Problems with eating disorders or how to deal with overeating. Compulsive overeating: treatment, how to deal with it at home, test How to deal with overeating and gluttony

We've all had to overeat festive table, after which we kicked ourselves for not being able to resist a second helping of grandma's delicious pie. However, chronic overeating is a fairly serious and widespread eating disorder. Chronically overeating quickly can cause regret, embarrassment, and feelings of helplessness later on. Moreover, overeating can lead to serious health problems associated with excess weight, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Thus, having dealt with this bad habit, you will be able to live a healthier and happier lifestyle.

Steps

Part 1

Psychological reasons for overeating

    Consult a therapist, especially if you have binge eating disorder. In many cases, eating too much food is associated with deep psychological reasons. The help of a qualified psychologist will help you identify underlying fears, anxiety or depression that interfere with self-control.

    Try to cope with feelings of irritation or sadness.“Emotional eaters” often try to suppress negative feelings, resorting to food. In this case, having realized your weakness and learned to cope with negative emotions In healthier ways, you can prevent overeating. If you feel anger, irritation, sadness or other unpleasant feelings, try to overcome it by resorting to healthier methods. Call a close friend, write your feelings in a journal, or pick up a paintbrush - do something useful that can improve your mood. If your irritation and sadness are related to past events, you can do the following:

    Refrain from overeating in stressful situations. When you're stressed, don't try to relieve it with your favorite foods. Learn to recognize stress and find other ways to cope with it. Try the following activities:

    Learn to listen to your stomach. By asking yourself the question “Am I full?” more often, you can avoid overeating. We often eat mechanically, not paying attention to the signals our body gives us. Once we are full, we often continue to eat, which leads to overeating. Don't ignore the signals your body is sending you.

    Fight boredom. Many people eat too much because they are bored. If you feel like you have a lot of time that needs to be filled with something, do something. Find yourself a hobby. Sign up for a volunteer team. Go to the movies (but stay away from the popcorn buffet). Call a friend or get out of the house and go for a walk. There are many interesting activities that can help you take your mind off the desire to eat something out of boredom.

    Change your environment. We are all, to a certain extent, slaves to our habits. An unusual plate or eating in a new place can throw you off and you won't stop in time, continuing to eat after you're full. As one nutritionist noted, small things, such as changing meal times or reducing portion sizes, can develop into new habits over time.

Part 3

Developing healthy habits

    Exercise. Shake yourself up and start moving more. Exercise is known to have beneficial effects on mood. Exercising lowers the concentration of stress hormones, energizes you and improves your mood. Try to do moderate exercise for 20-30 minutes every day. The following exercises are good for lifting your mood:

    • Swimming
    • A ride on the bicycle

Part 4

Overcoming overeating
  1. Forgive yourself temporary weaknesses. It's okay if you sometimes can't resist temptation. Habits developed over the years cannot evaporate in one day. Be patient and don't beat yourself up over small weaknesses.

    Get rid of guilt. Shame, anger and sadness will only lead to a vicious cycle that encourages further overeating. Give vent to dissatisfaction without looking for salvation in food. This can be done in the following ways:

    • Say goodbye to the past. Everything you have done before is left behind. Remind yourself that the past cannot be changed, while the future depends on you. It is necessary, taking into account your past mistakes, to move on.
    • Think about when exactly you turned off the right path. Analyzing your past behavior and its reasons (weakness experienced for certain foods, specific emotions, etc.) will help you get rid of guilt and focus on overcoming bad habits.
    • Think about the positive more often. You can overcome feelings of guilt by remembering positive changes more often. Install an application on your computer that will occasionally give you positive messages to lift your spirits.
  2. If necessary, seek help. Overcoming overeating on your own is quite difficult. Finding people with similar problems will make your task much easier. There are various organizations and societies dedicated to the problems proper nutrition. If you urgently need to discuss your problems with someone, you can do this using the Internet by going to a specialized website or forum, or by joining the appropriate online community. Here are just some of the resources available:

    • Overeaters Anonymous
    • National Association of Dietetics and Nutritionists (NADN, Russia)
    • Academy of Healthy Eating
    • Forums dedicated to healthy eating and lifestyle
    • Health chat

Part 5

What is overeating
  1. Keep a food diary. Happiness does not always mean ignorance. By journaling everything you eat, you may learn a lot about your diet, since most people tend to underestimate the amount of food they eat. In addition, recordings will help you identify problem areas and times of day when you tend to overeat. With the help of a diary, you will also find out which foods you tend to abuse.

