The Science Behind Overeating
Conditioned hypereating is one of the main reasons people are unsuccessful in their efforts to lose weight. A person might follow a strict diet for a while and lose weight. But if that person does not replace the "old circuitry" by retraining the brain's reactions to food stimuli, he or she will eventually give in to the continuous bombardment of food temptations and gain all the weight back. To retrain the brain Kessler, author of The End of Overeating, suggested the following steps:
1. Determine ahead of time what you will eat on a given day and block out everything
else.
2. Figure out how much you need to eat, and stick to that amount without going back
for seconds.
3. Choose foods that satisfy rather than stimulate: whole grains, beans, vegetables,
fruit, and lean protein.
4. Practice resisting certain temptations and use self-talk: for example, tell yourself
what you will do if you see something you'd like to eat (e.g., walk away, think of
something else, have a glass of water instead).
5. Learn to recognize emotions (sadness, fatigue, anxiety) and other stimuli that
might trigger the desire to overeat so you know how to react to them.
6. Relate unhealthy foods to negative or unappealing images that will help to make
trigger foods less desireable.
Laura Strecker, AAHPERD Jan./Feb. 2010