Category Archives: Obesity Diet Plan

What Overeating Is and What Triggers It

This article, submitted by Bright Futures Treatment Center, while not exactly representative of The Anderson Method, presents some very valuable ideas and theory.

Eating is an essential part of life, but it can cause physical, emotional, and social problems when it becomes excessive. This is what is often called “overeating”. Overeating is a common problem that affects many individuals and can severely affect one’s health and well-being. Have you ever found yourself eating beyond the point of fullness or eating even when you’re not hungry? If so, you may be overeating. Understanding the triggers of overeating can help you break this cycle and create a healthier relationship with food. This article will explore and help you understand what overeating is and what triggers it.

What is Overeating?

In this section, we’ll explore the different types of overeating, the causes, and the physical and emotional effects it can have on your life. Overeating is a complex issue that can have multiple causes and affects individuals in different ways. It can range from occasional overeating, such as during holidays, to compulsive overeating. Understanding these aspects of overeating can help you create an action plan to overcome it, no matter the circumstance.

Types and causes of overeating

Overeating can take on many different forms, and it’s important to understand the different types to better address the problem. Understanding the different types allows you to gain insight into the underlying causes and develop a tailored approach to overcome overeating. Here is an overview of what overeating is and what triggers it:

  • Emotional Overeating is a type of overeating triggered by stress, anxiety, or boredom. It’s often used as a coping mechanism to deal with negative emotions.
  • Binge Eating is characterized by excessive and rapid eating, often accompanied by feelings of shame and guilt. Binge eaters may eat large quantities of food in a short period of time, even when they’re not physically hungry.
  • Compulsive Overeating is also known as food addiction. It’s a persistent pattern of overeating despite the negative consequences. This type of overeating is often driven by an obsession with food and a compulsive need to eat, even when not hungry.
  • Mindless Eating is another type of mindless eating. It occurs when individuals eat without paying attention to their hunger signals or the food they are consuming. Distractions, such as television or work, or a lack of planning and preparation can trigger this type of overeating.

Physical and Emotional Effects of Overeating

Overeating can have severe consequences for both our physical and emotional well-being. While overeating occasionally may not cause significant harm, chronic overeating can lead to a range of negative health outcomes.

Physical effects of overeating include:

  • Weight gain. Excessive calorie intake from overeating can lead to weight gain, increasing the risk of chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
  • Digestive problems. Overeating can cause physical discomforts, such as bloating, indigestion, and stomach pain. Additionally, it can lead to long-term digestive problems, such as acid reflux, ulcers, and irritable bowel syndrome.
  • Cardiovascular disease. Chronic overeating can contribute to the development of heart disease and high blood pressure, as well as increase the risk of stroke.

Emotional effects of overeating include:

  • Guilt and shame. Overeating can lead to feelings of guilt and shame. It is even more of an issue if overeating results in weight gain.
  • Depression and anxiety. Chronic overeating can have a negative impact on mental health, leading to depression and anxiety. This is particularly true if overeating is used as a coping mechanism for dealing with negative emotions.
  • Decreased self-esteem. Overeating can lead to decreased self-esteem and confidence because the individual may see themselves as weak or feel guilty about their changes in appearance.

Triggers of Overeating

Do you ever find yourself reaching for food even when you’re not hungry? Or do you feel helpless and powerless to stop eating even when you’re full? If so, you’re not alone. However, it’s important to remember that overeating is not simply a result of a lack of willpower or self-discipline. There are many internal and external triggers that can contribute to overeating, and it’s essential to recognize and understand these triggers to better yourself.

Internal triggers of Overeating

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most common internal triggers of overeating:

  • Emotional Factors. Negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, boredom, and depression can all lead to overeating as a means of coping. Food can provide comfort and temporary relief from unpleasant feelings, making it an attractive option when we struggle emotionally.
  • Hunger Cues. Our bodies are designed to regulate hunger. But sometimes, these cues can get off track, leading to overeating even when we’re not truly hungry. This can be due to various factors, including skipping meals, irregular eating patterns, or a diet lacking in nutrients.

External Triggers of Overeating

People often overlook the importance and effect of external triggers.

Some external triggers include:

  • Environmental Factors. Our environment can play a significant role in our eating habits. For example, social pressure to eat at certain times, the availability of high-calorie foods, or someone near us overeating can make us overeat.
  • Food-Related Cues. The sight and smell of food can also trigger overeating, even when we’re not truly hungry. This can be incredibly challenging when we’re surrounded by tempting food options. Or when we’re constantly bombarded with food-related advertisements.