    Study your food diary, paying attention to certain patterns. By journaling about details such as your mood and your surroundings, you may be able to spot some patterns and identify factors that lead to overeating. For example, you may notice that you often overeat when you are stressed and upset about something, or when visiting your parents, or after interacting with certain people. This phenomenon is called stress or emotional overeating.

    Learn more about emotional eating. Thanks to your food diary, you may find that you often turn to food to cope with negative emotions, or simply out of boredom. Do you try to eat something every time you feel sad, stressed, angry, anxious, lonely, bored or tired? You may try to suppress negative emotions with food. However, food has nothing to do with the reasons that caused these emotions, and therefore it leads only to short-term relief, after which you feel bad again.

    Understand the difference between physiological and psychological hunger. Out of habit, it can be difficult to determine when you are really hungry and when the desire to eat is caused by psychological reasons. Before you reach for a cookie or bag of chips, ask yourself these questions:

    • Have you suddenly felt hungry? Physiological hunger develops gradually, while psychological hunger is felt unexpectedly and quite acutely.
    • Do you feel like you urgently need to eat something? As a rule, in case of physiological hunger, you can wait. If hunger is caused by emotional reasons, a person feels that he needs to eat right now.
    • Do you want to eat something specific? If you are ready to snack on anything from a wide range of dishes, you are most likely experiencing physiological hunger. However, if you need a specific product and only that one, you are probably psychologically hungry.
    • Do you continue to eat after you are full? If you feel like your stomach is full but you're still hungry, your hunger is likely emotional rather than physiological, since physiological hunger goes away when you're full.
    • Do you feel guilty, ashamed, helpless, or embarrassed? If you experience any of these feelings after eating, you likely ate to satisfy a psychological rather than a physiological hunger.
  2. Identify signs of psychogenic overeating. Emotional eating does not necessarily mean you have this disorder. However, psychogenic binge eating is a fairly common eating disorder. Sometimes it takes quite serious forms and even poses a threat to life, but it is treatable. Only a qualified specialist can diagnose psychogenic overeating disorder, so if you suspect that you have this type of disorder, consult a doctor. It is accompanied by the following symptoms:

    • Faster absorption of food than usual, eating abnormally large quantity food in a relatively short (usually no more than two hours) period of time.
    • Loss of self-control while eating.
    • Eating alone due to shame caused by eating too much food.
    • Eating large amounts of food without feeling hungry.
    • Feelings of shame, guilt, depression or disgust caused by eating too much food.
    • Insufficient cleansing of the body after overeating, that is, gluttony is not accompanied by vomiting or increased physical activity, which helps burn off excess energy.
    • Binge eating occurs at least once a week for three months.
    • Please note that there is no clear connection between psychogenic overeating and body weight. You may be within the normal weight range, or you may be mild, moderate, or severely obese. It is important to remember that not every person with overweight prone to gluttony or suffers from psychogenic overeating.
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IN modern world Gluttony is a very common problem that leads to serious disruptions in the body. To find out how to get rid of overeating, an adult must determine what reason lies behind it; perhaps it is not only physiological, but psychological in nature. What happens when you abuse food and how to deal with it?

What happens when you overeat

Uncontrolled consumption of food during feasts and stress has a negative impact on the human condition.

  • Regular overeating leads to unpleasant consequences:
  • power system failures;
  • flatulence;
  • bad breath;
  • constant colds;
  • skin problems;
  • overweight and obesity;

the development of diseases such as bulimia, hypertension, gastritis, cholecystitis and other diseases.

