Year after year and meal after meal people still struggle with overeating.  The sad reality is that even with all of the health warnings out there, the infinite amount of information just a click away, the United States is still gaining weight at alarming levels.
I meet with several people per day and hundreds each month in person, during Skype sessions, and through email who struggle to lose unhealthy body weight even though they follow a Fitness Plan.  This is extremely unfortunate and if they do not get a handle on this they risk not only major health problems but also shortening their lives.  Yes, it’s that serious!
Overeating can be caused by many factors.  Just like fitness is not a “one size fits all” process so is overeating.  There are many factors that can cause overeating.  For example; social issues, cultural issues, depression, satiety (meals not satisfying your body’s needs), and stress.   Some of these same factors are why one fitness program will not help everybody.  There are factors that will guarantee failure.
In this article I want to address the issue of overeating from a different angle.  You see not surprisingly your body knows exactly what it needs in terms of macronutrients and micronutrients.  Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are what make up your macronutrients.  Vitamins and minerals are what make up your micronutrients.  Your body knows exactly what it needs from both of these in order to carry out the thousands of processes that take place every second of the day.
 

 
Every function that takes place in your body needs a predetermined amount of macronutrients and micronutrients in order for functions like cell regeneration, digestion, brain function, muscle contractions, and energy production.  The main function of the food you eat is to supply the required amount of vitamins and minerals, along with carbohydrates, protein, and fats, to carry out these functions.  This is just to sustain life!
Now add in daily activities including work, taking care of children, financial stress, keeping your home clean and sleeping and you can see that anything outside of sustaining life needs more essential nutrients to keep your body moving.  Unfortunately most people do not get what they need to just live let alone what they need when you add in all of the other factors that happen throughout your day.  Deficiencies in vitamins and minerals can lead to fatigue, insomnia, impaired growth, poor circulation, dry hair, hair loss, diminished immune function, shortness of breath, bruising, muscle atrophy, bone loss, and many more issues.
So how does this relate to overeating?  You see like I stated above your body knows exactly what it needs in terms of nutrients.  Believe it or not, your body will do whatever it takes to get what it needs, and it will not ask you for permission to get it.  When you consume a meal that lacks in the nutrients that your body needs it, after digestion begins, will signal your brain to seek out other sources of food in order to get what it needs to carry out the many functions it has to do.
 

 
So here’s any easier way to look at it.  If you eat a meal that only provides a quarter of what your body needs it will signal your brain to gather and eat more food.  This is subconscious so you may not even realize you’re doing it.  So you eat within an hour of your last meal and provide your body with only another quarter of the nutrients it needs.  But now your body has already used the limited nutrients you provided in the previous meal so it needs even more out of your next meal.  This cycle will continue all day until your body is satisfied with what you provided it.
So what happens to all of the food that lacks nutrient rich content?  Well, as you probably already guessed, it stores it for future energy use as fat or it is excreted out of your body.  You see just because your meals my lack nutrients it doesn’t mean your body will not use it…at some point in the future.
To summarize, your body is a fine tuned specimen and will get what it needs to sustain life no matter the cost.  When you do not provide it with nutrient dense meals it will signal your brain to consume more food in order to get more of what it needs.  This causes overeating which in turn can cause weight gain and serious medical issues.
Still struggling to understand what your body needs and how to provide your body with the best chance to operate at its best?  Contact me for a FREE Nutrition consultation.