Do you often find yourself overeating, no matter how much you try to keep your portion sizes in check? Unfortunately, overeating is a common and complex issue.

In this article, I'll explain some of the reasons you might overeat, and give you tips to help stop the cycle.

The Appetite System

Our bodies are equipped with a complicated and amazingly intricate system for regulating how much we eat.

It involves many different parts of our brains, a variety of signals being sent back and forth between our brains and our bodies, several hormones and neurotransmitters, and even the cells in our gut.

All of these systems are constantly working together to maintain an internal balance between the number of calories we take in and the number of calories we burn.

As complex as this system is, the end result should be pretty simple. When we need more nutrients, we start to feel hungry and we seek out food to eat. When we’ve had enough, we feel full and we stop eating.

When this system works well, we don’t need to worry about calories, portion control, macronutrients, meal timing, or anything else. The system drives us to eat as much as we need, when we need it, and our bodies take care of the rest.

When the system doesn’t work properly, though, we run into problems. We overeat, we gain weight, we lose our health, we feel like crap. This is where many of us find ourselves these days.

For a variety of reasons, our natural appetite regulation systems aren’t working the way they should, and we are suffering the consequences. There is something you can do, though. Read on to find out more.

Why We Overeat

We’ve lost touch with the signals our bodies are sending us in terms of our hunger and food satisfaction.

To get back in touch, you might think all you need to do is start paying attention, slow down, and eat mindfully. That’s a good start, but there’s much more to it than that.

There’s not one single reason why we overeat, and unfortunately there isn’t a simple solution to prevent overeating. Many aspects of our modern lives have converged to challenge our natural appetite regulation system.

Some of these things are within our control, like our habits, routines, and mindset about food.

That includes how much we’re paying attention to what we’re eating, how fast we eat, the kinds of foods we choose to eat, how much we choose to serve ourselves, and how we manage our stress and emotions.

Other factors are mostly outside of our control. The size of restaurant and pre-packed food portions, societal and cultural norms about portion sizes, the people we’re surrounded with, and the way food companies price and market their products have a significant effect on how much we eat.

Each of us responds to food and to our environments differently, so different people probably need different strategies to help take back control of their eating.

The key is to recognize and understand how all of these factors affect how much you eat, and use that information to your advantage.

As you read this article, take note of any of the factors that may affect you. For most people, overeating is a combination of a few different factors.

Use the tips to make your own action plan to get back in touch with your body’s appetite regulation system.

Things You Can Directly Control

Distraction

We often eat while distracted. We eat while driving, while working, we eat in front of the TV and other devices.

When we’re distracted, it’s easy to miss the signals our bodies are sending us and end up overeating.

Studies have shown that when people are distracted during their meals, they eat more during that meal and they are even likely to eat more in their next meal.

What you can do:

Use this mechanism to your advantage. When you’re eating something you want to limit, pay full attention. Savor each bite and be aware of exactly how much you’re eating.
When you’re eating something you know you should eat more of, like vegetables, fruits, or whole grains, use the power of distraction to help you eat a little more.
If you know you’re going to be distracted while eating, take the extra step of portioning out your food ahead of time. Don’t eat out of the package in front of the tv. Take the amount of food you want to eat and put it on a plate or in a separate container before sitting down. If you’re at a restaurant, ask for a to-go box when you first get your meal and pack some of it away before you start eating.

Speed

You may have heard that it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to get the message from your stomach that you’re full. If you eat too quickly, it might be too late by the time you realize you need to stop.

In fact, studies have found that people who eat faster tend to eat more calories than those who eat slower, but don’t feel any less hungry immediately after the meal or even a few hours later.

What you can do:

Slow down. Decide on a system to prompt you to eat slowly. Set a timer to keep track of your eating pace, put your fork down between bites, remind yourself to chew fully and savor each bite of food.
“Divide up” your plate. Mentally divide up your plate into halves. Eat one half of your food, then stop and wait a couple of minutes and assess whether you're still hungry. If you are, eat half of the remaining food, then stop and assess again. Only finish your food if you are really still hungry.

