All About Compulsive Overeating: Symptoms, Causes, Health Risks & Treatment Options
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What is compulsive overeating?
Compulsive eating is a loss of control over one’s eating habits and a form of disordered eating. Compulsive overeating is a key warning sign of binge eating disorder.
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Why do people overeat?
Overeating can serve a purpose, like helping people cope with difficult life events or unpleasant emotions like sadness, fear, boredom or shame. But many people don’t realize their overeating stems from emotional issues.
What compulsive overeating is NOT
The cultural narrative around overeating wrongly suggests that:
- Laziness is to blame for overeating and accompanying weight issues.
- Individuals have 100 percent control over their food consumption and weight.
- Binge eating can be controlled by willpower, leading to weight loss and overall health.
It’s important for anyone suffering from an overeating disorder to understand that these statements are not valid.
What might be causing the overeating is a combination of genetics, psychological issues and social or cultural factors.
Compulsive overeating symptoms
Compulsive overeating symptoms are varied and diverse, and can lead to a number of distressing symptoms. People who overeat may regularly experience one or more of the following behaviors.
Signs to watch for
Do you overeat? Or are you concerned about someone you love? Watch for these signs which may indicate that someone is overeating or may have binge eating disorder.
- Eating what most people would think is an unusually large amount of food
- Eating much more quickly than usual, or eating slowly and consistently throughout the day and/or night
- Skipping meals and eating most of your calories at night (possibly night eating syndrome)
- Eating past satiety or until feeling uncomfortably full
- Eating despite feeling full or not feeling hungry at all
- Eating alone due to shame or embarrassment about the quantity of food consumed
- Feeling disgusted, embarrassed, depressed or guilty after overeating
- Impulsive eating
- Compulsive food behaviors like hiding food and eating food out of the garbage
Learn more about overeating
Overeating and binge eating are common eating behaviors. The providers here at Eating Recovery Center (ERC) have put together numerous articles and resources to provide you with education and support.
Check out our most popular articles:
Am I eating too much?
A number of individuals with compulsive overeating habits feel that they lack the willpower they need to "eat healthy" or "stay on a strict diet." But, compulsive overeating is most likely not due to a lack of willpower.
And -- dieting may actually make compulsive overeating behaviors worse.
Disordered eating habits are often associated with emotional and psychological distress. Anxiety, depression, social isolation and other symptoms may be present in people who binge eat. Compulsive overeating can also lead to physical and medical health concerns, listed below.
Medical and physical health risks
Many people who compulsively overeat — without compensatory behaviors (vomiting, laxative/diuretic abuse, over-exercise) — are of higher weight.
People who overeat may experience one or more of these serious medical conditions:
- Metabolic syndrome
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Type 2 diabetes
- Certain types of cancer
Higher weight individuals may also experience sleep disturbances, aches and pains, hygiene issues, mobility concerns (greater fall risk) and other health risks.
Compulsive overeating treatment
Compulsive overeating is one of the most common types of disordered eating that people struggle with. If you or someone you care about tends to overeat or binge eat, recovery is possible. The binge eating treatment program at ERC offers a holistic care approach to help you:
- Normalize your eating patterns
- Stabilize any medical conditions
- Manage co-occurring mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, trauma)
- Improve your quality of life
Recovery starts with finding the right support that’s judgement-free and tailored to your unique needs. Learn how to overcome disordered eating thoughts and behaviors, including restricting food (limiting what you eat, yo-yo dieting) or purging through self-induced vomiting, laxative use or other means.
Therapy for overeating
Millions of people struggle with compulsive overeating, yet overeating is often shrouded in shame, secrecy, and isolation. In our program, you’ll learn how to address emotions, thoughts and behaviors related to overeating. In small groups and in individual therapy sessions, you’ll take home new tips and strategies to address overeating. Common therapies used in the BED treatment program at ERC include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Exposure therapy (ERP)
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
- Emotion focused family therapy (EFFT)
CBT for overeating
At the heart of CBT is the notion that if you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel. By using CBT in therapy, our team can help you:
- Identify triggers that lead to overeating
- Change thought patterns that are keeping you stuck, anxious or depressed
- Develop new coping skills and make lifestyle changes to create the life you want
The therapists at ERC are incredibly passionate about this work and dedicated to providing you with the best care possible. When you are ready for treatment, we invite you to come as you are.
"More people struggle with binge eating and compulsive overeating than you may realize. Whether you are struggling a little or a lot, treatment can help. You’ll feel less alone as you learn new coping skills, including how to manage shame."
