Research backed ways to stop over-indulging
Hello hello, good morning to you. Let's get straight into this voice note and it's about overindulgence. So research backed ways to stop overindulgence. I a look at the studies, compiled some studies for you guys to see if there's anything that can help us over indulging because really that is the main problem. I guess I spoke about yesterday, if we can get that under control, aren't we in happy days, happy days, happy days?
Speaker 1:So the first thing is to, 2013 study review of 24 studies found that being distracted during a meal led people to consume more calories at that meal. It also caused them to eat more food later in the day than people who paid attention to their food whilst they're eating. Again I spoke about yesterday didn't I about where is your mind? Is your mind in the past? Is it in the future?
Speaker 1:Because if it's not, if it's in either of those, the current present moment is just kind of you forget about what's going on. So if we're eating and when we're thinking in the past or in the future, we're not really giving ourselves that time to actually, you know, the brain doesn't really go okay I'm eating okay and like if we're really attentive with that we can make sure that the brain knows that we're eating and it can release those satiety signals the body go, yep, that's cool, that's enough and we're more in tune with our body and we're eating. So evidence indicates that attentive eating is likely to influence food intake and incorporation of attentive eating principles into interventions may aid weight loss and maintenance. So basically, when you're eating, don't eat watching the TV. I know stuff don't eat going on TikTok.
Speaker 1:Don't eat talking all the time, like actually eat and this is something I need to work on, eat small, chew a lot, be attentive to each chew, taste the food and take your time with it, slow down, drink water, all this stuff and see if that works because if that is if it's as simple as a slowing down or eating and being attentive to hitting our goals then that's such an easy thing for us to do but we're always busy busy busy chill out when you're eating and if you're eating meals it's even easier because you can sit down or a nice meal but also snacking, walking we don't even know I'm bad for it like I can consume something in seconds. I don't even remember what it tastes like. Honestly I remember having like a dessert restaurant, I like ate it so fast and I went I did I don't even know what that tasted like. What was the point to me than that? Like I literally just went blah blah blah blah, And I was like cool, still hungry.
Speaker 1:But imagine if I just went slow, tasted it. I gotta work on it, guys. I'm gonna let you know how it goes. K. The next thing is to stabilize your blood sugar levels.
Speaker 1:This can work as well. So, like, eating cookies and sweets and, you know, carbs sugary carbs, basically, high glycemic indexes of carbs can cause blood sugar levels to spike and then fall quickly. Right? We know this. I'm this is bad, bad.
Speaker 1:This is what happens. And this rapid fluctuation has been shown to promote hunger and can lead can lead to overeating. So there was a two thousand, study in two thousand in obese, in obese people randomized to ad libetum, eat wherever they want. So they had reduced fat, complex carb diet. So complex carb is like oats, whole grains, veggies, reduced fat.
Speaker 1:They lost 1.8 kgs and then the other ones eat whatever they want. We're on a reduced fat diet but high simple carb. So just think of stuff like Frosty's and cookies and crisps and stuff like that and, like, Coca Cola. And they were on a diet. They lost naught point nine kgs for the six months.
Speaker 1:So they lost half the kg. They lost half yeah. So they lost 50% less than the group on the complex carbs. It's just about, you know, both lost, but let's we wanna try and make our lives easier, guys. If we can do some switches, you know, having oats and stuff in and all this stuff, as opposed to your Cocoa Pops, Just little switches like that will help you, and we need to put as many of the easy wins on our side as possible.
Speaker 1:Eat slowly is another one. So eating too quickly may cause overeating and lead to weight gain over time. Slower paced eating is associated with increased fullness and decreased hunger and can serve as a useful tool for controlling overeating. So taking the time to thoroughly chew food has also been shown to reduce overall food intake and increase feelings of fullness. And this was shown in the twenty eleven in 2011 study, that subjects ingested nine, 11.9% less after forty fifteen chews.
Speaker 1:40 chews off. Man. You're you're really testing me. Give me a cookie, 40 chews. Give me two chews.
Speaker 1:But that's the thing. If we can chew it more, 10 less. You know, if have 2,000 calories, two hundred two hundred calories a day. If you're using 2,000 calories a day, that's two two hundred calories less just by chewing slower. Again, is that something you can do?
Speaker 1:That's up to you to decide. Another one is to monitor your alcohol intake. So drinking alcohol may cause overeating by lowering your inhibitions and stimulating your appetite. This is shown in studies. And a 2008 study found that two eighty two college students who drank four to five litres at a time more than once per week were more likely to overeat after drinking compared to students who drank one to two liters at a time per week.
Speaker 1:Okay? Not shocked. So thirty two point five percent of students reported past thirty day drinking indicated that alcohol increased their appetite. Similarly, thirty six point one percent of students described eating large amounts following alcohol consumption. That's no shock to us, guys.
