Like any problem, the first step to solving it is recognising it – with honesty. We will always struggle to stop ourselves over indulging if we fail to identify and acknowledge our primary reasons for doing so.
If we shrug it off with reasons like, “It’s because I have a sweet tooth,” or, “I just need to exercise more,” we aren’t really addressing the real issue, and probably won’t make lasting changes.
Hopefully the following will help you identify your REAL reason(s) and disarm any of our excuses.
1) We Underestimate
We have a tremendous ability to underestimate how many calories we are consuming in every meal. Over weeks and months this becomes a major problem and is probably the biggest reason we pile on the unwanted pounds.
Unless you’ve audited your diet recently, I guarantee that you wouldn’t be able to guess how many calories were in your breakfast this morning. In fact, I challenge you to estimate how many calories you will consume today. Tonight, add it all up,using Google and a calculator. Be honest. You might be shocked at how inaccurate your initial estimate was.
2) We Overestimate
So often we overestimate our level of activity. Many of us think that because we are busy all the time that this equates to burning lots of calories. Most of us overestimate how many we burn in a day. This coupled with the first reason are a sure recipe for our body fat to creep up unawares.
The sad reality is, most of our workouts don’t burn nearly as many calories as you would think. For someone who weighs about 73kg, a one hour run at 5 mph would burn approximately 606 calories.
To put it into perspective, you’d have to run for 5 miles in order to burn the calories you’d get from a muffin and short latte.
3) Unaddressed Emotional Need(s)
Another common but often unaddressed reason we overindulge in extra calories is an unfulfilled emotional need. Whether it be worry, stress, hurt, anger, sadness, loneliness or something else, each of these can be our motivation to eat something (even “good” food) unnecessarily. It acts like a distraction from our inner need and keeps our mind from thinking about it, just for a moment.
If this sounds familiar, acknowledge it and talk to a trusted friend or your personal trainer about it. When you get the urge to eat something, stop and consider why you want to eat it. If it’s for a reason other than genuine hunger or need, then it may well be your emotional need that is motivating you to do it.
Seek professional counselling to address the issue if you’re really struggling with it.
4) Habit
We’ve all been there. We’re creatures of habit. You boil the kettle, pour the tea, crack open the biscuits… “WAIT NO! Why am I doing this? I’m not hungry. I don’t even like chocolate digestives!” (Okay, maybe you’re thinking the last part is a lie.)
But isn’t this so often the case? We often eat biscuits or crisps just because we always do, or have always done. We don’t think about whether our body actually requires anything for fuel at that point, how it will affect our blood sugar, metabolism, never mind the fat content, calories and sugar.
What if we had our cup of coffee without biscuits? What if we didn’t have our afternoon packet of crisps, but instead substituted it for a banana or an apple with a few nuts ? – Macro nutrients that our body actually NEEDS.
5) Boredom
Weekends – a time for relaxation, leisure and … boredom. In western culture we tend to eat when we’re bored. Even when we’re not eating food, we’re either drinking or chewing gum – something, anything to keep us occupied.
Boredom is quite possibly the craziest reason to eat, yet so many of us do it and usually without thinking. Similar to dealing with eating out of habit, it’s helpful to stop before eating and just ask ourselves “why?” Another helpful tactic is to simply drink water instead which helps our metabolism function normally, it re-hydrates us, it makes us feel fuller and contains zero calories.
6) Unhealthy Attitude Towards Food
This one has been fed by the media and Personal Trainers to some extent. Most of the reasons listed in this article could be grouped under this – We have an unhealthy attitude towards food. Be it eating because of boredom, out of habit or an unaddressed emotional need, our attitude to food sucks. It’s so bad that we almost approach it like a dog because we see food as a “reward,” instead of fuel.
It’s not uncommon to hear clients say that they’re going to go home to their dinner which is their “reward.” I’ve even caught myself saying this to them, as some sort of desperate attempt to help motivate them.
But we aren’t dogs and we don’t need rewards with food. Food is fuel. Yes, we should enjoy it because it tastes good, but by eating more than our bodies actually need it demonstrates just how unhealthy our attitude towards it is.
7) Lack of Preparation
As the old saying goes,
“If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.“
For many of us, our lack of preparation and forethought cause us to pile on unwanted weight. If we don’t plan what we are going to eat for most of our meals, we will almost certainly grab the most convenient foods which tend to be calorie dense, lack fibre and lack protein. Take away meals, oven pizzas, pot noodles or microwave meals are common culprits.
But with a some thought and building a strong habit, you can put together a no fuss weekly meal strategy which will be cost effective and help you attain your desired size and shape. For some quick and easy breakfast ideas you can download our free “400 Calorie Breakfast Ideas” PDF.
8) Change of Circumstance
Maybe you’ve changed jobs, become a parent, gotten married, picked up an injury or illness. All of these and other factors can cause use to consume more calories than we use without us even realising.
Maybe your previous job involved more walking or manual labour so the amount of calories you were used to consuming reflected this. Unfortunately, if we become more idle our metabolism slows down and we tend to burn fewer calories at rest.
The same principle applies to other changes in circumstances. If our lifestyle changes, so can our weight if we aren’t mindful of it and adapt our nutrition or exercise programme accordingly.
9) Tiredness
Our bodies are extremely good at compensating and when we don’t get enough sleep or have been overexerted, our bodies will attempt to draw energy from elsewhere. Most of the time, the source is food.
It might be worth evaluating how much sleep you’ve been getting recently and the quality of it? If you want to get better quality sleep and aren’t sure how, drop me a message and I’ll send you a free copy of Sleeping Protocols.