Coping with Overeating

Overeating can be challenging. But with the right tools and strategies, you can take control and find lasting solutions.

  • Identify your triggers. Understanding what overeating is and what triggers it is crucial in managing this behavior.
  • Change your mindset: Focusing on positive thinking can improve your self-confidence, reduce stress levels, and improve mental health. These are just some of the benefits of changing your mindset.
  • Adopt a healthy lifestyle: Incorporating healthy habits into your daily routine, such as regular exercise, mindfulness, and proper nutrition, can help you overcome overeating.
  • Seek professional help: A therapist or counselor can provide the support and guidance you need. With their help, you’ll understand what overeating is and what triggers it for you. Furthermore, they’ll be able to help you create a better relationship with food that’ll skyrocket your recovery from overeating.

 

 

Are Protein Shakes Really a Good Idea For Weight Loss?

In a word, “yes”. Here’s why. A real weight loss expert explains.


New clients and readers ask, “What should I eat to lose weight? What should I avoid?” I don’t answer with lists of foods and diets. Instead, I teach a method for permanent weight loss that includes the foods they like, holidays, dining out and all the things they’ll want for the rest of their lives. Success comes from building habits that include your favorite things while they keep you at your optimum weight. “Dieting” with schemes that won’t last only leads to yo-yo dieting and continuous weight gain.

However, I’m sometimes asked questions about specific foods that are easy to answer and provide immediate effective help with no study and effort. One of the questions is about the advisability of protein shakes. The answer: yes, they are a good idea, and here’s why:

1) Protein shakes are an easy way to achieve your daily caloric goals.

To lose weight, women generally need to limit their intake to about1000 calories per day consistently for an extended period of time, and men, about 1500. In our culture of big breakfasts, lunch in restaurants, meetings and break rooms with snacks and vending machines, you’ve undoubtedly discovered it’s impossible to do. It’s easy to be at 2000 before you’ve even gotten home for dinner.

By keeping your breakfast light with a 300-calorie egg-based breakfast, and then using a 150-calorie protein shake as a meal substitute at lunch, it’s easy to limit your intake during the day to under 500 calories (especially when you use my meals-and-fasting method), leaving you 500 in the budget for a satisfying home-made or prepared meal at the end of the day.

2. Protein shakes suppress your appetite rather that stimulate it.

Simple carbohydrates, like the sugar in prepared foods and fruit, act like a drug that stimulates your appetite. You feel hungry soon after you’ve eaten and it’s hard to resist eating more. Simple carbs are digested quickly and sends your blood sugar way up. This triggers an overproduction of insulin by your pancreas, which sends your brain the message that you need to eat more. We experience this as hunger and cravings. A grain and fruit breakfast often makes people ravenous by 10, while going without doesn’t.

Protein, on the other hand, takes a long time to digest and keeps your blood sugar even, without the spike in insulin and the hunger and cravings it creates.

So, you’ll find that a 150 calorie protein shake will fuel you for a whole morning or afternoon without feeling hungry again a few hours later.

You’ve got to be careful, though, in selecting a “meal substitute” shake. When you look at the nutritional information, some are loaded with sugar and they are low in protein. Some so-called “healthy” shakes and snack bars are just sugary drinks and candy bars in diguise. You’ll end up hungry in a short while just like with other sugary foods. All shakes are not equal. You’ll see some with just a few grams of protein and mostly carbs, and you’ll be hungry right away. When you have those, you can never get enough. Some of the better shakes have as much as 30 grams of protein. Those will stay with you all afternoon.

3. Protein is especially important nutritionally when you eat less to lose weight.

You’ve probably heard of the “RDA”, the recommended daily allowance of nutrients the dietitians talk about. If you don’t get enough protein, carbohydrate, fat (yes, even fat), vitamins, minerals and water, you risk compromising your health. Usually, in America, we don’t have to give it much thought because we eat so much that you can’t help but get more than enough of everything.

However, when you cut back enough to start losing weight, you risk hurting your body rather than helping it if you’re not getting enough of the right nutrients.

Remember that reducing your weight and body fat requires you to “undereat”, consuming fewer calories than you burn. (Read my article about the science of weight loss). Most of the calories in typical American foods come from carbs and fat. Our usual diets are low in protein. When you cut back, unless you pay attention, you won’t get sufficient protein.

When you undereat, if you don’t get your nutritional needs met, your body will “eat” itself to get what it needs. That’s great if it gets what it needs from your stored fat. But if you are not getting enough protein, your body will consume it’s own muscle and organ tissue, and that’s very bad. You’ll see the scale drop, but you’re losing muscle instead of fat. You’ll look and feel worse, not better. And your metabolic rate will decrease. It will become harder to lose weight and keep from gaining!

