Getting to the Root of Why We Eat Too Much
Our weight is determined by how much we eat and what kinds of foods we choose to eat, period. Aside from the occasional occurrence of a genuine thyroid disorder where a person genuinely eat the right way and still holds onto excess weight like no one’s business are the exception to the rule for the most part, and most of us strictly are overweight, or over our ideal weight, because we consume too many calories. That’s it. There’s no magic science to it, no outside environmental factors that make all that much difference. In the end, it is because we are simply taking in more energy (calories), than we are expending (burning).
And that leaves us with leftover calories, which are then stored as fat. Add a lot of alcohol into the mix, and you have a double whammy, since alcohol is burned before calories are, leaving anything else to be stored as fat, which is why it is absolutely not advised to drink or to drink in severe moderation if you are either watching your weight or trying to lose weight.
While we know that the reason for us sabotaging our weight goals is that we simply take in too many calories, we don’t always know the reasons behind WHY we eat too much. Is it because we are bored, or we have an oral fixation and simply like the feeling of chewing a lot? It might be that we find psychological comfort in eating certain foods, and a lot of them. An example of this, specifically for women in particular, is chocolate.
Lots of women say that eating chocolate makes them feel better, and they often will overdo it because the rush of seratonin it gives is too good, and they just keep eating more and more to get that good feeling, intaking more calories and voila – adding more weight! This goes to show that the primary motivation for eating, and especially overeating and comfort eating, comes from a psychological foundation. To successfully cure one’s self of being overweight, there are definitely emotional issues that need to be addressed, it’s not just a question of simple willpower.
