutes and know you won’t get to eat later. This one is fine because you are eating now to avoid getting too hungry later. Or if you’re out with friends and it’s someone’s birthday, so you eat cake even though you’re not hungry. These situations are usually okay because they don’t happen often.

Stopping Situational Hunger

• Plan Ahead: If you know you won’t be able to eat later, plan a healthy snack or meal that you can have on the go. This ensures you won’t get too hungry and resort to overeating later.
• Mindful Decisions: In social situations, enjoy the food but be mindful of your hunger levels. It’s okay to indulge occasionally, but try to stay in tune with whether you’re eating out of hunger or just because the food is there.
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Sensory Hunger

Sensory hunger is triggered by one of your senses. So, if you are close to a bakery and smell fresh pastries and want to eat. Or if you scroll and see one of those insanely delicious-looking food videos. The big difference between physical and non-physical hunger is that physical builds up slowly over a few hours, while non-physical is usually sudden and doesn’t build up slowly. For instance, when you suddenly get a craving to eat something. Physical hunger goes away after eating, non-physical doesn’t always.

Stopping Sensory Hunger

• Avoid Triggers: If possible, avoid places or situations that trigger your sensory hunger. If the smell of fresh pastries is too tempting, try to take a different route.
• Mindful Eating: When sensory hunger strikes, practice mindful eating. Pay attention to the flavors, textures, and satisfaction of your food. This can help you enjoy a smaller portion without overeating.
• Healthy Alternatives: Have healthy snacks on hand for when sensory hunger hits. Fresh fruit, nuts, or yogurt can satisfy your cravings in a healthier way.

Reason 2: Restrictive Dieting

Another major reason why you might overeat is because you are restricting yourself too much. If you are restricting your intake of foods, dieting, or undereating—for example, intentionally skipping meals or ignoring your physical hunger cues—your body’s biological mechanism and survival instinct always wins. Eventually, it could lead you to overeat or binge on food, especially those that you put “off-limits.” Not to mention how when you severely restrict yourself, it’s just going to slow down your metabolism, making it even easier to overeat.

The Consequences of Restrictive Dieting

When you restrict your food intake too much, your body goes into survival mode. It doesn’t know when it will get its next meal, so it starts conserving energy by slowing down your metabolism. This is your body’s natural response to what it perceives as starvation. Over time, this can lead to intense cravings and an overwhelming urge to eat, particularly foods that you have labeled as “forbidden” or “bad.”

How to Stop Restrictive Dieting

Stop Dieting. Period. When I say stop dieting, I don’t mean that you should give up all efforts to lose weight if that’s going to be beneficial for your health. Instead, stop having strict food rules and start being more flexible with your eating. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Ditch the All-or-Nothing Mentality: Allow yourself to enjoy all foods in moderation. There are no “good” or “bad” foods—just foods that you might want to eat more or less frequently based on how they make you feel and nourish your body.
2. Balanced Eating: Focus on balanced meals that include a mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. This helps keep your energy levels stable and prevents intense cravings.
3. Forgive Yourself: If you do overeat or eat something you didn’t plan to, don’t beat yourself up. Acknowledge it, learn from it, and move on. One meal or one day of eating won’t derail your overall progress.
4. Regular Meals: Instead of skipping meals or going long periods without eating, try to have regular meals and snacks. This can help keep your blood sugar levels stable and prevent extreme hunger, which often leads to overeating.

Reason 3: Lack of Nutrients

The third reason why you could be overeating is because of a lack of nutrients. The typical Western diet is very nutritionally depleted. Even though you might be eating a lot of food, you might not be eating the right kinds of foods, so your body is constantly searching for the nutrients it needs but never getting them, which keeps making you hungry.

Understanding the Nutrient Deficiency Problem

Many of the foods commonly consumed in a Western diet are high in calories but low in essential nutrients. These foods—like fast food, sugary snacks, and processed meals—may fill you up momentarily, but they don’t provide the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients your body needs to function properly. When your body doesn’t get these nutrients, it keeps sending hunger signals in an attempt to get the necessary nutrients. This can lead to overeating as you continue to eat more food in an attempt to satisfy your body’s needs. Being nutritionally deficient can lead to constant hunger and cravings, low energy levels, poor mood, and in serious cases, medical health issues.

How to Have a More Nutritious Diet

To combat this, focus on adding nutrient-rich foods to your diet rather than just taking away the unhealthy options.

Add, Don’t Take Away: Instead of eliminating foods you love, start by adding more nutritious options to your meals. This way, you are enhancing your diet without feeling deprived.

1. Upgrade Your Sides: For instance, instead of getting full meals at fast-food restaurants, get a burger and make your own side, like a salad or a side of vegetables. This adds more nutrients to your meal without taking away the enjoyment of eating your favorite foods.
2. Plan Your Meals: Planning your meals can help ensure you are incorporating a variety of nutrient-rich foods. Include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats in your diet. This balanced approach can help you feel more satisfied and less likely to overeat.
3. Consider a Multivitamin: Sometimes, it can be challenging to get all the necessary nutrients from food alone. Consider taking a multivitamin to fill in any gaps in your diet. However, it’s best to get these from a pharmacy where the dosages are regulated, rather than buying them online where there’s a risk of getting too much or too little of certain nutrients.
4. Healthy Swaps: When you’re craving something sweet like ice cream, try pairing it with some fruit. This way, you satisfy your craving while also getting some essential vitamins and minerals. For example, I often enjoy a bowl of yogurt with a drizzle of biscoff spread and some apple slices. It’s delicious and nutritious!

