3 Surprising Negative Effects of Overeating

The obvious negative effects of overeating are extra weight and jeopardized health. Most people are well aware of these negative effects. But overeating affects so many other aspects of your life, too. As a psychiatrist who has worked with overeaters for decades, I understand that if you’re an overeater, there is so much more at stake than just your weight.

Take a look at these surprising negative effects of overeating:

1. You Still Feel Hungry


Emotional eating is when your hunger for emotional fulfillment gets turned into physical hunger for food. The only problem with eating for comfort is that while your stomach is getting filled, your heart still remains empty. Eating might make you forget about your emotional needs for a few minutes, or even an hour, but no matter how much food you eat your real needs never get met. The more you eat, the more your emotional hunger grows. As time passes, using food this way leads to feelings of defeat and depression. Looking for the real source of your hunger and addressing it directly will help restore your hope.

2. Your Psychological Growth Gets Stunted


When food gets installed as a coping mechanism, it becomes a quick fix instead of finding a real solution. Once you get relief from food, you turn to it to deal with more and more problems. Suddenly, you’re eating when you’re overwhelmed, tired, bored, lonely, frustrated, irritated, or to deal with just about any uncomfortable feeling that arises. As time passes you no longer believe that you can handle life without food and even simple tasks suddenly feel too difficult to take on. The more you turn to food, the more insecure you become. Psychological skills are like muscles. If you don’t use them, you lose them. Thinking things through and developing new skills will help you feel confident and efficient.

3. Your Relationships Remain Unfulfilling


When food becomes a substitute friend or lover, it can become easier to eat than to deal with fostering intimacy in your relationships. Human relationships can be hard work, but all people crave connection and food never replaces love. Perhaps you’ve found yourself eating when you’re lonely or to compensate for an unsatisfying relationship. As time passes you turn to food more and more to fill your relationship needs. The more you use food in this way the less motivated you are to develop new social skills, or to heal an ailing relationship.

Doing the work to make your relationships more fulfilling will help you feel close and connected.

It can seem like the only way to lose weight is to restrict your calories and exercise more. However, sometimes it’s better to approach things in reverse. Start to see the ways that you are using food as a coping mechanism as your guideposts. Use them to point you towards the places where you need to grow or develop new skills. As you focus on your life more, you will naturally focus on food less. The result will be a life that that’s more fulfilling. Losing weight will simply be an added bonus.