Hello and welcome back to part 2 of this overeating series (Revisit Part 1)! I wanted to share six additional factors that are often out of our awareness that influence the amount (and sometimes types) of foods that we eat. Again, I share this from a place of nonjudgmental information-sharing and not from a place of wanting people to weaponize this information in order to lose weight. As a psychologist, I am all about bringing things into our conscious awareness so we can be intentional about them, at least some of the time (it would be exhausting if we did it all the time). So, here are some quick facts about six more factors that influence overeating:

Social Context

• Food is inherently a social activity, built into many cultures
• Many people tend to eat more in social settings compared to when they are alone, by as much as 40-70% more
• Social context extend length/duration of meal and is more pleasant
• There are often more highly palatable/calorie dense foods in social settings
• Social pressures may make us eat more in general or certain types of foods than we otherwise would

Portion Size

• The bigger the portion size we are served, the more we are likely to eat
• On larger plates, we tend to take more food 
• Same amount of food served on different sized plates leads to different satiety levels; brain registers “extra space” on a larger plate as unused potential and therefore less satiation compared to a smaller plate

Emotions

• Many (though not all) people eat due to emotions — stress, sadness, boredom, or even happiness (celebratory ice cream?!)
• Eating releases endorphins (feel-good chemical), making us feel better 
• Eating becomes a go-to coping mechanism for many people and, when we do this many times, it becomes a conditioned behavior anytime we feel negative emotions (hello classical conditioning and Pavlov’s dogs)

Distraction

• Distracted or mindless eating increases our overall calorie intake (Hetherington, 2007)
• Our memory of the last meal impacts how much we choose to eat in a current meal; if we are distracted when eating, we are more likely to eat more both in the current meal and at our next meal because we don’t remember how much we ate (Robinson et al., 2013)

Alcohol Consumption

• Energy intake derived from alcohol is additive — meaning we are adding calories to our day without thinking about it (often)
• Tend to consume highly palatable, calorie dense foods when drinking alcohol
• Excessive drinking (4+ drinks in a day) is associated with higher BMI and greater fat levels

Food/Calorie Restriction

• An attempt to restrict one’s food intake, in the long-run, tends to actually increase overeating episodes
• When we restrict, our body releases hormones to help us to survive; these hormones slow down our metabolism and make us want to seek out highly caloric foods
• Restriction takes a lot of cognitive energy and when we have other demands on our cognitive energy (literally any stressor), we tend to let one go. Most often, the food/eating 

Can you all think of other factors that influence overeating for you or for people you know? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below! And be sure to stay tuned for part 3 of this series where I share ways to prevent or reduce overeating and how to know when it’s time to seek additional help/support.

References

Hetherington, M. M. (2007). Cues to overeat: psychological factors influencing overconsumption. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 66(1), 113-123.

Series Overview

• Part 1: Overeating defined, specifying what overeating is and is not, as well as some information on one of the factors in our environment that influences how much we eat that is often outside of our conscious awareness. 
• Part 2: (you are here): Outline of six additional factors that influence how much food we take in that operate outside our awareness. 
• Part 3: Tips from a Psychologist on how to avoid overeating as well as information on when you should seek help.