2022-05-25 Help You Stop Overeating

Practice mindfulness. This can help you recognize when you’re actually hungry vs when you’re eating out of habit. We tend to eat even when we’re not hungry. It’s often an impulsive reaction to stress, boredom, etc. Mindfulness can also help take your mind off of food when you actually are hungry.

Drink more water. Sometimes our hunger pangs are actually a sign of dehydration. If you’re feeling hungry, or even if you’re not hungry but feel like eating anyway, drink one or two glasses of water. This may hold you over for awhile. This is especially important in the morning, because that’s when we’re usually most dehydrated.

Eat a breakfast that is high in protein and fat (such as eggs), or high in fiber (such as All-Bran cereal). This will make you feel more full. And it won’t get burned off as fast as something that is high in simple carbs.

Stop eating after you’re 80% full. Once you feel satisfied or a little bit full, it’s probably time to stop. The tendency is to keep going until we can’t eat another bite, but we should stop sooner. Eating slower can help you be more aware of how full you are.

Before you decide to go for a second serving, wait. Your desire to eat more may just be a craving, rather than hunger. Wait 5 or 10 minutes and it will probably go away. This is especially true for sweets.

Go to bed earlier and sleep longer. This is a good idea for many reasons, but one reason is that if you’re not sleeping enough you’ll want to eat more. This is especially true if you’re staying up late — you’ll crave late night carbs.