Consequences People who constantly experience stressful situations are at risk. For them food becomes solving emotional problems. People who lack a nutritional culture are at risk of suffering from a constant feeling of heaviness and the consequences of overeating. This often starts from childhood, when parents did not instill proper nutrition skills. In addition to increased body weight, which is fraught with numerous diseases, problems with excretory and cardiovascular systems person.

Causes of overeating

There are plenty of reasons to abuse food. This can be observed with depression, in the absence of a positive mood, with changes in the brain. Modern man very vulnerable, he constantly needs to make choices. Naturally, this is reflected in his emotions, which often influence the choice of food products and the amount of their consumption. Overeating develops from such eating habits. There are two main reasons for overeating: psychological and physiological.

Psychological

To cope with psychological problems, the patient should seek help from a psychologist. The main reasons for overeating are as follows:

  1. Uncertainty. Psychological problem called "seizing". A person does not limit himself to the amount of food, does not enjoy food, but continues to eat, looking for new taste sensations.
  2. Dissatisfaction with one's own body.
  3. Loneliness, depression, negative emotions. We are talking about psychological hunger. A sick person unconsciously chooses food with taste enhancers and gives preference to sweets.

Physiological

The habit of overeating is influenced by physiological reasons. They are often much more serious than psychological ones. The reasons are as follows:

  1. The stomach does not fill immediately. The feeling of fullness comes after about 20 minutes. The person forgets about it and eats much more.
  2. Thirst is mistaken for hunger.
  3. Low levels of the hormone serotonin, which is responsible for satiety.
  4. Food addiction to certain foods (sweet, salty) affects the feeling of physical hunger.

Symptoms of overeating

Bouts of overeating can be one-time or permanent. If a person eats a large portion of food during the holidays, at a party, or as a one-time meal, symptoms will appear immediately. When there is constant overeating, the symptoms are not pronounced. You can determine that a person is constantly overeating not only by a large body mass or a sharp increase in weight, but also by the person’s lethargic state, drowsiness, reluctance to do anything, and disruptions in the functioning of housing and communal services.

In children

It is not difficult to determine that a child has overeaten: his stomach begins to hurt, he feels nauseous, becomes lethargic, and is capricious. If, due to eating disorders, the child feels unwell, you should try to speed up the digestion process with the help of mineral water and enzyme-containing preparations. Massaging the abdomen in a clockwise circular motion helps a lot. Combating overeating in children is very simple: a maximum of healthy foods.

In adults

Unlike children, in a person with a formed, mature personality, the symptoms are more pronounced. Excessive appetite causes:

  • constant heaviness and pain in the stomach;
  • unstable weight, resulting in obesity
  • problems with the gastrointestinal tract;
  • eating food without restrictions, you can eat a full plate at one time;
  • chronic or compulsive overeating.

Compulsive overeating refers to eating food without feeling hungry. Severe hunger is not the reason for eating: it is absorbed all the time. Food helps dispel boredom, sadness, and cope with loneliness. Regardless of emotional needs, food is consumed uncontrollably. Breaks between main meals are less than two hours, and portion sizes are large.

How to stop overeating

To understand proper eating behavior, you need to follow certain rules. Completing them will not cause difficulties for a person who cares about his own health. You can stop overeating and lose weight if:

  1. Eat slowly. This meal will help you feel full.
  2. Meals should be regular.
  3. Drink water.
  4. Snacks should only be healthy foods.
  5. Use less spices when cooking.

Advice from psychologists is aimed at overcoming food addiction. The opinions of experts agree on the following judgments:

  1. If you put a small amount of food on your plate and keep the rest out of sight, you won’t be tempted to add more.
  2. You can’t reward yourself with food, it doesn’t matter if it’s a hearty dinner or something sweet.
  3. Eating in front of the TV makes it difficult to control the amount you eat.
  4. Sometimes you can allow something sweet. This will protect you from food breakdowns.

