Many of our contemporaries at least once found themselves in a situation where they just wanted to say to themselves: “Eat less!” Psychologists say that the problem of immoderate food intake is one of the most pressing issues today. Many people do not have a proper food consumption culture and do not even know about it, and this gives rise to a variety of negative consequences, ranging from aesthetic to severe physiological, psychological.
What is it about?
It happens that a person seems to be ready to give himself the “Eat less!” setting, but in practice it is completely impossible to realize it. Most often, people suffering from overweight, cellulite think about such a correction of their daily routine. According to psychologists, the first step on the path to beauty and he alth is accepting oneself as one is at the moment. You need to learn to love yourself, respect and appreciate yourself - only such a start of the program will simultaneously increase self-esteem and improve externalappearance, general condition of the body. There are four main reasons why a person eats unreasonably much. Almost in the first place in terms of prevalence is stress and an insufficient amount of positive emotions, combined with self-doubt and self-doubt.
What's the right way?
One of the important reasons for overeating is the lack of food culture. Many of our contemporaries simply do not have information about how to eat properly and correctly. The culture of food consumption practically does not exist in our country, and this is especially noticeable if you look at the broad masses. Others, although they have a general idea of how to eat right, neglect such recommendations, simply not wanting to get rid of bad habits.
For a long time there has been a stereotype: if all family members are overweight, we can confidently talk about well-being in the house, love between relatives, and a stable financial situation. Psychologists, however, urge to treat the situation more critically. Parents are the ones who form bad eating habits in the younger generation in the first place. The worse the elders eat, the worse the eating habits of the younger ones will be. This is in some way a tradition adopted in the family, and even supported by genetic prerequisites.
Experiences
Some people seriously think about how to stop stress eating. This problem has been very relevant lately. Constant worries, regular stress on the nerves, overstrain in everyday life - all this becomes the cause of overeating. Often people eventhey don’t notice how they turn food into a kind of antidepressant. If the work situation is conflicting, if there are problems at home, it is very easy to get into the habit of calming down by eating another chocolate bar or hamburger. As static studies show, such habits develop in many people and often remain for a long time. If a person turns food into a kind of medicine, he cannot keep within a reasonable range of consumption and eats a lot.
About speed
A no less significant problem for a person at the present time is lack of time. Trying to save as many minutes as possible, people eat on the run, in a hurry and literally swallowing food. Snacking is one of the worst eating habits according to many nutritionists. It so happened that at home a person can not always eat: some - only once or twice a day, others - once every few days. People are used to snacking between urgent matters. Between main meals, such persons unconsciously begin to eat constantly. At work, many drink tea, literally without stopping. While relaxing and watching TV, our contemporaries are accustomed to constantly eating sweets.
Hurt Harm
As experts have long established, the faster a person eats, the more he hurries, the worse absorbed absorbed. The body is deficient in vitamins and minerals. Eating irregularly, eating abundantly in the evening, a person harms himself and his he alth. According to nutritionists, it is precisely because of tensionschedule, lack of time during the day a person is not aware of hunger. This feeling appears only in the evening, when a free minute is lying around. A person immediately loads the stomach, having the opportunity, but evening loads are difficult. In addition, when hungry for a day, he eats much more than his body needs.
Love and eat
Sometimes it happens that a person admits: "I am not loved enough, so I eat a lot." As doctors have established, when the human stomach is full of food, all the forces of the body are directed to the digestion of food, and other needs are blocked, they become less important. If a person does not receive enough love, if he lacks attention, he unconsciously resorts to food. Often a person does not even understand where true appetite ends and gluttony begins. Such people gradually turn into stomach addicts.
According to psychologists, very often nervous people who eat a lack of love are the result of improper upbringing. Parents, seeking to cover the need of the younger generation for care, instead of affection, give the child sweets or other food that it loves. Food replaces games and constant communication, takes a place in life, which is normally reserved for interaction with relatives. Having matured, such a person feels good in communicating with others only in a state when the stomach is full.
Can it be fixed?
Since the psychology of overeating has been studied for a long time, the optimal tactics for dealing with the problem have been determined. The first and main step is to identifycauses of gluttony. Only by knowing what provoked the problem, you can begin to solve it. Do not neglect the first symptoms. Gradually, the need for food only grows, overeating turns into a stable habit, which is categorically difficult to cope with. Psychological dependence is formed for many years, imperceptibly, gradually. To avoid such a development of events, you need to carefully control yourself in everyday life.
There are four basic rules to deal with or prevent a problem. First of all, this is the regularity of nutrition. You need to eat often and in small portions. Normally, a person should receive food 5 times a day. It is necessary to establish a regimen so that there is no feeling of hunger, there are no snacks. The second rule is about speed. You need to eat slowly. It is important to eat at the table, sitting. Snacking while standing, in motion, leads to the absorption of more food than necessary. Finally, the fourth rule is a balanced diet. You need to eat natural food, light meals. Nutrition should be rational.