Speaker 1:Studies are just showing it. The more you drink, the more you're gonna eat. If we can really simplify to that, that's what's gonna happen. You know, replace sugary beverages with water. So if you're drinking Coca Cola and all this stuff, the full the full versions, like, get rid of them.
Speaker 1:There's no need for them anymore in this world. Okay? Sweeteners, the sweeteners they're using, the amount of sweeteners is not gonna cause any issues at all. The studies done on some sweeteners in the eighties said it would cause cancer, but it was equivalent to throwing you into a swimming pool of a Spartan. You know, if I threw you into a swimming pool, an Olympic sized swimming pool, and I told you to swim around there for ages in this, you know you know, this chemical, of course, it's a chemical, then of course, it's not gonna be good for you, is it?
Speaker 1:You know, the rats came out of that study with it, you know, like lumps and all on stuff like that, but it's not being shown in humans in the amounts we consume to be problematic at all. All that the sweeteners do is, like, is an enzyme in the back of your throat or tongue or whatever, and it just reacts, isn't it? You know, there's like an enzyme that kinda fits into it like you would like sugar fit in, but it fits in like sweetener, goes, oh, okay. That's sweet. And then it gives you a sweet sensation.
Speaker 1:There's nothing more complex, too weird. Some people are like, but how can it be so sweet? How is fruit so sweet? Like, fruit is so sweet. Like, the calories you get is mint and melting back to a chocolate bar.
Speaker 1:How is fruit for, like, one third or one fourth of calories chocolate bar so much sweeter? And, know, it's just how it is. These things, these are just the reactions. I don't think we should be, like, mind blown that there's there's there's a possibility we can make something sweet with our calories because sweetness and calories isn't, like, directly linked, is it? Just because something sweet doesn't mean it's more calories unless you're talking about processed foods or ultra processed foods, then maybe there is a link.
Speaker 1:But in general, not so much. So do throw them out. I remember someone before and I can't remember which challenge it was, maybe a few years ago. Was like, yeah, just stopped drinking my Coca Cola every day. I didn't realize I was drinking 900 calories from Coca Cola a day.
Speaker 1:I was like, how do you not realize you're drinking 900 calories a day? It's because we think it's just a drink and it's not it's not gonna be that calorific, but god, they are. So go for the zero calorie versions. Right? Let's go for water, clear away.
Speaker 1:Whatever. There's no I just this is pointless drinking full sugar drinks these days. There's just no point. A 2011 study found that the total energy intakes were increased 7.8% when sugar sweetened beverages were consumed and 14.9% when milk and juice were consumed. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you had sugar sweetened beverages, you're consuming more, more, more, more. The next was eat fibre rich foods and we spoke about this on the nutrition thing. A 2015 study found that people who ate fibre rich oatmeal, so oats, for breakfast felt fuller and ate less at lunch than those who consumed cornflakes for breakfast. So choosing fibre rich foods, beans, veggies, oats, fruit can help you feeling satisfied for longer and it reduces your urge to overeat simple as we know this so. That doesn't mean veggies every meal can help.
Speaker 1:And if we look into the graphs here, so the hunger ratings were even at the zero time intervals so like think of right now all these people just in the same level of hunger and then the group that ate, they just had water, their hunger went down a bit. So that shows the water does reduce the hunger rate and it went from 55 to about 40 on a scale of zero to 100. So I think that's quite interesting. The water does do that slightly. Cornflakes dropped it down and then from like 55 to 20 and then the oatmeal or the oats dropped it from, you know, the 55 down to about the five or 10 mark of hunger.
Speaker 1:And then you can clearly see with the oats that the hunger is gradually increasing over time. So from fifteen minutes, so you've eaten it, so it's fifteen minutes since you're feeling your hunger. You've eaten the oats and then after fifteen minutes, your hunger shoots down. And then it it for it to go back to where it was, which is your morning hunger, whatever it was, it doesn't even go back to baseline until about three or four hours later. So well, at least three hours.
Speaker 1:So it slowly cry it climbs back up. So it goes from hunger rate of 20 to hunger rate of 40 from well yeah. On on on the three hour mark, goes up to about a hunger rate and a 40, but it's at a hunger rate and a 20 at about ninety minutes in. So it goes from five ten to 15 after ninety minutes and then up to nearly 40 after one hundred and eighty minutes or three hours. So that just goes to show, you know, when we do eat these fiber rich foods, they do actually impact.
Speaker 1:And the same with water as well. You think water how's water? And if I'm here, well, this research is clear. If I look at the fullness ratings, the other side, so you got your hunger rating and then the full the fullness rating. Once someone has a sip of water or whatever more water you're having, it goes from 20 to about 30 in terms of fullness rating.