How to control your appetite

To control your appetite, it is important to follow certain rules. They will help not only limit yourself in the amount of food, but also curb uncontrollable gluttony and stop overeating:

  1. If you feel hungry, try to distract yourself.
  2. “Unhealthy goodies” need to be replaced with vegetables or fruits - the taste of food is judged by its usefulness.
  3. Correspond to the correct diet the right products. You need to give up soda, very salty or spicy foods, and fast foods.
  4. For liquids, choose herbal teas or plain water.
  5. Compliance with diet.

How to avoid overeating in the evening

The most difficult thing in controlling your food intake is learning not to overeat in the evening. In the evening, it is important to limit yourself in food because digestion processes slow down. Fats and carbohydrates are processed most efficiently in the first half of the day. Some simple tips how to not eat much in the evening:

  1. If you really want to eat, it is better to choose an apple, orange, kefir or low-fat yogurt.
  2. You should not eat three hours before bedtime (the ban on eating after 18.00 is a myth).
  3. It is important to combine foods correctly...
  4. Periodically, dinner is replaced by a walk.

What to do after overeating

To cope with overeating, it is important to try to avoid common mistakes. Follow these tips:

  1. There is a stop. It is difficult for a full stomach to digest food.
  2. The next day it is forbidden to fast.
  3. It is forbidden to artificially induce vomiting.
  4. There is no point in cleansing enemas: they cleanse the intestines, not the stomach.
  5. It is forbidden to go to bed with a full stomach. You need to give the food time to digest at least a little.

How to get rid of overeating and what to do to normalize digestion? Simple tips will help you solve the problem:

  1. Take measures to stimulate the production of gastric juice.
  2. Move around, take a walk before bed.
  3. The next day, do fasting, but do not starve. Preference is given to cereals and fermented milk products.
  4. Eliminate all junk food for a week.
  5. Contact a nutritionist.

How to speed up digestion

There are therapies based on certain treatment methods that will tell you how to get rid of overeating. The following enzyme preparations are used:

  • Mezim (helps digestion, eliminates intestinal infections, should not be taken for acute pancreatitis);
  • Creon (helps digestion, prohibited during exacerbation of chronic pancreatitis);
  • Festal (helps with intestinal function, prohibited for acute pancreatitis, liver failure);
  • Somilase (restores the functions of the pancreas, no contraindication).
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People who chronically overeat can gain weight and increase the likelihood of various chronic diseases associated with obesity or being overweight. For some people, stopping overeating is a difficult task that requires determination and dedication. Most people try to change their eating habits and stop eating too much. Stopping overeating can be difficult, but it is certainly not an impossible task.

There are three simple ways that will help you change your diet and stop overeating once and for all.

Method 1. Eat small portions

1. Use small dishes when eating at home

By using smaller plates, you can control your portions and prevent overeating.

  • Typically, salad and appetizer plates are smaller than regular dinner plates. Using them, you will not be able to eat large portions of food.
  • Several experiments have shown that using plates of certain colors will help satisfy hunger faster with small portions. For example, Blue colour plates can help you feel full with less food.

2. When eating, remove large plates that are used for serving food from the table.

Place the right amount of food on your plate and remove any excess. Once the dish is on the table, many people are likely to eat more. By removing dishes from the dinner table, you can resist the temptation to add extra portions.

  • Put leftover food in the kitchen.
  • Another good rule: Before sitting down to the table, hide the food away. That way, when you return to the kitchen to put away the dishes, you won't be tempted to snack or add extra.

3. Buy measuring utensils and scales

  • We all need to eat different amounts of one thing or another throughout the day. Try to stick to the following serving sizes for some foods: 90-120 grams of protein, 30 grams or half a cup of grains, a cup of vegetables or two plates of fresh herbs, half a cup of fruit or one small piece of fruit.
  • Include one or two servings of fruits and three to four servings of vegetables in your daily diet. Grains should be consumed once or twice a day, but not necessarily at every meal.
  • It is preferable to use a kitchen scale, since the volume of not all products can be measured using a measuring cup.
  • You can also determine the volume of plates, cups and food containers that you use most often. This way you will know in advance how much food will fit in a particular container.