Compulsive overeating
Compulsive is a condition in which a person does something that they cannot control on their own. This word refers to obsessive actions. If overeating becomes out of control for a person, it is characterized as compulsive. One can notice such a state by accelerating the process of eating food and eating food alone due to the feeling of shame from eating such a large amount of food. Compulsive overeating is diagnosed whenthe person eats the food until they feel physically ill. Such a person consumes a lot of food, regardless of the awareness of hunger, and after taking the next portion, he feels depressed, guilty, disgusted with himself because of what he has eaten.
Scientists involved in the psychology of overeating note: compulsive overeating is observed against the background of bulimia and anorexia. Individuals with this disorder do not resort to the use of medications as people with other eating disorders do. If binge eating occurs up to three times a week for a quarter of a year or more, a doctor diagnoses compulsive eating disorder.
Features of the state
Although compulsive overeating in psychology has been studied in sufficient detail, certain questions still remain unresolved. It is noted that people suffering from such a problem are almost always aware that they consume too much food and cannot control this process. If a person eats a lot, this does not mean the presence of a compulsive disorder. It is noted that this state is always combined with stress, problems of the emotional front. Scientists have tried to analyze how much food a person consumes during an attack, but observations give very different ideas. For example, if a person usually consumes 1-2 thousand kcal per day, during an exacerbation period she can eat the amount of food with a total energy value of 15-20 thousand kcal.
Experts in the psychology of overeating,note that persons suffering from compulsive disorder are more likely than others to try to adhere to dietary programs. In most of the patients of clinics suffering from this condition, excess weight was observed even in their youth. More than half experienced severe stress in childhood. They admit that they consume food in an attempt to cope with anger or self-doubt, boredom and a dreary state. Often such individuals tend to avoid publicity and feel uncomfortable in society.
Relevance of the problem
Study of communities a la "Guzzlers Anonymous" and other groups dedicated to the problems of appetite and struggle with them, showed that compulsive eating disorder is the most common eating disorder on the planet. According to American scientists, about 3% of the citizens of their country suffer from this problem. More often it worries people over 46 years old. There are more women among patients than men.
The vast majority of overweight people do not have this disorder. Among those who have developed compulsive overeating, people with excess weight are more common, less often with normal weight. All these people are more likely than ordinary people to experience weight gain and get rid of it, which creates a kind of wave of change.
Causes and consequences
Scientists working on the psychological causes of bulimia, compulsive overeating and other eating disorders acknowledge the paucity of official data. For this reason, it is not possible to accurately determine all the causes that provokedeviations. On average, about half of the people studied were victims of depression before or suffered from it at the time of contacting the doctor. It has not yet been established whether depression can be considered a cause or whether it is a consequence of the condition. It is known that a violation of eating habits is very often due to the melancholy, anger of a person, her loneliness. In rare cases, overeating is explained by joy. If parents, seeing that the child is sad, soothe him with sweets, it is likely that in adulthood the habit will remain and in any situation a person will seek solace in sweets. Compulsive eating disorders are common among athletes who constantly expose their bodies to the public.
What do they suggest?
Some scientists believe that overeating is caused not only by psychological, but also by organic causes. Probably, the hypothalamus receives incorrect information about the degree of saturation of the body. A specific mutation has been established, in which eating disorders are observed. However, obviously psychological reasons are much more often noticeable. Compulsive behavior, including eating habits, is accompanied by a depressed state, problems in controlling oneself and one's actions. The more difficult it is for a person to express feelings, the lower the level of self-esteem, the greater the likelihood of a compulsive disorder. It leads to loneliness and dissatisfaction with the forms of your body.
While there is no exact information about the relationship between overeating and diet programs, but it is known that many, when planninglimited diet, feel the desire to eat as much as possible before starting the diet. Others, however, skip meals, which causes weight gain instead of weight loss. Maybe overeating is related to perfectionism.
What to do?
Dietitians and psychotherapists can tell you how to deal with compulsive overeating. Treatment is necessary even if the body weight is normal. The doctor teaches a person to control his habits, tells what food is he althy, what should be emphasized, how to prepare meals. Treatment helps control urges. During communication with the doctor, the person learns how to ask for help from loved ones. In some cases, antidepressants are needed. Weight monitoring programs are helpful. These give the best result in case of excess mass. You need to get into the habit of eating regularly. The task of a person is to choose only he althy products, starting from the food pyramid. People refuse sweets, fatty foods, because it is precisely such food that most often becomes the object of uncontrolled desire.