The Kinds of Foods You Choose To Eat

While it’s hard (but not impossible) to overeat on nutrient-dense foods, ultra-processed foods are a different story.

Ultra-processed foods are foods made from commercial ingredients and include junk foods, fast foods, pre-packaged meals, cookies, cakes, ice creams, sodas, etc.

You might have said jokingly (or maybe not so jokingly) that you “can’t resist” certain foods (like cakes, cookies, or junk foods).

You’re probably not far off. Those foods are specifically engineered to be extremely tasty, but not make you feel satisfied and full.

Food companies design their products to target a “bliss point” which is the perfect ratio of sugar, fat, and salt.

The “right” ratio of sweetness, saltiness, and richness activates pleasure centers in your brain and prompts you to eat more.

These kinds of foods override the system in your brain that tells you to stop eating because you’re full.

The end result is overeating and food cravings – you’ve experienced this any time you suddenly realize you’ve eaten a whole bag of chips in one sitting, or had a “sugar craving”.

It’s not just stereotypical “junk foods” that have been engineered this way. These days, food companies engineer all kind of foods, adding sugar and other additives to foods that you wouldn’t think would contain unhealthy ingredients.

Breads, yogurts, pasta sauces, even products that claim to be healthy like granola and protein bars, are full of ingredients that make them extra palatable so you eat more.

Of course food companies do this. They want you to buy as much of their products as possible. They care about their bottom line, not your health.

An interesting study backs this up. In this study, 20 people lived in a lab for a month and ate a specific diet for 2 weeks, then another diet for 2 weeks. One diet was made up of ultra-processed foods and the other was made up of minimally processed foods. The meals were matched for calorie levels and macronutrients, but participants could eat as much as they wanted.

People ate about 500 more calories each day and gained about 2 pounds on the ultra-processed diet, even though they said they enjoyed both diets equally and their levels of hunger and satisfaction were the same on both diets.

The study found differences between the diets in the levels of the hormones PYY and ghrelin, both of which regulate appetite. People also ate faster on the ultra-processed diet.

What can you do:

Avoid ultra-processed foods as much as possible. Eat mostly whole, nutritious, minimally process foods. Your body is good at regulating your intake of those kinds of foods and they provide you with the nutrients you need to feel and function well.
When you do eat ultra-processed foods, take extra steps to limit how much you eat. Don’t rely on your body to tell you when to stop eating, decide ahead of time how much you’ll eat and portion it out on a plate or separate container.

Things You Have A Little Control Over

You can’t completely avoid or modify these things, but you do have some control over them.

Emotions and Stress

Many people eat when they’re not actually hungry. You might feel like eating because you’re bored, lonely, upset, sad, or stressed. You might also eat as part of a special occasion or to reward yourself.

When you eat for reasons other than hunger, you often reach for unhealthy options like junk foods, sweets, or other “comfort foods”.

Studies show that stress and other emotions make you more likely to overeat and to choose high calorie foods.

What you can do:

To break free from the cycle of emotional eating, the first step is to learn to recognize the difference between true hunger and wanting to eat for non-hunger reasons.
Learn to measure your hunger level. Every time you start feeling like you want something to eat, rate your hunger on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the hungriest you've ever been and 1 being so full that you feel sick. A 4 or 5 means you’re not hungry or full.
Eat when your hunger is at a 7 or 8. If you feel like eating but your hunger level is a 6 or lower, stop and figure out why you feel like eating. Are you bored, sad, exhausted, or lonely? Find another way to address that need. Go for a walk, do a quick meditation, call a friend, listen to music, read a book, wait a minute and see if the feeling passes.
While eating, take a break every few minutes and assess your hunger level. Stop eating when you're satisfied but not stuffed, which would be a 2 or 3 on the hunger scale.
Learn ways to manage your emotions and your stress. Prioritize physical activity, sleep, relaxation, social connection, and self-care as much as possible. Remember that you can’t control the things that happen to you, but you can control how you respond.

