There are many causes of overeating. The present day’s lifestyle is one of the main causes of overeating. Besides that, skipping meals, eating junk foods, lack of adequate sleep, eating huge quantities of food, heavy foods, temptations for eating caused by smell of foods, eating to be active during entertainments, taking diets lacking fiber, consuming foods containing artificial sweeteners and stress are also the causes of overeating. Social functions and celebrations encourage overeating. Certain medications also can cause overeating. People who quit smoking indulge in overeating. Eating disorders such as bulimia, binge eating disorder and disordered eating have the signs as overeating. Some depressive disorders like depression, major depressive episode and major depressive disorder can cause overeating. Psychological disorders such as borderline personality disorder and Klein-Levin syndrome can cause overeating. Hypothalamus disorder can cause overeating. Certain health conditions including diabetes, Graves disease, bipolar disease, mania and also tapeworms can trigger overeating.
Primarily, skipping meals and eating unhealthy snacks result in overeating. If you have taken sufficient amount of meal, you will not feel hunger until the next meal. Your body tries to overcompensate if you skip the meal and this causes eating more in the next meal time.
If you do not have adequate sleep, you feel tired in the day and lose control over certain things including eating. You will be eating foods that are rich in carbohydrates. Taking large portions in the meal time causes overeating. Large portions of food on the plate make you to continue eating even after satiety. Eating heavy foods such as fried foods, heavy pastries and bagels can lead to overeating as they are low in water content and high in carbohydrates.
While watching the TV you are interested in eating something. Especially when the TV program is boring you will seek the help of snacks. When commercials are running you are idle. Snacks will keep you engaged, but this leads to overeating.
Eating diets that do not contain enough fiber can cause overeating. Fiber is essential for making you feel satiated. You will take extra calories if your diet lacks fiber, because you want to fill up the stomach. Also eating food items having artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine create a special taste in them and you want to take more of these foods. This leads to overeating.
Stress can cause you to overeat. During stressful conditions eating something helps you in masking the stress. If you are a person getting stressed frequently, you are habituated to eating junk foods and this habit results in overeating.
Your brain gets the signal of satiety only 20 minutes after occurrence of this condition in your stomach. Therefore, you should chew the foods properly and then ingest them into your stomach. Fast eating can lead to overeating. The main purpose of eating is to combat hunger. Your eating speedily or eating anything you want will lead to overeating and spoil your general health. Taking diets with nutrients and especially fiber content and eating them slowly will not cause overeating if other causes such as your health conditions and medications are ruled out.