Overeating and can’t stop even when you’re full?
More than ever, I am hearing from people who want to end their compulsive overeating habits for good.
They are sick of waking up each day with good intentions only to end up at the mercy of food, devouring whatever they can before the day’s end. Living with food on the brain is robbing them of a fuller, more joyful life. Ah, how exhausting!
So what’s going on? Why do you keep overeating?!
Dopamine is the neurochemical of desire. It is the ‘I want’.
When I speak to people who binge eat, they often report that they can eat something, not enjoy it, but still keep going.
This is because they are anticipating the next bite will do the trick. This can be described as an impaired dopamine response. It’s like the addict who gambles again, ‘just one more time, this time I’ll hit the jackpot’.
The cause of an impaired dopamine response may be because you were in an environment where you were constantly exposed to highly palatable food. Some people are more vulnerable than others.
Dopamine receptors down-regulate because there is too much dopamine at a given time (1). The brain doesn’t need that much excitement or anticipation.
For example, eating a tub of ice cream should bring a massive amount of dopamine into the brain. But your receptors are impaired. This means it barely registers; you have developed a tolerance. Still, you’re anticipating more because you ate the tub of ice cream. So you aren’t satisfied and then end up looking for more leading to overeating. The obsession has started.
This cycle can seem impossible to escape.
This automatic behaviour keeps happening because the brain has created a neural pathway.
Imagine you are on a bush walk to a lookout and see a trail marked out from all the previous walkers. You’ll take the trail because it’s now engraved and, therefore, more effortless. This is your brain. The easiest pathway is the one you’ve done a thousand other times.
The pathway doesn’t just go away because you are on another diet. You need to rewire the brain and discover a new way of thinking.
This is exactly what I help women with inside my signature program – A COURSE IN NORMAL EATING.
Begin your journey to food freedom and free up the space in your head today. Get immediate access.