The People Around You

All human beings are influenced by what other people do and what other people think.

Studies show that when people eat in social situations, they tend to change the way they eat based on the people they’re eating with. If the people around you eat more than you usually do, you’ll probably eat more too. If they eat less than you usually do, you might eat less.

How much you eat also depends on the relationship you have with the people you’re eating with. People tend to eat more around family and friends than with acquaintances or strangers.

That’s all about your self-identity and the feeling of belonging to a social group. If you feel a strong sense of identity as part of a group, like a family or community, you’ll adopt the habits of people in that community, including their eating habits.

If you come from a family of healthy eaters and you feel a strong identity as part of that family, you’ll probably eat healthfully too. If your workplace culture involves a lot of unhealthy eating or snacking, you will probably join in.

If the people around you are eating much more or less than you do, you might feel like you’ll be judged for eating differently. You might change your eating habits to avoid comments or judgement.

You might not even realize that this is happening. In many of the studies I’ve linked to, participants were asked after their meal whether they felt that their eating had changed because of the people they were eating with. They almost always answered no, even though the measurements of their eating clearly showed that they had.

What you can do:

Identify the social situations in which you’re likely to overeat and make a plan to deal with those situations. Think about the people you usually interact with. How do they normally eat? Do they always order drinks, appetizers, and desserts when you go out? Do they go back for seconds when you eat at home?
Plan ahead and be ready with strategies to make sure you don’t overeat. Decide ahead of time how much you’ll eat and serve yourself or order only that much. Pack away any extra food before you start eating. Pay attention to your eating during your meal. Practice what you will say to politely decline any food you don’t want to eat. You’d be surprised at how effective it is to rehearse what you’ll say ahead of time.
Avoid particularly difficult social situations if you can. If you have a coworker who always makes comments about other people’s eating choices, try to avoid eating with them as much as possible. If you can’t avoid it, be prepared with a response or a strategy for ignoring those comments and judgements. Remember that you have a healthy eating goal that will help you improve your life. Don’t let other people’s insecurities or judgements throw you off course!
Find people or groups who eat the way you want to eat. Do you have a friend or coworker with the kind of eating habits you would like to emulate? Try eating with them, and hopefully their habits will rub off on you. Seek out local healthy eating groups, take cooking classes, or join an exercise group.

How Much Is On Your Plate

The average portion size at restaurants and supermarkets has gotten much bigger over the past 50 years. In fact, between 1977 and 1998, average portion sizes grew by 138%, and have continued to grow since then. An average restaurant meal can contain 2-3 times as much food as you should be eating in one sitting.

When people are served larger portions, they eat more. In one experiment, people ate soup from bowls that were secretly refilled (through a tube hidden under the table), and ate 73% more than people eating from normal soup bowls. Despite eating much more, the people eating from the refilling bowls did not feel fuller, and they didn’t believe it when the researchers told them how much they’d eaten.

If your plate is loaded with more food you’ll probably eat more, whether you intend to or not, and whether you realize it or not.

Studies have also found that the size and shape of your dishes can affect how much you eat. The same amount of food can seem much smaller if it’s on a large plate rather than a small plate, and that can trick your brain into thinking you haven’t had enough to eat. On the other hand, a smaller plate makes it look like you have more food, so you’re more likely to feel satisfied.

What you can do:

Serve yourself smaller portions. Don’t eat out of serving dishes, pots, or pans. Put just as much as you want to eat on your plate, and pack the rest away before you start eating. At restaurants, share a meal with someone else or get a to-go box and pack away some of your food as soon as it comes to the table.
Use smaller dishes or get portion control plates to help “trick” your brain into thinking you are eating more.
Despite what you may have learned growing up, you don’t need to clean your plate. If you’re full, stop eating. You can always have leftovers the next day.

Things You Have No Control Over (But You Can Still Do Something About)

These things may be out of your control, but by recognizing that they can cause you to overeat, you can change your response to them.

