There's always a reason for overeating or people wouldn't do it. The emotional side has been blamed much more often than it deserves. Many diet literature often claim that people commonly overeat because of stress and emotional concerns. This is not true. So if you have labeled yourself an emotional jellyfish, don't lose heart. There are more concrete, normal reasons.

These normal reasons are right in your body, not your mind. They are physical and make good sense once you become aware of them. People who are fat often have emotional problems, but that is because they are human. The problems didn't make them overeat and get fat, their bodies did. Oh, and they helped their poor self along by starving trying in the traditional route to lose weight, but their bodies did the overwhelming bulk of the work.

The body's normal, adaptive response to stress is to avoid food. To understand this fact, here's an illustration. Suppose a vicious dog suddenly darts out of the bushes, right into the path of a lanky young mailman. How will his stomach react? It will become queasy. When a threat presents itself to the normal, thin body, the body automatically prepares itself to flee or fight. The digestive tract shuts down, allowing the blood to circulate where it's needed most - in the muscles for action or in the brain for clear, fast thinking. Decisions have to be made instantly and the body must be prepared to act according to those decisions. Indeed, there's no time to digest lunch!

What about those who are fat and tend to overeat? They often have the opposite reaction when something stressful happens. Why?

Fat people are hungry people. They almost always suffer from an exaggerated, unsatisfied hunger because of their chronic efforts to disregard their appetites. Constantly hungry, overweight people don't suppress their hunger when under stress because of their exaggerated need for food. Their need is physical, not emotional.

When a body has been forced to tolerate hunger, stress plus the availability of food produce a paradoxical effect. Instead of representing an additional stress to the already stress-challenged body, food becomes a stress relief to the hungry fat person. Given a choice, the body will naturally relieve as many stresses possible, eliminating those stresses over which it has some control. A lot of stress that the body encounters cannot be relieved, like, say the three-minute speech which is not actually due for several days. The body must cope with the anxiety of anticipation, and until the speech is given, the anxiety translates to stress.

Hence, emotional and physical stress does not typically cause overeating. Stress normally causes people to avoid eating, and most naturally thin people experience this. Obese people experience the opposite effect. They tend to over eat when they are under stressful situations because food translates to a stress reliever to their bodies. Instead of the usual additive stress effect that it has on the hunger-satisfied thin person, food offers irresistible relief to the over hungry.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Janet_Chua

When I was about fourteen years old I thought I was fat. I weighed only 125 pounds at the time. I was a cheer leader, and was popular in my small school. It was the nineteen seventies and looks were becoming a very big issue. Twiggy, and the fashion designers were promoting skinny as the new norm. All of my cheer leader friends had caught on, and the competition to be skinny had begun.

Since sluggish bowel problems ran in our family, we had a lot of laxatives in our medicine cabinet. The addiction began when I would take the laxative occasionally for irregularity. Unlearned about the human anatomy at age fourteen, I began to think that if I took more laxatives I could lose weight. I began to add to the amount of laxatives I was taking gradually, to see if they would help me lose weight. They were very powerful, and I had the results I was looking for very quickly.

I stole laxatives from my grandmother also, and as the years went by I was well on my way to laxative addiction.

By the time I was sixteen, I began eating about one thousand calories a day and exercising vigorously. I was also taking five to six ex-lax tablets a day. I had no idea what kinds of affect this was having on my body. As I look back now, I am sure I was dehydrated most of the time. I probably had anorexia and a form of bulimia back then. These medical terms were not heard of much where I was from.

As I got older, it took more laxatives each day to get the full effect that I was looking for. I really wanted to eat and then get rid of the food with laxatives.

I thought if I ate fewer calories and exercised more and was very thin, I would be more popular.

In this area of my life my parents were totally out of touch. They never asked any questions, and I never offered any information. Constipation was the norm in our family, so it was a known fact that I took laxatives. I believe my parents just thought I looked thin from exercising alot and eating very little.

With all of this exercise and practically starving myself, I weighed about 110 pounds by the time I was sixteen. For my frame that was very skinny. Now I became totally obsessed with exercise and weight loss. Eating only eight hundred calories a day at times. My parents were some what proud that I was thin. Weight problems ran in our family, my mother and her family members were always on a diet of some sort. Honestly I think that is why they just didn't even dream what I was doing to myself.

It wasn't until I graduated from high school and got married that I realized there was something terribly wrong with my taking so many laxatives. I had quit exercising and was eating normally for a change. I began seeing a doctor regularly and I had decided to try to stop taking laxatives. When I told the doctor just how many laxatives that I had been taking per day, he gave me the lecture of a life time! I will never forget it. He told me that I would be lucky to live until I was age fifty. Also that if I did not stop using laxatives, that I would be a good candidate for colon cancer as I grew older. Now, that put the fear of God into me! He began to try to help me to get off the laxatives, and to retrain my bowels.

