Why We Overeat And 10 Ways To Stop

One of our trainers posted this on the gym website, thought I'd share:

"The human species has been around for a very long time and as far as I know, food has too. Only in the last 100 odd years has our problem with food, in the western world, changed from having too little food available to us, to having way too much. As much as we may dislike the arduous trip to the local supermarket, in actual fact, the caloric burden of such a trip is minimal in comparison with the hardships endured by our ancestors just to obtain enough food to survive. Couple this with the ever increasing caloric density of almost all supermarket food and we start to see why it has become very easy to overeat. Furthermore, the nutritional content of modern processed food is shamefully low. When we are hungry, this is usually our body telling us we require nutrients NOT that our stomachs are empty. So a typical modern diet that is easy to obtain (i.e. barely any calories expended), high in calories and low in nutritional value, leads us to our current obesity epidemic.

We now live in a world where you can quite literally eat yourself to death… and it’s becoming frightening common. It may surprise you to know that many people who die from obesity, actually die from malnutrition. They have grown so huge that the food they eat can no longer provide enough vitamins and minerals to keep them alive. Diabetes and coronary heart disease are 2 of the biggest killers in the UK, both of which are directly linked to the overeating of poor quality food. So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we eat ourselves to death?

The answer is evolutionary in its nature. We have developed as a species to conserve energy through a complex and highly efficient metabolic system. We use fat as a way of storing energy for later use (the average adult has enough energy stored as fat to theoretically fuel a run from the U.K. to Northern Africa and the average obese person has enough to run to the moon!). This is due to the environment in which we have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, one where food is scarce and difficult to obtain. It was of course a massive evolutionary advantage to be efficient at burning calories (i.e. use few calories for lots of exercise, not ideal for losing weight). Our appetites have also evolved accordingly. We have evolved to eat every morsel of available food to us in order to survive – and why shouldn't we? Who knows when our next meal could be?

Unfortunately, although we are usually aware that our next meal is sitting in the fridge or just round the corner at our local Chinese, each meal time, our appetites insist that we eat more than we actually require. Even those with good will power struggle to reduce their food intake in an environment where calories outnumber us about a million to one. In addition to this, foods commonly available to us are filled with artificial sweeteners and processed sugars. Sugar has been shown to stimulate similar areas of the brain as many drugs and are associated with a large dopamine response which provides pleasure to the brain – a pleasure that is often addictive in nature. Sugar will also provide a large insulin response which is a storing hormone (often fats) and prolonged excessive consumption is associated with a decrease in insulin sensitivity which leads to type 2 diabetes.

In addition to all of this, we are becoming ever more sedentary as the world we live in becomes less and less physically demanding. Desk jobs are on the increase, manual labour is in decline and there is enough on TV to last a lifetime (interestingly, one study showed that watching TV burnt less calories than sitting and doing nothing…. I guess something like ‘zombie box’ would be a more appropriate name). Physical activity (how much you do) and in particular physical fitness (how much you can do) has been shown to be the single biggest factor in the reduction of risk of death, placing higher than drinking, smoking, obesity etc.

So, our appetites are huge, the food we eat is often addictive, full of sugar and therefore fattening (sugar makes you fat, not fat – very simplified explanation) and very low in nutrition, it’s also easy to obtain without burning any calories. In our free time on average we don’t do much exercise and when we do our body is very careful not to burn many precious calories, perhaps saving it for a trip to the moon. In conclusion, we are in a bit of a pickle so here are a few tips to help:

1. Reduce your sugar intake. I cannot stress this enough. This includes sugar from fruits and drinks. 1-2 pieces of fruit a day is more than enough and don’t drink juice, it isn’t as innocent as you might think.

2. Eat food that is filling, nutrient dense and calorie sparse. High fibre, high water and high protein foods are most filling i.e. bigger food, less calories. Lean meats, fish (or other protein alternatives) and vegetables should be the vast majority of what you eat.

3. Train regularly at high intensity with intervals. Imagine your body is a car. If you drive slow and steady you will use less fuel. Put your foot down, accelerate, stop and repeat. This burns more fuel because it is less efficient. The same applies for Anaerobic metabolism (e.g. sprinting) vs Aerobic (e.g. jogging) so stop jogging and start sprinting – or some other high intensity exercise.

4. Build stronger denser muscles. This is like having a bigger more powerful engine that guzzles down fuel. Strength and high intensity training also leaves you burning calories for up to 48 hours while the body recovers (a bit like leaving your engine running. OK, sorry, enough car references).

5. Walk to the shops and carry your food home. At the very least park far away from the shop, you can also avoid expensive dents this way!

6. Always take the stairs. Always walk up escalators.

7. Walk more and walk faster. A distance covered faster burns more calories. Multiply this over the course of a lifetime and it is a significant change in lifestyle. No really, hurry up, you will live longer and spend less time dawdling. 20 minutes brisk walking a day – minimum – plus all the real training (strength training and intense cardio every week).

8. If you must watch TV, watch less and stretch or foam roll while doing so to make the time spent productive, but a recumbent bike and peddle and watch your favourite 1 hour night time show, it’s amazing how quickly the time will pass.

9. Accept that life was meant to require physical effort on a daily basis and embrace it. Think long and hard about this one.

10. Love your food but choose wisely. There is a lot of poison on supermarket shelves. Also treat yourself about once a week to a small indulgence. After all, we are only human."



Note to self.....Bookmark this on my computer, memorise it....and put it into action! :drinker: :drinker: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: