7 Effective Ways To Stop Overeating

Overeating, or eating more calories than your body requires, is common. While it’s normal to overeat occasionally, such as when enjoying a favorite dish, frequent overeating can negatively affect mental and physical health.

Overeating can contribute to weight gain and conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It can also affect your emotional well-being and increase the risk of mental health conditions like depression.

It’s always best to work with a qualified healthcare provider to treat eating concerns. However, recognizing triggers and practicing healthy eating behaviors on your own can also help you reduce and prevent overeating.

You might be tempted to skip meals when trying to control how many calories you eat. This may seem like an easy way to lose weight and control your food intake, but it can trigger overeating. 

Skipping meals isn’t always unhealthy. However, research shows that skipping certain meals, like breakfast, may increase food cravings later in the day. This can lead to overeating.

Skipping meals can also reduce blood sugar control, increasing hunger levels and making it easier to overeat.

Maintaining healthy blood sugar levels may help you reduce more extreme hunger and overeating. Blood sugar plays an important role in appetite regulation. Studies show that poor blood sugar control can influence hunger levels, trigger cravings, and increase the risk of overeating.

In one study, people who experienced more significant dips in blood sugar after meals were hungrier and more likely to overconsume calories than people with more stable blood sugar levels.

Meals high in refined carbohydrates and low in fiber and protein can trigger more intense blood sugar fluctuations, leading to overeating. Meals and snacks high in protein and fiber slow digestion and prevent blood sugar spikes and dips. 

Being overly restrictive with your food choices might cause you to overeat.

Research suggests that avoiding certain foods can increase cravings for those foods. For example, if you’re on a diet that doesn’t allow you to consume any sweets, you may find that your cravings for sugary foods increase. This can lead to overeating. Studies also show that restrained eaters are more likely to overeat highly palatable foods, like sweets, than unrestrained eaters.

Avoiding overly restrictive diets and occasionally enjoying more “indulgent” foods can help reduce cravings and overeating.

Stress affects hunger levels differently. Some people may have a reduced appetite when stressed, while others are hungrier and more likely to overeat. Up to 60% of people report eating more total calories when they’re under stress.

Stress influences our appetite and the types of food we eat. Studies show that higher stress levels are linked to greater calorie consumption and an increased intake of sweets and fast food.

Managing your stress levels by reducing known stressors in your life, prioritizing self-care, setting boundaries, and incorporating stress-reduction techniques into your day can help you manage overeating.

Identifying and addressing potential triggers for overeating can help you eat more mindfully.

Some people are more likely to overeat when they feel stressed or sad, while others may find that social situations or feeling insecure causes overeating. Although not everyone has triggers for overeating, understanding which circumstances and emotions make you more likely to overeat can help you develop a better understanding of your eating habits.

If you find that overeating is triggered by emotions, a mental health professional can help you develop healthier ways to deal with your feelings and reduce overeating. 

Your food choices greatly affect your appetite. Choosing more filling foods can help reduce hunger levels and increase feelings of fullness, which can help reduce overeating.

A diet high in refined carbohydrates and added sugar can lead to extreme blood sugar changes, which can increase cravings and overeating. Choosing a diet higher in filling foods, such as those high in protein and fiber, can support satiety (feelings of fullness) and help you eat more mindfully.

Protein and fiber increase feelings of fullness by slowing digestion and increasing levels of satiety hormones, like glucagon-like cholecystokinin (CCK), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), and peptide YY (PYY).

Choosing meals and snacks high in protein and fiber can help you feel more satisfied after eating. Try adding sources of protein and fiber to every meal and snack to support appetite regulation and prevent overeating.

Studies show that distracted eating increases calorie intake, both immediately and later in the day. One 2025 review found that watching TV while eating increases food intake, especially at the next meal. Scrolling on your phone during mealtime can also lead to increased calorie intake.

Minimizing distractions while you eat can help you be more mindful of hunger and fullness cues and prevent overeating.  

There are many possible causes of overeating.

• Physical reasons include hunger levels and blood sugar fluctuations. For example, you may overeat if you let yourself get very hungry. Unstable blood sugar levels can trigger overeating.
• Emotional triggers include stress and other difficult emotions. A person experiencing high stress levels or feeling sad or anxious may overeat as a way to cope with their feelings.
• Eating while distracted by your phone or the TV can trigger overeating. 
• Lack of sleep can significantly increase the desire for high-calorie foods.
• Diseases like diabetes can trigger overeating by influencing appetite hormones and blood sugar levels.

Emotional eating is eating in response to emotions. People who struggle with emotional eating may overeat in response to difficult emotions like sadness and anxiety.

Emotional eating usually involves high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods like sweets and fast food. People who emotionally overeat use food as a coping mechanism or a way to deal with challenging emotions.

It’s normal to occasionally indulge in foods like ice cream or chips when you’re feeling down, but frequently overeating can lead to physical health concerns like weight gain. It can also affect your mental health.

Recognizing emotional overeating is the first step in addressing this common issue. If you find yourself regularly overeating when you’re depressed, sad, anxious, or stressed, it’s best to work with a qualified healthcare provider, like a psychologist or registered dietitian (RD).

They can recommend helpful ways to break the emotional eating cycle, such as incorporating stress-relieving practices into your day, being more aware of hunger and fullness cues, developing a healthier diet, and finding healthier ways to deal with your emotions. 

If overeating affects your physical or mental health, it’s always best to work with a healthcare provider.

It’s important to distinguish overeating from eating disorders. Overeating isn’t considered an eating disorder, but certain eating disorders involve overeating—for example, binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN).

With BED, a person repeatedly binges on large quantities of food and experiences a loss of control over their eating behavior.

Bulimia is an eating disorder that involves binging and then using compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain. Compensatory behaviors might include throwing up after eating, exercising, or using laxatives.

If you feel a loss of control when overeating or have used compensatory measures to prevent weight gain, you may have an eating disorder. Eating disorders significantly affect physical and mental health and can be life-threatening. If you think you have an eating disorder, it’s critical to get help from a healthcare provider. They can help you get the appropriate care for your situation and health needs. 

Most people overeat from time to time, but frequent overeating can lead to weight gain and increase disease risk.

Strategies to curb overeating include avoiding restrictive diets, managing stress, identifying triggers, and avoiding restrictive diets.

If overeating affects your physical or emotional well-being, it’s important to seek professional help from a healthcare provider.