4. In restaurants and cafes, choose not very large portions

When you eat out, it's difficult to eat small portions and focus on just one dish.

  • The restaurants offer a huge variety of appetizers, main courses and desserts. Not only do you have to deal with large portions, but you also have to try to resist the temptation to try several dishes.
  • When dining at restaurants, try to choose snacks. They are usually smaller and will be enough to satisfy your hunger.
  • Sometimes bread, crackers or chips are served while waiting for your order. While you're hungry and waiting for your order, you can eat a lot of them. Warn the waiter to serve a small portion or not bring this food to the table at all.
  • Before placing an order, check with the waiter what size the portion is. If the portion is large for you, then ask to serve part of the portion on a plate, and put the other part in a container with you.

Method 2. Eat right

1. Stay away from diets

You can find a lot of advertisements offering various diets and weight loss programs that promise quick weight loss in short period time. By resorting to these types of diets, you will starve yourself, which will subsequently lead to overeating.

  • Sudden weight loss is unsafe. To avoid disastrous consequences, it is recommended to lose 0.5-1 kg per week.
  • In "fast" diets, the consumption of all food groups, the number of meals and the number of calories consumed per day is usually limited. All this can further provoke overeating.
  • It is best to eat balanced and nutritious diets. These diets will not make you starve, and the results of your efforts will be noticeable.

2. Don't skip meals to avoid feeling too hungry.

Otherwise, you may simply overeat at your next meal.

  • It is recommended to eat at least three times a day. You may also need one or two snacks throughout the day.
  • You can eat four to six small meals a day, instead of the traditional three meals a day.

3. Don't eat unless you're hungry.

People who eat out of habit rather than out of hunger tend to overeat.

  • Try to learn to define what real physical hunger means to you. Most people eat for a variety of reasons, which is why it can be helpful to figure out how you feel hungry.
  • Typical symptoms of hunger: feeling of emptiness, nausea, dizziness, nervousness.
  • If you don't experience these sensations, you're likely eating for another reason (such as boredom, tension, or stress). Try to avoid snacking and eating until you are truly hungry.

4. Finish your meal as soon as you feel full

A feeling of fullness is a reaction of the body that does not allow us to eat too much.

  • We feel full when the brain tells us that the body has received the right amount of food.
  • If you overeat, you are likely to eat until your stomach feels very full.
  • Finish your meal when you feel full. You should not feel hungry, you should have a feeling of food in your stomach, and you should not feel distension or discomfort in your stomach.
  • Often people instinctively eat whatever is in front of them on the table, regardless of whether they are hungry or not. Listen to your body so you know when to stop eating.

5. Eat within 20-30 minutes

If you eat too quickly, you are likely to eat too much.

  • It is necessary that eating takes approximately 20 minutes. This is necessary so that the stomach has time to send a signal to the brain that it is satisfied. Therefore, eating slowly can help prevent overeating.
  • Keep an eye on the time while eating. This way you can control your speed.
  • To extend the time, you can put your fork aside between bites of food and drink a sip of water.
  • Try not to be distracted by extraneous sounds and objects while eating.

6. Place vegetables or fruits on half the plate

This will help you cut down on excess calories if you end up eating too much.

  • Vegetables and fruits are low-calorie foods. If you eat a lot of them, they won't do you much harm.
  • If you still feel hungry after eating, then put more vegetables on your plate.

7. Try to drink the required amount of water or other liquid per day

We need water for the proper functioning of the body. It will also help you reduce the amount of food you eat.

  • You should drink 8 to 13 glasses of water per day. Water helps eliminate hunger and maintain fluid balance in the body.
  • Before eating, do not forget to drink one or two glasses of water. This will help you eliminate strong feelings of hunger and not eat too much.

8. Don't reward yourself with food.

It's not uncommon for people to make the huge mistake of rewarding themselves with a big dinner because they've been eating right for a certain amount of time. Such a reward can only harm you.

  • Instead of such a reward, it is better to sometimes allow yourself small portions of treats.
  • If you still want to reward yourself for achieving your goal, it is best to find another way that will not harm you, but will only benefit you. For example, you can buy a new outfit, go to a spa, play golf, or buy yourself a new gadget.

