How To Counteract Overeating

Do you find it difficult to control your appetite? Don’t know why you can’t stop overeating – whether it’s eating too much in one sitting or constantly binge eating throughout the day, even when you’re not that hungry? 

If you are under the notion that only certain people (like only those with a binge eating disorder) can have an overeating problem, you’re wrong. It can happen to anyone. Most people overeat during the holidays or when they are in a stressful or emotional situation. Many may even feel guilty about eating more than they’re supposed to, which is why they want to do something about it.

That’s what we’ll discuss. There are things you can do after overindulging to help you get back to healthy eating habits.

How To Counteract Overeating

What to do right after overeating

Access where you are

Give yourself a moment to reflect and reassess where you are and what led to overeating. Have you been overeating out of convenience? Is there an emotional event happening in your life right now? Are you taking any new medication that has triggered you to binge eat? 

Whatever the case may be, take a moment to talk about or write out your why. If you want to counteract overeating, start by assessing where you currently are so you can build clarity over where you’d like to go from there. 

Know your triggers

For many people, a holiday meal is a trigger. For others, it can even be social media. At times, social media can be bad for your mental health and trigger emotional eating – especially if you’re on the apps constantly comparing yourself to others. Right after overeating, ask yourself what triggered your reaction. Once you know your triggers, you can be empowered to consciously avoid them (if not altogether, as much as possible) in the future. 

Take a walk

Get active. Physical activity is healthy for everyone, and it’s especially a good next step for you right after overeating. Take a walk out in nature or around your neighborhood to give yourself a moment to reset and burn off a few of those additional calories.

Exercise

Sometimes a walk isn’t enough. Feel the rush of adrenaline with a full blown workout either at the gym or at home. Any type of physical activity will help!

Before going to bed

Plan your meals

Have you noticed the type of food choices you make when you have not planned what you will eat? Proper planning prevents poor performance. The first step to counteract overeating is to plan out your meals. 

Whether you’re heading into the grocery store or planning to eat out, write out what you will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner in advance, and stick to it. When you become more intentional about what you’re eating, you tend to make healthier food choices than you would if you only ate mindlessly. By properly planning your meals, you can regain control of the food you’re consuming and help counteract the effects of overeating in the long term. 

Meal prep

Chances are, if you overeat, it’s because of what you have available to you that’s grab and go.  Sometimes it’s just easier to eat foods that are less healthy than food that is good for you because of the number of steps involved. For this reason, it’s important to be intentional and  meal prep at least once a week.

Make a grocery list of meals you want to eat and take a day to cook out all the meals in advance. Bonus points if you portion out your meals in single-serve, easy to reheat containers.

Plan your snacks

On a full stomach, at the end of your day (or at the beginning of the next day), portion out all the snacks you will eat throughout the day. This means cutting up any fruit or vegetables, batch washing them, and placing them into snack-sized, air-tight containers or zip lock bags. Other healthy snack ideas you may want to add into the mix are nuts, beef jerky, protein bars, or even craisons. Snacks that won’t spike your blood sugar!

Keep all your snacks in a basket in the kitchen, at work, in your lunch bag, or somewhere else that’s easily accessible. Bring your snacks with you when you’re on the go. This will help you counteract the effects of overeating in the long term by properly planning what you will eat and having healthier options available to you that’s ready to eat. 

Get busy

When the pace of your day is slower, it’s easier to make your way to the kitchen multiple times a day and overeat. Cut back on distractions like social media and binge-watching tv, and instead focus on taking action towards more of your goals. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re actively doing something you love. 

When you spend more time focused on making your New Year's resolutions a reality, you feel more productive and end up spending less time lolly-gagging around and binge-eating.

Get more hours of sleep

Sleep is vital for your overall physical health. Not only has inadequate sleep been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, but it has also been linked to weight gain as well. It has been said that it could be due to a decreased likelihood of exercising when you're sleep-deprived. It’s also likely that the longer you’re up, the more likely you’ll make poorer food choices throughout the day.

The next day

Practice mindful eating

You may feel sick the day after overeating or lethargic, which is why on the next day you’ll want to watch your eating habits. When you practice mindful eating you are developing a healthy relationship with food. When most people overeat, it’s mindless. When you are not actively mindful of your food choices, it’s easy to consume the wrong types of food. 

Drink lots of water

Make a conscious decision to drink lots of water. Carbonated drinks pack on more calories, making it easier to go over your calorie budget in a day. When you drink water before and after meals, it allows you to feel full faster, consume fewer calories, and counteract overeating better. 

Eat nutrient-rich foods

Nutrient-rich foods are those that contain a healthy balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Nutrient-rich foods also usually provide a good source of other micronutrients such as iron, calcium, and other vitamins and minerals for example. Check the nutrition facts on the packaging. 

The Academy of Nutrition recommends that the focus be shifted from low-fat, low sugar diets to maintaining more of a well-rounded consumption of macro and micronutrients. It’s advised to eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, seafood and lean protein and nuts, and less processed meats, sweetened drinks, desserts and refined grains. P.S. Whole grains are also great for acid reflux – if you’ve had that problem!

Eat high-fiber foods

Dietary fiber is a form of complex carbs. It is recommended that women consume 35 grams of fiber and men consume 38 grams of fiber daily. However, in most diets, the average person only gets about 9 to 11gs of fiber per day. 

Fiber is great for digestion and weight loss. To counter overeating, eat high-fiber foods. 1 Cup of the following will provide you with a high amount of dietary fiber: green peas (9g), raspberries (8g), black beans (15g) and lentils (15g). 

Practice portion control and volumetrics

There’s no need to continue to feel guilty when it comes to eating habits. What’s better is to practice volumetrics. Fill up on starchy vegetables, which are low calorie, high fiber food options. You may try broccoli, beans, grapefruit, or salad as additional options as well.

Work on your relationship with food

If you need additional help after trying out these options, seek medical advice from a professional to learn more about nutrition and dietetics. You don’t have to try to learn everything overnight. What’s important is that you make it a daily effort to continue to understand your relationship with food so you can work on it and take the necessary steps to improve it for your health and overall quality of life.

Read Next