That was in the mid nineteen seventies. After that doctor" lecture, I began trying every stool softener, fiber, cereal, juices and everything else any doctor would recommend to take. But,I was hopelessly addicted to laxatives. Nothing else would work.

Over the years I have been treated by many various doctors for my bowels. I've had tests upon tests ran on my colon. I have also been given countless medications, of which, have made me feel very ill, most just have not worked.

Now, in 2009 the doctors have finally concluded that my bowels have no motility left to move the stool through the colon. I currently have chronic and life threatening bowel problems. I am facing permanent disability from these chronic bowel problems. I may have to eventually have a total colectomy (entire removal of the large intestine). I also have acquired pelvic floor dysfunction from the pressure on my pelvic floor caused from the years of laxative abuse. The harsh bowel movements over the years have caused this condition.

Laxative addiction can have harmful affects on other organs also, such as the kidneys. Mine have become sluggish from abuse of laxatives. Liver and spleen problems also, besides other problems as well.

Now, I am at the point now of never being able to stop taking the very laxatives that are destroying my colon and other organs. The gastroenterologist that I see has decided that I must stay on laxatives for now. Eventually I will most likely need to have my entire colon completely removed, thus, the colectomy.

Laxative addiction causes the muscles in the colon to quit functioning eventually. There is no cure for this. It causes chronic blockages and severe pain. The colon becomes enlarged and inflamed. I always look like I am about eight months pregnant now, no matter what I eat or drink. This is due to the enlarged colon. It is always a chore to have bowel movements also.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pamela_Bunta

It is important to start by emphasising that there are many factors involved in the development of eating disorders. When a child develops an eating disorder, it is not because their parents have 'done something wrong'. Experts believe some people may have a genetic predisposition which places them at an increased risk of developing an eating disorder. Stressful life events and family difficulties are often factors, along with low self-esteem and some personality factors. Although dieting is also a risk factor, most dieters do not develop an eating disorder, so other factors must be involved. Equally, there is continuing debate about the role of socio-cultural factors such as media pressure to conform to an unrealistic body shape.

However, there are some steps which a family can take to reduce the risk and ensure that if there are problems, they are identified early.

There first thing is simply to eat together as a family, as often as you can. This can be difficult to manage with the pressures and schedules of our everyday lives. Eating disorders typically develop at a time when teenagers are becoming more independent and this independence often includes their eating habits. Teenagers may eat with friends more often and snack on their own at times which suit them. It is only by ensuring that you do eat together as a family on a regular basis that you will be able to identify any changes and problems.

Eating disorders often start to develop during puberty, which can be a very traumatic for the young person. They will be looking for positive role models in the people around them. If you share family meals with your children, enjoying a wide range of food, you will help them to maintain a positive relationship with food. While many of us watch what we eat to guard against middle-aged weight gain, try not to allow these concerns to dominate mealtimes.

Allowing children to always choose their own meals can encourage restrictive and faddy diets. It is best if you plan meals that all the family will eat rather than make separate meals for each member, perhaps with a choice of vegetables.

Dietitians always advise, there is no such thing as 'bad food' - the key is how much you eat and how often. You can enjoy 'treats' providing your diet contains a range of healthy foods. Banning certain foods is not helpful - it could result in your child craving the banned food and they may develop an emotional relationship with that food.

It is also important to end with a note of context about the prevalence of eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is fairly rare, especially compared with obesity, affecting around 0.2 to 0.8% of young women. Anorexia typically develops between the ages of 15 and 19 and high risk groups include dancers, models and athletes.

Bulimia nervosa is more common than anorexia nervosa and often begins slightly later in life, affecting between 0.5% and 2% of the general population.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jenny_Hudson

Stress is one of the main causes of overeating. It immediately turns on that needy part of us that requires immediate comfort, the kind of comfort that only food can provide. Needless to say, unless you learn to deal with stress eating, any hope you have of losing weight or even maintain your current one are doomed to fail.

So, the question is how you can overcome stress eating?

The answer is that since you can't remove stress from your life entirely, unless you plan on moving away to a deserted island, you need to find ways in which you can control it and reduce its effect on your life.

Here are a few tips to help you deal with stress eating in a better way:

1. Get support - I don't mean professional help, but the kind of support that only another person can provide. I realize it may be difficult to share your overeating problems with another person but it can be the best way for you to remove stress from your life in a healthy way.

2. Learn some relaxation techniques like Yoga, deep breathing exercises, and meditation. Taking even a few moments each day to totally relax can have a dramatic effect on how often stress drives you to overeat.

3. Exercise more - Working out is one of the best ways to alleviate stress naturally. Working out makes you feel good and often leads to long hours of relaxation. Also, if you're struggling to lose weight, exercising can provide a great way to accelerate the fat burning process.

I recommend doing all these 3 tips and to begin working hard to reduce stress in your life.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Davenport