Want to Stop Overeating? Read This Book

Are you a chronic overeater asking yourself, “How do I stop overeating once and for all?” If you want to stop overeating, you need to read this book! Find out what it is below.

If there’s one thing I’d say we (as in most Americans) have in common with 9 out of 10 people, its occasional to chronic overeating.

Seriously, overeating is so common that when I meet someone that eats like a little bird, I’m a little weirded out.

Why can’t I stop eating? What is wrong with me? How do you overcome an overeating addiction?

If you’ve ever found yourself asking these questions, you’re not alone.

The evidence to support the idea that most of us overeat is there. In the United States, approximately 1/3 of Americans are considered obese (34%), and about 2/3 are overweight (66%)*.

Most of us want to stop overeating. We talk about it all the time – at home, to coworkers, to friends, and internally.

Sometimes it feels like we just can’t stop thinking about it. Why can’t we just have the self-control to stop overeating? Why do we find ourselves in the same situation again and again?

Do you know what I mean?

Yes, this is a fitness blog, but it isn’t easy for me either. I’m a regular person and I didn’t grow up in fitness. I was never super fit, except briefly when I was on the high school dance team and worked out or danced 15+ hours a week.

Related Reading: How Do You Know Which Fats Are Good Fats?

I have these SAME thoughts about food often. I’m only lucky that I actually enjoy a lot of healthy foods and have the motivation and accountability to make good choices sometimes.

In fact, the truth is that I got fat and unhealthy and decided to commit to change. Since I’m an “all in” type of person, I decided to become a personal trainer even though nothing about my body or looks screams “Fitness Professional.” (8 months pregnant over here.)

It was a choice I needed to make for myself, and it’s still a choice I have to make daily!

Anyway, back to you. You want to stop overeating. “But how do I stop overeating?” you ask. I feel ya. Most of us do it even when we don’t think we are.

Psst! Need help with nutrition? Check out my self-paced nutrition course for weight loss!

Some of us overthink it. Some of us are social eaters and some of us just aren’t armed with the knowledge we need to eat what’s right for our bodies or health goals.

Why do we do that?

There are a few major problems that I see here in America, and I’d like to share them with you. However, don’t let them be an excuse to overeat. Here are a few major problems:

Nutrition education in American schools is almost non-existent.
Physical education in American schools is dwindling.
The prevalence of desk jobs and technology has made us more sedentary than ever.
Access to sugary, fatty, sodium-packed processed foods is CRAZY.
Not only is this unhealthy food easily accessed (it’s everywhere), it’s often cheaper than healthy foods.
We just don’t even know what’s in half of the foods we eat, much less how our bodies react to those things.
The guidelines we receive about eating and intake are general – they aren’t tailored to our individual needs.

What did I miss here? Can you agree with most things?

Related Reading: 15 Small Changes to Make If You’re Trying to Lose Weight

Like I have mentioned in a few of my previous posts, I was not raised playing sports or in a super healthy family. Luckily, my family was poor enough that we ate from scratch a lot (totally serious) and ate cheap legumes and vegetables a lot.

That’s honestly the only thing that kept me from getting huge as a kid…plus in the 90’s we didn’t have phones or a lot of technology that kept us sitting around a lot.

So what I’m trying to get at is that I had to teach myself everything that I know about fitness and nutrition.

Even after high school and FIVE years of college, I didn’t know what I do now from anything but my own choices.

When I decided that I wanted to become a personal trainer, I started investing in books that I thought would help me along the way.

Even before I became certified (just last month) I was reading all of the top-rated books about personal training, fitness science, and nutrition. I watched every Netflix documentary I could, too.

So my short answer to, “How do you overcome an overeating addiction?” would be – with knowledge.

The biggest eye-opener was a book all about learning how to stop overeating. It is aptly named, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.” (This is an affiliate link.)

It’s actually a book that my mother-in-law (also a personal trainer) was eating and passed along to me.

It’s written by a credible human being, a medical doctor who was so interested in why we overeat, that he decided to do a bunch of research on it. (He tested even himself in situations where food choices had to be made, and with everything he knew as a doctor, still couldn’t stop overeating!)

Related Reading: How to Enjoy Restaurants & Parties & Still Lose Weight

How the Book is Helpful

Primarily, the book explains things that will make you feel like you’re not alone if you’re a chronic overeater. Even thin, fit people overeat sometimes – they just exercise enough that it doesn’t always show.

Secondly, the book explains how fats, sugars, and sodium make us feel. They act as a drug in our systems and are a big reason why we are addicted and can’t say, “No” often. (This isn’t to say that it’s an excuse to use, rather it’s to be used as knowledge.)

Third, the book makes powerful suggestions on how to reframe our thinking and behavior when it comes to food. It suggests retraining our thoughts to make good food decisions that will help us stop overeating.

It also suggests ways to replace certain negative behaviors with good ones.

It’s a powerful read that will leave you feeling a little more in control of your food choices and negative associations with food. It will make you feel empowered!

Knowledge & Experience Are Key If You’re Asking, Why Can’t I Stop Eating?

I say this all the time, but I truly believe that the best thing you can do for your health is to get started learning. Learning new things at the gym, reading more books, taking more classes, taking a look at the research available, etc.

Empowering yourself with knowledge will always help you make better, more effective choices. This is true if you’re trying to lose weight or make other healthy changes.

Whether you start with a book, or go extreme like me and commit to becoming a personal trainer, the choice is yours – every day.