Overeating is certainly one of the greatest obstacles for people wanting to lose fat, get in shape, and improve their health. Eating too much can make it almost impossible to achieve your health and fitness goals, because any time you consume more calories than you burn, your body will be forced to store more fat. This will happen regardless of how healthy you are eating, so it is important to avoid overeating as much as possible.
This article will provide you with strategies to help prevent overeating in a variety of different situations. The strategies are broken into 3 sections based on the situation(s) where they are most useful. There are general strategies, which are useful all the time, strategies for eating at home, and strategies for dining out. There are of course other situations, such as eating on the go, but most of these strategies are useful in a number of different situations.
Note: These strategies are written with the assumption that you are eating 5 or 6 small meals a day, as you should be doing, instead of 1 to 3 large meals.
GENERAL STRATEGIES TO PREVENT OVEREATING:
1. Drink low calorie fluids (ideally water) ? Fluids help you feel full and decrease your hunger cravings. Drinking at least a glass or two of water during your meal will decrease the number of calories you can eat before you start feeling full. If this does not help much, you should also add an additional glass or two 20-30 minutes before the meal.
2. Eat slowly ? Most people know they should eat slowly, but few people actually do. The most important to realize is that after you consume the necessary calories for your body to function, what I call being physiologically full, it can actually take around 20 minutes for your brain to process the information and let you know you have eaten enough. If you are eating slowly, the number of calories that you consume over what your body needs will be minimized, assuming you stop eating when you feel full.
3. Eat as soon as possible after you start feeling hungry ? When you get hungry your body is telling you that it needs calories and you should eat. If you try to ignore your hunger, the feeling generally intensifies*. Increased hunger usually results in you eating more than you originally would have.
* You may be thinking that if you just hold out long enough your hunger will go away and you will not eat anything, thus lowering your caloric intake even more. I cannot stress how bad of an idea this is. I will not go into detail in this article, but I will say that continually ignoring your hunger and skipping meals will cause your metabolism to slow down dramatically. This is the main reason why there are so many people who eat minimal calories (less than 1000 per day) and still cannot lose weight. When you get hungry you should eat, just don?t overeat.
STRATEGIES TO PREVENT OVEREATING AT HOME:
1. Do not keep foods around that you frequently overeat ? This is common sense, but if you keep things at home that you typically stuff yourself with, you should not buy them. Using a little restraint at the grocery store means you won?t have to restrain yourself as much at home.
2. Don?t eat out of a multiple serving bag/package ? People tend to eat certain foods out of the bag/package, such as chips or ice cream and this becomes even more troublesome when eating in front of the TV or during similar passive activities. During these instances there is usually no conscious thought about how much is being eaten and before you realize it, you have eaten the whole package or at least much more than you intended to. Instead, take out a small serving from the package and put it on a plate/bowl instead.
3. Skip the seconds ?Having second servings at meals is not a good idea. I know some people believe that eating more is a compliment to the cook, but it is really not worth it. Instead of having seconds during the meal, have another serving for your next small meal 2-3 hours later. You can still express that the food was good while avoiding the negative effects of overeating. Also, it is a good idea to keep the prepared food away from your eating space. Instead prepare your plate away from the table, before you sit down to eat, and you will not have the temptation for seconds right in front of you.
4. Use Smaller Plates ? This is a great way to achieve instant portion control. Research has shown that when people use larger plates they also take larger portions. Switching from a 10+ inch dinner plate to an 8 inch salad plate can do wonders for preventing overeating. That is of course if you keep yourself from going back for more.
STRATEGIES TO HELP PREVENT OVEREATING WHEN DINING OUT:
1. Do not clean your plate ? While you may have been told many times as a child that you are not finished until your plate is clean, this should definitely not apply to eating out. Portion sizes at restaurants have greatly increased in size over the years. Usually dishes have enough food for at least 2 or 3 meals and that?s just in the main course. Before you start eating, decide how much you will eat now and stop when you get to that point. As with the skipping seconds strategy, your leftovers can serve as a meal you can eat later. Of course if the meal was unhealthy, the best thing to do is leave the unfinished portion behind.
2. Special Requests ? Most restaurants understand that more people are trying to eat healthy and they will do their best to accommodate you. To help prevent overeating, you can ask for a half serving or some people even order off the kid?s menu. Another option, if the restaurant allows it, is to split an order with someone else. Let the waiter know and they should even bring your order with an extra plate for the second person. This strategy has the added benefit of requiring less willpower than making yourself stop eating when you still have food left.
3. Serve Yourself Whenever Possible ? This applies mainly to situations where there are people eating around a large table of food. People tend to be extra generous when putting food on someone else?s plate. To keep your portions smaller serve yourself and if you have to pass your plate, be sure to say that you want a small serving.
Now that you have read these strategies, I have an important question for you: How do you know when you have eaten too much? As the ?eat slowly? strategy indicated, you have eaten enough before you actually feel full. Therefore if you feel full after a meal you have probably eaten too much. There are exceptions, especially for people who consistently consume too few calories, but feeling full is usually a sign of overeating.
Ideally your goal should be to eat before you get really hungry and stop eating before you get full. While this may not sound realistic at the moment, if you get good at using the strategies described above, you will be well on your way to developing great eating habits and permanently preventing overeating.
Ross Harrison, CSCS, NSCA-CPT is a certified personal trainer, strength and conditioning specialist, and nutritional consultant who teaches people how to lose weight, get in shape, and improve their quality of life with exercise and nutrition. For more information or to sign up for his free health and fitness newsletter containing tons of useful information, visit http://precisionhealth-fitness.com/ | |
