The psychology of needing to eat until stuffed - a discussion

elelja945 wrote: »

I think it may be a way to both mentally and physically feel numb or escape. When I eat to uncomfortable fullness, everything stops. My brain is on cruise control. I am eating but have gone way past tasting the food. Brain numb. Next my body is so full I can not comfortably move. Body immobile. There are no past regrets, no future consequences, and presently I am incapacitated.

Yes, I believe this is right on target. When you are PHYSICALLY uncomfortable, it takes away from the MENTAL/EMOTIONAL pain. The brain cannot process both at the same time. It gives your brain a respite from your emotional issues. I have read that, for many, getting a tattoo is a similar mechanism. The temporary physical pain temporarily minimizes the emotional pain.

I'm going to go with the "Reaction to Deprivation" concept and I will use myself to explain why I think that:

I, too, struggle with eating to the point of being uncomfortable. I think the reason why I do it is because during the work week, I eat very "strict" (you can look at my food diary to see what I'm talking about). I build up enough of a deficit to where, on weekends, I eat pretty much what I want but knowing that on Monday, I have to go back to eating "strict." I believe this (for me) is what's causing me to overeat because I know that my time to eat what I want is limited. So as you mentioned, it becomes a race to consume as much as I can in as short a period of time as possible.

jjpptt2 wrote: »

Cassandraw3 wrote: »

jjpptt2 wrote: »

Cassandraw3 wrote: »

Could it be perhaps a nutrient deficiency? I noticed on a few occasions that days where I ate low protein, I had that feeling. I had a protein bar and the feeling faded away. Your body/mind may be telling you to eat more to make up for something you are missing. Just a thought.

I don't think so, but I don't really know enough about how the body responds to deficiency, aside from hydration needs.

From my experience, I'd be more inclined to say the opposite - that increased intake of fats/salts/sugars yield increased "cravings" for fats/salts/sugars. But that could totally be correlation and not causation.

That I could see. I know there have been studies done of the effects of sugar on the brain. I recall hearing at one point that the brain responds somewhat similar to sugar as it does to cocaine and that a study with rats showed they actually preferred sugar over cocaine. However, such comparisons have been considered controversial.

Is that because people don't like the idea of comparing food/sugar addiction to drug addiction? Or is there more to the controversy than that? If you remember... not terribly important to me.

Here is an article that I was reading on it There are more, but this one hit on it being controversial. Basically, some say that it is not addictive because it does not show physical symptoms of withdrawal, however it was argued that the brain does show processes of withdrawal when cutting out sugar.

Well, this is a whopper that you seemed to have opened up for discussion here. See, first of all, emotional eating is not always = eating disorder. People can emotionally eat/overeat once in a while. Just like having a few extra drinks until you are numb after say, losing your job or a breakup isn't actually a drinking problem, similarly if it happens once in a while die to appropriate emotional triggers it is not really a disorder. It becomes a disorder when just like with drinks, it happens very often and starts to affect your daily habits, decisions and everything in your life.

The reasons are a kzillion.

While many people talk about eating your feelings, it is just not that simple. Eating disorders can differ even when emotional. While some people may face body image issues and then try and comfort themselves with comfort food and eat up a lot of it needing comfort, it is not just that for everyone. For some, it is needing something or someone to rely on, something that will be there when they need it. For some it is pleasure. They actually get joy from the food. But if they lack coping skills to deal with problems in life, they might turn to the thing that brings them joy or the thing that is there when nothing or no one else is. There is a whole bunch of complicated things around us that lead to it.

Next, there is the addictive effect of sugar and all the other chemicals in the food. Just like Pringles says "no one can eat just one", a lot of processed foods are designed so that people actually cannot limit themselves. Scientists have actually found that sugar has the same response in the brain as alcohol and other drugs causing addiction. And just like drugs/booze, some people get addicted to it more easily than others. Also, the more you eat sweets the more you want to eat them. For these people, it is hard to get on the clean foods. But once they are, the craving for sugar goes down. Protein also helps in controlling that craving.

Then there is also the effects of hormones like ghrelin and incretin and insulin and IGLF-1 etc. Basically in some people, when they start to reduce sugar intake, the entire hormonal system goes out of whack and that drives them to look for more and more food. The hormones that control the feedback mechanisms are just so slow and confused that thye cannot actually trigger the satiety center unless the person is stuffed to bursting.