By using a protein shake with 30 grams of protein as a lunch or breakfast substitute, you can make it easy to get enough protein to prevent muscle loss even when you are eating much less than your metabolic rate.

So, yes, protein shakes are a good idea for weight loss, especially when you make them a habit for life. I’ve been using them on a regular basis to keep the calories down for over 30 years. They’ve helped me maintain my ideal weight using my method the entire time after years of being obese. I highly recommend them.

One Breakfast Here Will Make You Lose Weight. The Other Will Make You Fat. Which One Is For You?

 

200 calories breakfast

(The author is a psychotherapist who lost 140 lbs. when he developed his unique method, and he’s kept it off for over 30 years. Read about it in his book at the right, or listen to his audiobook, free sample provided here.)

Pictured above is one of the breakfasts I had regularly while I lost 140 pounds. Its only 200 calories. It tastes great, made up of my favorite foods, keeps me going all morning, and at 1/8th of the breakfast pictured below, had me shedding pounds like crazy. Now, to maintain my loss, I eat more than the 200 calorie breakfast above, but still only a fraction of the American norm that is making people obese and sick.

meat lovers omlette

This above is Denny’s Meat Lovers’ Omelette at a whopping 1730 calories. That’s the kind of thing I used to pick that made me over 300 pounds. Think about that. 200 calories versus 1730. No wonder we have an obesity epidemic.

To lose weight, you need to learn how to eat what you like, not go on a diet.

For years I have resisted giving my clients food plans or telling them what to eat. Instead, I teach them how to succeed. I know how to help people be successful at weight loss, and its almost always contrary to what they think should be done. They think they need to follow some diet and exercise plan that some personal trainer or dietician will prescribe. Nope. They need to train in methods of behavioral science. I can guarantee that my client will lose weight if they follow me.

Clients who have trained in my method and people who have read my book know that the secret to success is learning how to eat what you like and learning the behavioral techniques that change the way you think and act habitually. Success does not come from diets and exercise plans that you know will come to an end when you want to live normally again.

To learn what I teach, read my book or listen to my audiobook, pictured at the upper right.

Which Dinner Tonight? One Will Make You Gain Weight. One Will Help You Lose Weight.

(The author is a psychotherapist who lost 140 lbs. when he discovered his unique method, and he’s kept it off for over 30 years. Read about his method of fast permanent weight loss by clicking on the book cover to the right.)

red lobster

This is a lobster tail, corn on the cob and golden mashed potatoes from Red Lobster. It’s only 360 calories.

New york strip

This is the New York Strip, baked potato and broccoli at Outback. Have it with the side blue cheese salad and it’s a budget busting 1922 calories!

Think about that. One of these is 5 times the calorie load than the other! Some people will gain weight at over 1500 calories a day! It’s crazy to have gotten into the habit of thinking such caloric meals are normal. It’s only normal in America and other places that have an obesity epidemic killing the population.

Don’t think that you have to live a deprived life or write down and count every calorie for the rest of your life to control your weight. You don’t. I teach my clients how to create habits so it becomes easy to control your weight. We work very hard in the training and write down every calorie we eat for a while. But we learn to eat what we like in ways that make it natural for us to be successful. I haven’t written down what I’ve eaten or counted calories in 30 years. I had to work hard in the beginning to create the habits I have and lose the 140 pounds I lost. Now it’s easy.

Read my book or listen to my audiobook to learn what I teach.

One Lunch Here Will Make You Lose Weight. One Will Make You Gain. Which One Is For You?

(The author is a psychotherapist who lost 140 lbs. when he developed his methods, and he’s kept it off for over 30 years. Read about his method in his book at the right, or listen to his audiobook, free sample provided here.)

whopper combo

This is a Whopper with fries and a regular Coke. It’s a whopping 1440 calories. This is the kind of thing I used to have for lunch.

IM000299.JPG

This is a Whopper Jr. and a Diet Coke. It’s only 300 calories. I’ll have this for lunch at least once a week now. It doesn’t look a lot different than the 1440 calorie one, does it? The food companies try to get us to eat as much as possible. Is there any question why we are having an obesity epidemic when we aren’t paying attention?

Before I discovered the solution to my weight problem and permanently lost 140 pounds, I thought that to lose weight I’d have to give up eating what I liked. It wasn’t true and the dieting never worked.

Then I learned how to eat what I liked in a way to lose weight and keep it off. It was a bit of work at first, but now its easy.

To learn what I learned, read my book, eBook, or listen to my audiobook (listen to the free sample audio here).