Method 3. Emotional eating

1. See a therapist

Sometimes a person begins to gain excess weight due to emotional eating. Overeating can be caused by an eating disorder, and it is vital that you seek medical help before this type of overeating becomes a habit. A psychotherapist specializing in this area will help you cope with your problem.

  • Find a doctor online who specializes in emotional eating disorders.
  • Tell the specialist what you consider your biggest and most difficult problem, when you notice it, how you are trying to overcome it.
  • Even if you see a specialist, you may not immediately be able to eat small meals regularly. It can take a long time to get used to a new way of eating.

2. Keep a diary

With its help, you can deal with problems associated with emotional eating.

  • Write in your journal every day or several days a week.
  • Write down what you eat, how much you eat, and why you think you're overeating. It will take more than one week to find a pattern in your habits.
  • Note in your diary how you feel, whether you felt hungry before eating.
  • List in your diary all the triggers, that is, foods, things or events that cause you to overeat. This way you can avoid temptations. For example, if when you go to the cinema you automatically buy chips, popcorn and sugary drinks, then it is better to cancel the trip to the cinema and watch the film at home.

3. Learn to distract yourself

If you really crave a certain food or eat because you're upset, try to distract yourself from that craving.

  • It happens that the desire for some food arises very spontaneously and also passes instantly. If you just wait a few minutes, the craving for that food may go away or you may find it much easier to overcome it.
  • Start with ten minutes. Go outside for a walk, read a book, or clean the house. Then try to remember your desire again.
  • Come up with a list of things to do in advance that can distract you from eating. This way you will be prepared for situations when you suddenly want some food.

4. Have a plan in case of a breakdown.

Regardless of what task you have or what changes you want to make in your life, know that it is almost impossible to avoid failures and mistakes.

  • Don't be upset under any circumstances if you make a mistake. Making mistakes is normal because they are part of the learning process.
  • If you mess up, try to correct the situation at your next meal. But don't give up under any circumstances.
  • Write down your mistakes and breakdowns in a diary and discuss them with your doctor.
  • You need to start fighting overeating at early stage. Buy only products you really need. Try not to go shopping on an empty stomach, as you will end up buying a lot of unnecessary products.
  • A significant portion of people overeat for reasons unrelated to hunger. Determine the cause of overeating and try to fight it.
  • Ask your therapist to recommend a support group for people who also struggle with emotional overeating.
  • Divide food into small pieces. This will trick your brain into thinking that you are eating more.
  • Eat small portions to avoid filling your stomach.
  • Try eating with your non-dominant hand. If you are right-handed, eat with your left hand; if you are left-handed, eat with your right. This will help you eat more slowly.

How to avoid overeating - video

Uncontrolled eating may be a symptom of psychogenic overeating. If you have become a victim of an eating disorder such as compulsive eating, then this material will help you fight this illness.

Someone or something has upset you greatly. You feel betrayed, unwanted and unfairly wronged. You come home. Fortunately, there is no one there. Open the refrigerator or kitchen cabinet and see what you would like to eat now. It must be something that does not fit into the framework of diets, that will give you “forbidden” pleasure. A pack of your favorite chocolate chip cookies catches your eye—that’s what you need. Just a couple of pieces and you'll be fine. You start eating it. You feel your favorite taste and smell. You eat one thing, then another... You enjoy it, but at the same time you are consumed by a feeling of guilt - you have relapsed again. You feel bad. You got lost in thought and... when you “returned to reality,” the pack was gone. You ate everything. You are ashamed of yourself. But nothing. It was just a hard day. Tomorrow you will definitely go on a diet.