Speaker 1:And that's why, you know, water's a quick win, guys. Like, you feel a bit hungry, have a bit of water. I'm not sure there's a myth about, know, you're hungry it's always water but whatever goes around but just have water, drink water, it's gonna help you feel fuller, it's gonna help you on your journey, it's a lot of benefits to water as well, you're 60% water, so it's involved in literally every, chemical reaction in your body. Cornflakes and oats, you know, cornflakes is like kind of like 10 behind oats in terms of fullness and hunger ratings. But with what we do with oats guys and this is the important part is like we know the protein helps with fullness as well.
Speaker 1:So if you imagine having a bowl of oats mixed with a scoop of whey protein and milk right and you mix that and a bit of fruit maybe and you eat that slowly, that's gonna have a big impact on your fullness. You're gonna go from like fullness of like 15 up to about 80 probably if this study was to be repeated with that and that's a huge jump and it'll slowly your fullness will slowly go down over the days over three to four hours. So hopefully some of you need to start experimenting because if you don't eat breakfast because it's too quick out the door, I get it and I don't typically eat breakfast right, but I'm going to start experimenting with a big bowl of oats in the morning to see how it impacts me for the day because usually I eat then, first time I eat is usually like eleven or twelve just naturally because I have coffee, I get to work and all that stuff. But I'm going experiment so guys you know be your own scientist, have a look, do overnight oats, do it tonight, make some malt, mix it with whey protein, put in the fridge overnight, have it tomorrow morning, glass of water and then you know just document how fully keeps you full and maybe it reduces your overall calorie intake over the day because you don't feel as full later on.
Speaker 1:It's up to you to find that out. You know, these studies are there to show us the what's, you know, what's possible basically, but it's not as if all of us are gonna fall in line with everything the studies say. Some of you might not have anything from it, but give it a go. Another way that shows, that stops you overeating is to eat with like minded friends, so this is important. Numerous studies have found that people's food choices are heavily influenced by people they eat with, no shock there it.
Speaker 1:People may tend to eat portions similar to those of their dine in companions, so dining out with friends who overeat may cause them to overeat as well. But if we go back to the stoicism, you know, it's under our control. Our actions are in our control. So while someone else overeating may influence us, does it have to influence us to a decision to eat what they're eating? No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:But it's called memetic desire. We do fall into this trap of just eating and drinking what our friends do because we don't really we're not really thinking presently, are letting our thoughts run away. And we act impulsively. And when we act impulsively, we just do what other people are doing. This has been documented in so many studies.
Speaker 1:Like, people just do what other people are doing just when they're it's this easy option. But for someone to sit there and go, you know what, guys? Looks amazing. It looks good. Never think.
Speaker 1:Just don't know. Don't eat that. Don't eat that. Eat what I want. And doing that, guys, that's that's someone people respect.
Speaker 1:That's someone I respect all the time. It's it's the people we wanna be. We wanna stand up and show that we're not gonna fall into the social pressures all the time. We're not going to win that battle all the time though. You know I'm not saying like this study, you know eat with people like minded, well sometimes our friends that we really like and we're not going to base our friends on just because what they eat, you know we're way more than that.
Speaker 1:We're not going to say well get rid of my friends just because they're eating too much. Maybe we can help them maybe aware of their behaviors by us opting for better options and you know, if they push back on us, you're giving back to back, look man, I'm not using my urine here, right? You know, I'm not doing it. I'm doing this. You you eat what you eat.
Speaker 1:Eat what I eat. Happy days. That's what I always say that. You eat what I eat. Look, listen.
Speaker 1:You eat look. You enjoy what you are eating, and I'll enjoy what I'm eating. That's it. Shut up. So have, have, have a think about that and have a think about, again run it as an experiment, can you be that person this week or this weekend that you can actually not bend to a social pressure, and actually you know be the standard person.
Speaker 1:And then another study showed that a person is more inclined to order unhealthy options if their dining partner does as well. Again, takes two to tango maybe sometimes you both want to eat healthy then one goes for the option the other one jumps in. Hey, takes two to tango sometimes so be aware that. Reduce stress, this helps with overeating or overindulgence. So the American Psychological Association, the APA found in a survey that almost forty percent of adults reported overeating are consuming junk food in response to stress.
Speaker 1:Chronic stress drives up levels of cortisol hormone that increases appetite. Studies have shown that being stressed can lead to overeating, increased hunger, binge eating and weight gain. And simple ways to reduce your everyday stress levels are listening to music, gardening, exercising, practicing yoga, meditation, and breathing techniques. And you know, you might be like, oh blah blah blah, I'll shut up of all those things and be here all the time. It's just true.