Then there is the age old issue of thirst vs hunger. Our brains are not very adept at differentiating thirst from hunger. Many times, they confuse thirst for hunger. And that thirst doesn't actually go away when you eat food. Especially if one is eating salty food, it only increases the thirst. So the person might keep eating until he is bursting full and when bursting full the safety mechanisms come into place and stop them from eating. If only the person had drunk a glass or two of water 15 minutes before eating and taken small sips throughout, this situation (in some people) can be avoided.

For some people it is just a fact of eating too fast. Normally, our body takes about 15 minutes to readjust through feedback mechanisms. So if you drink water when thirsty, it will take about 15 minutes for your body to reasses the water levels and re trigger the thirst signals according to new info (that is why in the previous point I mentioned drinking water 15 minutes before eating). The same goes for hunger as well. When people at slow, the body has ample time to detect the food in the stomach and roughly judge the quantity and quality of it and retune the hunger signals. If people eat too fast (as is common in our very busy lives), we tend to overeat even before we realise we have done that. Eating slow, taking two helpings, taking half of what you think you need to eat in the first serving, waiting 10-15 minutes before taking a second helping can help with that.

But like I said, it is a whopper of an issue. People also get super deprived and completely lose it and end up bingeing. For such people, indulgence in moderation is the key. People also tend to use it as self-sabotage technique. So the work really hard and eat right but they either do not lose weight or lose less than what they expected. Then they just go " what's the point of starving and killing myself when it shows pathetic results?" and they end up bingeing and sabotaging it. Because of that, they don't reach their goals and they binge until they just binge every few days to use it as an excuse as to why they cannot lose weight. This is a dangerous downward spiral, self-induced and hard to get out of the dangerous spiral.

The reasons are endless and I guarantee you that every time you actually try and understand any person suffering from this, their reason would be slightly different than all the ones you have heard before.

toxikon wrote: »

I assume it's a biological urge that is stronger in some people.

I have two dogs. One dog likes to slowly nibble away at her kibbles. She takes a few bites, wanders away, then comes back and has a few more. It takes her about 10 minutes to eat. And when she's done, there's still about 1/6 of the kibbles left in her bowl.

My other dog on the other hand, finishes his meal in 10 seconds flat. He devours it voraciously and licks his bowl clean, then whines for more.

I wouldn't be surprised if humans are the same. Some people are happy to slowly pick away at their food and stop when they're no longer hungry. For others, the biological urge hits hard and the person feels compelled to eat quickly and eat A LOT.

Same here. Our current dog just inhales everything you put in front of her, no matter how much or how often. The dog we had before her, you'd just fill her bowl up with food, and it would last her several days. She'd come by every so often and have a few bites. Very interesting. That dog was also part grey-hound and super skinny, while my current dog is big, muscular, and will get super fat if you don't keep her diet in check.

Running_and_Coffee wrote: »

I'm going to admit that I'm fascinated by this concept because I don't understand it, and always worry (fear) that there's a slippery slope for me/for us all when it comes to eating for pleasure. Honestly, I have watched TV shows like My 600 Lb. Life to try to understand eating not only beyond satiety but beyond even feeling full.

Is there an adrenaline rush from eating larger quantities?

Is it comforting? When a kid skins his knee, sometimes you give him a lollipop to make him feel better...when a baby cries, sometimes your instinct is to feed the baby even if the baby is crying because he/she needs a nap or something else. Is that related?

There can be myriad reasons for compulsive eating. It can be for non-judgemental emotional comfort and support, or it can be a reaction to prolonged criticism, abuse, stress, or food deprivation. It can be a way to rekindle positive memories and feelings, or to stuff down and numb emotions that are to difficult to bear. It can be a way to control a part of your life when you have very little control in other areas.

I struggle with having control with certain foods, recognize it now.

Before, if my emotional needs weren’t met, I’d eat and fulfill that void with my favorite carbs and or sweets. Therefore eating until I was stuffed. I didn’t take into mind the nutritional value behind it, the affect it would have and did have on my body). The after affect was far more damaging, than the self gratification I got from my favorite foods.

Presently, I will not have certain foods in large quantity (my favorites) as I’m still working on self control. I portion my food on small plates. I’m more aware of reading nutrition labels. My emotional needs are met by using cardio to help stress and use as therapeutic resources, since seeking an actual therapist is too costly.