Why am I overeating?

How often do you feel too full after eating? How often do you go to a restaurant and order too much food, or cook too much and keep eating until it’s all gone? Do you open a packet of biscuits and eat them all? These are all signs of overeating – and most of us have been there.

We have to eat, but what do we gain from overeating, or binging on sugary snacks, even when we know we’ll feel guilty for doing it?

For some of us, when we’ve eaten a big meal, or way more than we were expecting to eat, we look at ourselves in the mirror and feel upset and worried about gaining weight.

Feeling full can be satisfying in the moment. It can feel comforting and safe. You don’t need to think about anything else at that moment, you can focus on resting and tell yourself that you ‘couldn’t possibly do anything else while you feel this full!’

Overeating: comfort, or addiction?

That comfort may be allowing you to distance yourself from your problems; almost like an addiction.

At that moment you are focusing on the positive feelings surrounding food. Whether that be ordering from your favourite takeaway or cooking up a feast. Then, after eating you rest enjoy that satisfed feeling. It is then easier to distance yourself from problems that may be too hard to bear at that present time.

Overeating gives you distance from other areas of your life that you might not be happy about.

How to stop 

Think about your relationship with food. What is that overeating feeling giving you? What is it allowing you to distance yourself or hide from?

When you are able to realise what you are hiding from, you will then be able to start looking at ways to deal with any issues that are related to overeating. Thus, eliminating the need to overeat and hide away.  Is there another way for you to feel secure without overeating?