Speaker 1:It's not to say about it. It's just true. Obviously, some some music might make you more stressed, but music, you know, gardening. I don't I don't got gardening, so but I'd imagine gardening's unbelievable for you. I'd love to garden off some flowers and say hello, boy.
Speaker 1:How are doing? Feeding you today? How's it going, boys? How was your water yesterday? How was the sun?
Speaker 1:You need some more? You know, get out your head a bit. Exercising, 100%, we know that. Practicing yoga, we know, put countless studies in yoga. Meditation, we know.
Speaker 1:Breathing techniques, again, this is important. We've got breathing techniques in the turtle membership, guys please do them. I tried it the other week when I felt like a lot of anxiety from out of nowhere but I feel it was also associated with me doing chest and my muscles in my chest were tight but anyway it just helped. So these overlook them, simple as. And then the final thing to stop overindulging is to check-in with yourself like overeating in the absence of hunger could be a sign that something deeper is going on.
Speaker 1:So if you're not even hungry but you're overeating, your escapism. Depression and boredom are also two common issues that have been linked to the urge to overeat, you know, you want to get out to the self and you feel good and it's a bit of euphoria when you eat. You know, and watching your favourite favorite film, it feels amazing in your mind. I want to get out of it, go watch High Pot, overeat, oh yes, you know, in my head right now that sounds amazing. I would love to do it.
Speaker 1:I think you know, is that really going to make me feel better for the ninety minutes or even for the half an hour the food lasts or the ten minute food lasts but after that is it really going to be beneficial to me. You know, try taking a new activity is enjoyable and not related to food. You know the boredom can distract from over indulgent. Need to think about triggers overeating, that can help and if depression and anxiety are contributors getting proper treatment for mental health professional you know can also help, so just to put that out there. Triggers, overeating, boredom, you know, in the book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, one of the things he realized when the World War two, wives of people from world war two, so their partners and their sons went off to war constantly worrying, so they were helping on they were just constantly worrying, doing nothing.
Speaker 1:They had nothing to abort. They were just constantly worrying, getting ill. Right? Then he said they opened up this call center for people who, I think I think one purse the story is one person got got told that her husband had passed away, you know, in war. And then they there was this call center open, and she was able to, take calls and help families link back up and stuff like this.
Speaker 1:And she was able to put herself into this thing bigger than herself, and her worries went away. The boredom gone. So she just not even distracted, she was working on a cause that was so important and she was helping so many families link up, making sure they knew they were alive and all this stuff. And she said and Dale Carnegie, this guy was interviewing these people and say that saved her life, that she didn't sit around and do nothing. If you sit around and do nothing about what you're feeling, you just sit inside all the time, that's not going to help.
Speaker 1:And again, to caveat this point, deep depression it needs clinical help. Okay, so let me pull that to the side, that needs help, kind of say go out and do stuff. For most of us to feel these boredom moments and you know we're in the middle ground say we got the moderate anxieties and some depression, situational depression and all this stuff, You know, you can't expect just sitting around doing much, movement is a cure in a sense, moving the mind, moving the body, putting yourself into projects, putting yourself into things that are bigger than yourself can massively help and that's online communities coming. We live in the internet age, You can go online and join communities and start working on something tomorrow now. Back in the day you were stuck in your little town.
Speaker 1:But even go further back, back in the day stuck in your town without a car. You were literally stuck in one place and you had to walk for ages to get out of that place. Just trapped. No communication with anyone apart from you know, Betty down the road. And even she hates you.
Speaker 1:She's like, oh go away, don't like you, can't even go to a shop and buy anything. You're literally on your own. Today we've got so many avenues of communication is overwhelming in a sense, but it's a good thing because if we want to get rid of boredom, we need to understand social media is going to make us bored because it's going to suck us in but we can be involved in stuff online, turtle community, the WhatsApp groups, the Zooms we're doing nearly daily, right. That's something you can get into and then you know write notes and you know go on other communities online and all this stuff and get involved and I think there's many options for us and in a sense sometimes that option is the choice, the paradox of choice but we can do something about it. But that's it for today, big voice note today and overindulgence, it's an important topic maybe you have to re listen to it, but anything that does resonate with you, write it down, try things out, eat slower, all the stuff we've gone through, please try it, use it as an experiment, does it work in you, does it not, give it time and have a bit of joy, have a smile on your face that you're gonna find this stuff out because most people haven't got a clue and that's where the beauty is, curiosity.
Speaker 1:So enjoy your day. What is your one big thing? Get that done. Get that done. Whatever it is health, fitness, work, get that one big thing done, start the momentum train.
Speaker 1:Happy days. And I'll be seeing some of you in Book Club later and if not please read the book. And if not from now I will see you in the Turtle Radio.