Colleen Soldano, LCPC, executive director at Eating Recovery Center, downtown Chicago
Binge eating recovery meal plans
The meal plan is an essential tool in BED treatment. Eating balanced meals and snacks at set times lays the groundwork for your recovery and:
- Provides an organized approach to eating
- Desensitizes feared, binged or purged foods
- Ensures that nutrient needs are met
By pre-planning meals and snacks, you can reduce impulsive or emotional eating and food decisions.
Our nutrition approach
Our CARE (consistent, attuned regular eating) approach provides dietary structure and consistency throughout the day, while allowing for flexibility in attunement with yourself. This protects against undereating and overeating and offers the following benefits:
- Planning helps to make eating less impulsive.
- Planning takes the emotionality out of eating.
- Planning leaves you less vulnerable to binge eating.
- Planning means the eating disorder will be less likely to take control of the steering wheel.
- Meal planning can also help put parameters around grocery shopping, leaving you less likely to make impulse buys.
Find freedom from shame and guilt with support from our experienced registered dietitians.
“In our BED program, our nutrition approach is structured yet flexible,” explains Kristie Simmons, MS, RD, CEDRD-S, nutrition director of virtual services at Eating Recovery Center. “We encourage an inclusive philosophy around food and provide guidelines but refrain from being prescriptive, as we feel that can perpetuate the diet mentality.”
Find treatment near you
Here at ERC, we offer multiple programs to help you address the causes of your overeating and create a peaceful relationship with food. This includes:
- In-person partial hospitalization program
- In-person intensive outpatient program
- In-person residential program
- Virtual intensive outpatient program
In all of our programs you’ll find a compassionate recovery community that understands what you are going through. We welcome and support people of all sizes, genders, and backgrounds.
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Compulsive overeating facts & statistics
- It is estimated that more than 30 percent of higher weight patients attempting to lose weight meet diagnostic criteria for binge eating disorder (BED) and/or bulimia nervosa (BN). 1
- A complex set of hormones influence and determine hunger and satiety cues as well as how we feel, think and behave around food; an individual’s weight and eating behaviors are largely determined by neurobiology rather than one’s “motivation” or drive to lose weight. 1
- Biological and genetic factors prime a subset of the population to overeat. 1
- More than one-third of adults in the US are obese, and approximately 17 percent of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese (Journal of American Medicine (JAMA)).
- Obese individuals have a 20 percent elevated risk of depression. Specifically for Caucasian, college-educated individuals with obesity, the depression risk increases to 44 percent. (www.obesityaction.org).
[1] "Difficulties in Detecting Eating Disorders in Both Normal and Higher Weight Patients," Julie Friedman, PhD and Susan McClanahan, PhD, CEDS. (2016)
Compulsive Overeating Resources
In this library of compulsive overeating resources, you’ll find effective resources to support your loved one’s journey.
Compulsive Overeating FAQs
What is it called when you constantly want to eat?
Constantly wanting to eat is called compulsive overeating or binge eating. People may compulsively overeat because they are bored or because they feel worried or upset about something. If you constantly want to eat and are looking for professional help for this, learn more about treatment for binge eating.
Why do I compulsively overeat?
Some people may overeat because friends or family members do. Others may tend to compulsively overeat because they:
- Feel anxious or afraid
- Fee sad or hopeless
- Feel ashamed or guilty
- Feel a sense of emptiness
- Are bored
Certain genetic and psychological factors may also increase the risk of overeating.
How do I stop obsessive overeating?
It is hard to stop overeating without professional help, but overeating is a behavior that can be stopped just like any other behavior. With an experienced treatment team, you can learn how to process emotional pain and trauma and find new coping skills to help you stop overeating.
Is eating too much considered an eating disorder?
Eating too much can be a sign of binge eating disorder, the most common eating disorder in the U.S. People with binge eating disorder regularly:
- Eat more than most people would
- Eat rapidly until uncomfortably full
- Eat when not hungry
- Eat alone
- Feel disgusted, sad or ashamed after the binge
Why is compulsive overeating a problem?
Compulsive overeating is a problem because it can be very hard to stop compulsive overeating. Compulsive overeating can lead to weight gain which can increase the risk for multiple physical and mental health concerns, including:
- Metabolic syndrome
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Joint pain and mobility concerns
- Insomnia, anxiety and depression
Is it possible to stop compulsive overeating?
Yes, it is possible to stop compulsive overeating, but stopping compulsive overeating requires far more than willpower and self-control. An experienced eating disorder treatment team can help you identify new coping skills to replace compulsive overeating behaviors. In treatment, you can also process past hurts or traumas.
Is there rehab for overeating?
Rehab for overeating is provided in eating disorder treatment facilities nationwide. In treatment, you can learn how to stop overeating by processing and letting go of pain, trauma and distressing emotions. As you change your emotional state, you learn new coping skills to replace compulsive eating behaviors with healthier alternatives.
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