Why Do We Overeat? A Neurobiological Perspective

waldo56

We overeat naturally because it is our instinct to do so and the healthiest way to eat. Everything about your body works better in a consistent calorie surplus.

However, in order to prevent obesity, the consequence of long term consistent overeating, periodic starvation has to be implimented since nature no longer does that for us.

"Overeating" is not wrong eating, it is correct eating. The very word makes it sound like something shameful or a disorder. This is wrong. If you don't naturally overeat when no dietary control mechanisms are in place, then you are the one with the disorder.

IMHO there needs to be a focus away from correcting this supposed imbalance in humans to instead celebrating it, and using it as a force for good. Eating a consistent calorie surplus is not only OK, it is great for you. However when you embrace this you must periodically restrict intake to control the fat gain (the stronger and shorter the restriction the better), and be sure to exercise, including resistance exercise, so that those extra calories are used in the healthiest way.

If you've never spent time in a consistent calorie surplus while not overweight, you have no idea of what it feels like to be normal.

It ok to "overeat", everyone should be doing it most of the time.

Guess I guess I have a disorder. :ohwell:

Once I lost the weight and maintained awhile, I was able to maintain for six months without tracking as well.

I'm thinking about my daughter and her cousin (both 10). They don't have to be periodically starved to maintain a normal weight. Perhaps that might have something to do with a thing called 'eating intuitively'? No food is forbidden for either one of them, and snacks are always available except an hour or two before meals. Yeah, I'm gonna straight call the theory that all humans eat to excess 'naturally' or else they have a disorder, baloney.

Really? You think a comparison of children going through a huge number of calories to fuel growth is a comparable example?

Plenty of adults had no weight problems as kids -- growth, more play time, less stress, etc.

Shoot, I could eat so much as a kid/teenager. Things I could never eat today on a regular basis -- huge bowls of ice cream, french fries, pizza, etc. What did I eat as a snack mid-morning in high school? A package of those mini powdered doughnuts and chocolate milk. I didn't worry about what I ate until I was in my early 20s. I also was quite athletic so spent several hours a day on that, and wasn't working/commuting 10-12 hours a day behind a desk or in a car.

Big differences.

We all start life bulking nonstop for the first 20 years or so.

Even people that maintain do have to exert some level of control, whether through concious decisions to not eat too much or to exercise more, or simple sheer laziness at not wanting to prepare food.

If your meal times consisted of an all you can eat buffets every day, virtually noone would maintain weight effortlessly.