Half an hour passes, during which you think about everything that happened. You feel mentally ill again. The situation is worsened by the fact that now you have also overeaten and feel physical discomfort, which emphasizes problems with excess weight. You need support again. And you are back in the kitchen. Well, one more... Bam... and the situation repeated itself - you ate everything. Again guilt, shame, poor health. And again you are in the kitchen. This time, in the middle of the “process”, you suddenly understand what is happening and, in an emotional outburst, throw all the food into the trash bin - you will never behave like that again. The next moment you think that since it happened this way today, then perhaps it’s okay to do it a little more, because tomorrow you won’t behave like that. And after a couple of minutes you are seriously thinking about going to the store or... or you start looking strangely into the trash can...

This is such a sad story. If this long introduction reminds you of your own behavior, then the article is for you. If not, then congratulations, your situation is not the most difficult case.

What is compulsive overeating

Compulsive (also psychogenic) overeating- an eating disorder characterized by uncontrollable eating of large amounts of food despite severe physical discomfort. Compulsive overeating is most often a reaction to a stressful situation or depression and in most cases leads to weight gain. excess weight and obesity. In medicine, this type of overeating is considered a serious eating disorder.

But do not confuse the usual episodic binge eating and compulsive is absolutely different concepts. If you overeat during holidays or meetings with friends, periodically cannot deny yourself sweets, etc., then this is rather a common lack of discipline in eating habits, which can be solved by self-control. But the fight against compulsive overeating requires a very serious approach and the development of a whole set of measures, including not only a certain approach to nutrition, but also work with the psychological sphere of a person.

Compulsive overeating disorder is characterized by:

- constant obsessive thoughts about food
- feelings of guilt during and after eating
- a feeling of disgust towards yourself and your body
- eating despite the absence of physical hunger
- continuing to eat despite obvious physical discomfort in digestive system
- very high speed of eating
- combination of absolutely incompatible products and dishes
- attempts to hide food
- frequent meals alone and the desire to hide it from other people
- NO desire to artificially induce vomiting and thus get rid of what you have eaten
- food as a reaction to stressful situations and grievances

How to deal with compulsive overeating

Unfortunately, there is no “magic pill” that can cure psychogenic overeating. The fight against this disease is usually quite long. However, such a “diagnosis” is not at all fatal. Below are the mandatory steps you need to take:

1) admit the problem- if you convince yourself that your behavior is absolutely normal, then getting rid of addiction is out of the question.

2) find the main reason that makes you overeat- this reason is in the emotional sphere. You need to find the problem that you constantly seize. Perhaps you console yourself with food when you are sad. Perhaps in this way you are trying to compensate for loneliness, problems in your personal life or lack of friends. Whatever it is, you need to understand what exactly makes you feel this way about food and learn to monitor this “trigger” in time.

3) stop denying yourself something— don’t divide food into “dos” and “don’ts.” Ultimatums are something that definitely “doesn't work” if you suffer from compulsive overeating disorder. You need to understand that food will not escape you. She is available at any time. You can always buy it and there is no need to eat right now if you are not hungry.

4) learn to distinguish physical hunger from psychological- if stocks carbohydrates the body is really exhausted and there is not enough energy, then you will feel physical discomfort: rumbling in the stomach, loss of strength, etc. Physical hunger cannot be confused with anything. If you are full, but just want a chocolate bar, a cake or something else because you are sad, bored, lonely, etc. - this is psychological hunger.

5) don't even try to diet- this follows from point 3. Very often it is the abuse of diets that becomes fertile ground for the development of compulsive eating behavior. Exactly the same in in this case Gastric reduction surgery will not help, since the cause of overeating is not physiological.

6) consult a psychologist— There are entire programs to solve the problem of compulsive overeating. By at least, at the first stage they can definitely be very useful, but it is often very difficult to find the reason yourself that makes you overeat.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to say that it is more than possible to fight compulsive overeating on your own. I also suffered from similar problems. Yes, it takes time and effort and it is quite difficult. But, definitely, the hell in which people who are faced with such a problem live is worth any effort to get rid of it.

Let me emphasize once again that the cause of compulsive overeating is always “in the head.” Therefore, first of all, you need to deal with the psychological component. And it’s better not to put off solving the problem for too long, because it not only worsens appearance, but also significantly undermines your health. And most importantly, believe that everything will work out!

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