Reason 4: Food Advertising and Availability of Bliss Point Foods

The fourth reason why we overeat is because of the availability of “bliss point” foods. Bliss point foods are specifically engineered to be irresistible. Food companies invest a lot of time and money into finding the exact combination of fat, sugar, and salt that maximizes our pleasure. This combination triggers a strong release of dopamine, the “feel-good” neurotransmitter, which makes eating these foods highly rewarding and can lead to overeating and food addiction.

The reason why it can be difficult to not overeat these foods is because they are heavily advertised, making them hard to resist. Advertisements are designed to create emotional connections and trigger cravings, even when we aren’t physically hungry. The constant presence of these foods in our environment increases the likelihood of impulsive eating.

How to Stop Overeating Bliss Point Foods

1. Fixed Portions and Breaks: When you do indulge in bliss point foods, give yourself a fixed portion and then take a break. Immediately after eating, our brains may try to convince us to continue. Taking a break and removing yourself from the environment can help reset your behavior and prevent overeating.
2. Mindful Eating Practices: Practice mindful eating by paying full attention to your food. Notice the flavors, textures, and smells. This can help you enjoy your food more and feel satisfied with less. I recommend using a craving tool or guide to help you through this process. It can make a big difference in how you experience eating and can help you avoid overeating.
3. Normalize Hedonic Foods: Reduce the “forbidden fruit” allure of these foods by allowing yourself to have them in moderation. When you make these foods less taboo, you might find that you crave them less and can enjoy them without overeating.

Reason 5: Identity and Self-Perception

The last and perhaps the most crucial reason why you overeat is because of your identity and the stories you tell yourself about who you are. You might keep telling yourself that you love food too much, that you’re a stress eater, or that you simply can’t stop eating. These self-perceptions can become self-fulfilling prophecies, making it hard to change your behavior.

Understanding the Role of Identity

Our identity shapes our actions. When you repeatedly tell yourself negative things like “I have no control over food” or “I will never be able to stop overeating,” you reinforce these beliefs in your subconscious. This can create a mental barrier that makes it challenging to adopt healthier eating habits.

How to Stop Identity-Based Overeating

To overcome identity-based overeating, you need to change the narrative you tell yourself. This involves practicing self-compassion, using positive affirmations, and celebrating your successes. It’s not about willpower; it’s about shifting your mindset and reinforcing positive behaviors that support your health and well-being.

1. Challenge Negative Beliefs: Stop telling yourself negative things about your eating habits. Instead of saying, “I love food too much,” or “I can’t stop eating,” recognize these as unhelpful thoughts and challenge them. Replace them with neutral or positive affirmations that feel more realistic and supportive.
2. Use Neutral Affirmations: You don’t have to lie to yourself by saying things that don’t feel true, like “I never overeat.” Instead, use affirmations that acknowledge your capability, such as “I am capable of respecting my fullness cues.” This is true for everyone—you are capable of change.
3. Focus on Wins: Pay attention to your successes, no matter how small. When you achieve a goal, like using a craving tool to eat mindfully or stopping when you feel satisfied, acknowledge it. Celebrate these moments as proof that you can be the person you want to be.
4. Confirmation Affirmations: Reinforce positive behaviors by doing confirmation affirmations. If you meet a goal, use it as evidence that you are capable. For example, if you stop eating when you’re satisfied despite wanting to continue, remind yourself that you have control and can make healthy choices. This reinforcement helps shift your identity to align with your desired behaviors.
5. Practice Self-Compassion: Be kind to yourself. Understand that changing your eating habits is a journey, and it’s okay to have setbacks. Treat yourself with the same compassion and understanding that you would offer a friend.

Conclusion

Overeating isn’t just a matter of willpower—it’s influenced by emotional cues, restrictive dieting, lack of nutrients, the overwhelming presence of “bliss point” foods, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. Understanding these reasons helps you address the root causes of overeating. 

To recap:

1. Non-physical Hunger: Learn to differentiate between physical and non-physical hunger and find healthier ways to cope with negative emotions.
2. Restrictive Dieting: Stop the cycle of restrictive dieting and allow yourself flexibility with food to avoid bingeing.
3. Lack of Nutrients: Ensure your diet is nutrient-rich to satisfy your body’s needs and reduce constant hunger.
4. Bliss Point Foods: Be mindful of highly addictive foods and manage your environment to reduce temptation.
5. Identity: Change the narrative you tell yourself about food and eating habits, and use positive affirmations to support healthier behavior.

By addressing these underlying issues, you can take control of your eating habits without relying solely on willpower. For more guidance on how to eat mindfully and manage cravings, check out my FREE Mindful Eating Guide and Craving Tool. These resources will help you make more mindful choices and avoid overeating!