What’s Considered A “Normal” Portion Size

We make judgements about what is and isn’t appropriate to eat based on what we see around us. Unfortunately, in our society, the food environment encourages overeating.

Large portions have become the norm, “all-you-can-eat” offers are common at restaurants, tv shows promote “challenges” to eat as much as possible, ads for junk foods (and processed foods pretending to be healthy) are everywhere, constant snacking and stuffing yourself with food is accepted and encouraged, and you can buy processed foods in just about every store, including pharmacies, gas stations, banks, clothing retailers, and furniture stores.

As a result, many people have developed a habit of eating too much.

This is an issue in many western cultures, but it’s not the case everywhere. America is particularly bad. If you’ve ever travelled abroad you may have noticed that other cultures have different norms around eating.

There are many places around the world where “normal” portion sizes are much smaller, and in some places it’s just not socially acceptable to go back for seconds or stuff yourself at meals.

While you can’t control society’s attitudes about food, you can use this knowledge to make sure that the food environment doesn’t throw you off your quest to achieve your goals.

What you can do:

Start paying attention to the food environment around you. We’re so used to being surrounded by information about food that it’s become invisible. If you can see the subtle messages all around you, you’re less likely to be influenced by them.
Learn what an appropriate serving size actually is. In general, a serving of protein should be about the size of your palm. A serving of vegetables or fruits should be about the size of your fist, a serving of carbs should be about the size of your cupped hand, and a serving of fats should be about the size of your thumb. Serve yourself this much food and start getting used to what it looks like on a plate. Over time, you can train yourself to recognize and eat smaller portions.

How Food Companies Price Their Products

Unfortunately, it does cost more to make healthy food choices. Whole ingredients like vegetables and fruits are more expensive than junk foods. Since 1980, the price of fresh produce has gone up by 40%, while the price of sodas and processed foods has decreased by 10-30%.

That’s mostly because the basic ingredients in ultra-processed foods (corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, dairy, sorghum, and livestock) are heavily subsidized by the government using taxpayer money.

That makes the ingredients used in ultra-processed foods very cheap. If you only have a certain amount of money, you’re more likely to spend it on ultra-processed foods because they give you more food for your dollar than healthier choices.

Lower prices encourage people to eat more. Higher prices discourage food purchases.

Since processed food ingredients are so cheap, food companies can “value price” their foods. You probably recognize these classic up-sells: “Would you like to make that a value meal?” “Would you like to supersize that for just a dollar more?”

At the supermarket, you can buy soda in 7.5 ounce mini-cans, but they’re more expensive than 12-ounce cans. Why wouldn’t you trade up to the bigger size when it’s more “value for money”?

These marketing tactics are great for food companies, since they want you to buy and eat as much as possible. While they might seem like a good deal for you as well, they aren’t good for your health or your waistline.

What you can do:

Be aware of value pricing and be ready to address it. Decide what you’re going to buy ahead of time and stand your ground. Don’t be upsold.
Use smart strategies to save money on healthy foods. Yes, eating healthy food can be more expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, you can easily cook at home while spending less money than you would dining out. It all depends on the ingredients you use and how you buy them.
Remember what you’re working towards. Is saving a couple of dollars at the supermarket really worth the disappointment of not achieving your goals, or the health problems that come with eating ultra-processed foods?

Everyone, even the most health conscious people, can be influenced into eating too much.

If we’re faced with a large portion, we will eat more. If we’re distracted while we eat, we will eat more. If we eat ultra-processed foods, we will eat more. If we eat with other people who eat more than we usually do, we will eat more. If we live in a society where food companies want to sell us more, we will eat more.

This happens mostly subconsciously. We don’t make a choice to eat too much, it just happens. Often we don’t even realize that it happened at all. We just wonder why our pants are too snug.

If You Need Help

To learn more about what a healthy diet looks like, download my FREE Guide To Healthy Eating. This eBook will help you put together a healthy and sustainable eating pattern, and includes a unique system for determining how processed your food is.

Why You Struggle With Overeating And What You Can Do About It

The Appetite System

Why We Overeat