Overeating doesn’t just cause you to gain weight (sighs), but it actually screws up the body in ways that make more weight gain likely.
Gut Reaction: Overeating Can Impair Body Function : NPR
The problem, some doctors and researchers say, is that overeating causes biological changes in the body that can lead more food cravings and cause your stomach to send mixed signals about when it’s actually full. As the years go by, those holiday pounds add up.
Some of the factors involved include:
- Eating a high-fat diet messes with the body’s internal clock and makes you hungry at unusual times (e.g., late night cravings, waking up and wanting to have a midnight snack).
- Overeating makes your body accelerate to metabolize the food; in the rush, it gets stored as fat.
- Excess sugar consumption causes insulin production to reduce the blood sugar — but a lag at the end of the process means your blood sugar dips below normal … which makes you crave more sugar and carbs.
- Constant overeating messes up the “I’m full” circuits in the stomach that tell the brain it can stop eating. You don’t feel full reliably, so you keep eating.
- Icy drinks cause the stomach to contract, pushing food out of it, and making you feel hungry sooner.
Okay, so it probably wouldn’t have affected my holiday food consumption much. But it’s interesting to know now.
19 view(s)