Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How to Stop Binge Eating (Even If You Love Food)

Episode Date: September 2, 2019

Pop quiz: which days of the week are most fattening? Yes, you heard the question correctly. Which days of the week are most associated with weight gain? Don’t overthink it. Listen to your gut here (it should know!). If you go with your intuition, your answer is probably “the weekends.” And you’d be right.  Research shows that most people maintain a steady weight throughout the week and gain weight on the weekends. How does that work, you ask? Well, what happens to the diets of most people that have trouble with their weight come Friday night? I’ll tell you what happens: mayhem. The problem with this all-too-common ritual of weekly binge eating is the sheer amount of body fat you can gain in just a few days of overeating. Depending on your genetics and activity level, a couple moderate bouts of bingeing can easily “undo” the fat loss of a whole week of proper dieting. I’ve worked with thousands of people and, hands down, the biggest mistake made by those baffled by their inability to lose weight is binge eating.  The bottom line is nothing will stop your fat loss dead in its tracks faster than binge eating, and especially bingeing on fatty foods and alcohol (a perfect storm for gaining body fat).   If you want to not only get lean but stay lean, you simply can’t afford to struggle with binge eating. Sure, you can eat foods you love and generally enjoy your diet, but you can’t regularly live out your bacchanalian fantasies and have a physique of the gods. In this podcast, we’re going to talk a bit about why some people struggle with binge eating and a handful of simple, practical strategies you can employ to prevent and beat the urges. 5:27 - Why do we binge eat?  8:22 - Why do we gain weight from binge eating?  12:49 - How can we enjoy the foods we like without getting fat?  22:49 - How do you stop binge eating?  Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.legionathletics.com/signup/

Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please consider supporting my company, Legion Athletics, which produces 100% natural, evidence-based health and fitness supplements, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout and post-workout drinks, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. And even better, we are currently running our big Labor Day sale, which means for the next few days, you can save up to 25% on everything in our store over at www.legionathletics.com. All you have to do is use the code LABOR at checkout and you will immediately save 15% on your entire order. And if you buy four supplements or more, you will save an additional 10% for a total savings of 25%. So again, if you appreciate my work and if you'd like to see and hear more of it, please consider supporting me so I can keep doing what I love, like producing more podcasts like

this. Hey, hey, I'm Mike Matthews. This is the Muscle Life Podcast. Welcome, welcome. I have a quick question for you, a pop quiz. Which days of the week do you think are most fattening? Yes, which days are most associated with weight gain? Don't overthink it. Just listen to your gut here. It should probably know. And if your intuition says the weekends, you are right. Research actually shows that most people maintain a steady weight throughout the week and then gain weight on the weekends. Now, how exactly does that work? Well, what happens to the diets of most people that have trouble with their weight is come Friday night mayhem right the heavy restaurant dinner with friends and then the alcohol cocktails maybe wine and then let's say

it's off to the movie theater and then that means the vat of popcorn that is swimming in butter and butter and a silo of soda. And then Saturday morning is rung in with a skyscraper of syrup laden pancakes. And the rest of the day is supplemented with a continuous supply of snack foods. And there's a pretty good chance that the evening is going to involve a couple thousand more calories of gluttony. And then Sunday, of course, has its traditions as well. The pile of eggs and bacon and sausage with the pitcher of orange juice and maybe a stacked deli sandwich for lunch and possibly some barbecue or maybe a family buffet to wind down and prepare for the return to the weekly normalcy. Now, the problem with this all too common ritual of weekly binge eating, often followed by several days of purging. So maybe

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, there is dramatic under eating to try to kind of undo the weekends. See, the problem with this is the sheer amount of body fat you can gain in just a few days of overeating is impressive. Depending on your genetics and how active you are, just a couple moderate bouts of binging can easily undo the fat loss of a whole week of proper dieting. For example, you can easily gain one to two pounds of body fat in a couple of days if you really go for it. And I've worked with thousands and thousands of people over the years now, and hands down, the biggest mistake made by the people who have been baffled by their inability to lose weight is binge eating. To some degree, some people, it may not exactly, you might not think of it as binging, whereas

others, it definitely is obviously a binge. And the bottom line here is nothing stops fat loss dead in its tracks faster than binge eating and especially binging on fatty foods in particular and especially when they are combined with alcohol. That is the perfect storm for gaining body fat. Large calorie surplus, a lot of fatty foods, and alcohol. So if you want to not only get lean but also stay lean, you simply can't afford to struggle with binge eating. Sure, you can eat foods you like, and you can generally enjoy your diet, and you can absolutely indulge, but you cannot regularly live out your bacchanalian fantasies and also have a physique of the gods. See what I did there?

And in this podcast, we are going to talk a bit about why some people struggle with binge eating. And we're also going to discuss a handful of simple practical strategies you can immediately use to help prevent and beat the urges to eat obscene amounts of food. All right, so the first thing to understand is that binging is a pretty human thing, actually. You see, we are just hardwired to love the taste of fat, salt, and sugar. Calorie-dense fatty foods gave our ancient ancestors the energy reserves that were needed to survive food shortages and famines. Salt increases water retention, which helped us avoid dehydration, and our sweet tooth led us to sugary berries that were likely edible and away from sour bitter ones that were likely poisonous. We're also hardwired to desire

a variety of foods because the more types of food that we ate, the more likely we were to get all of the essential vitamins and minerals that we needed to stay alive and to thrive. So our natural preferences for these flavors and variety in our diets are causing problems. They were once valuable tools for staying alive because they steered us toward foods that would best meet our energy and nutritional needs. But these days, due to the rapid changes in lifestyle and food availability, these instincts are working against us. The average person now is more sedentary than ever before. Everywhere we go, we see food or advertisements for food. We no longer stalk the planes for dinner. We just roam the aisles of the local supermarket faced with an almost endless variety of delicious high calorie indulgences. And while that is fantastic in many ways,

unfortunately, our body's internal appetite regulation machinery has not learned how to deal with the excesses of modern living. And this is why it is very hard to just count on our instincts alone to maintain a healthy body weight. For most people, it requires conscious effort. And that applies to most fitness people too. After doing it consciously for a long time, it becomes second nature, but it takes quite

a bit of conscious effort to get there. The good news, however, is that food intake is not that hard to control. It does not require a nutrition degree. It does not require extraordinary willpower or genetics or really anything other than a basic understanding of the physiology and the psychology of eating and weight gain and weight loss, as well as a structured approach to working with our inborn programming, not against it. Now, let me ask you a question. How do you think the average person goes about gaining 30 pounds of fat? How does the average person wake up one day and realize they are 30 pounds fatter than they were at some point in the past? Do you think they slightly overeat every day and then accumulate the extra fat in a

slow, more or less linear fashion, you know, week in, week out? Or do you think they expand by alternating between imbalanced periods of just gluttonous overfeeding and then repentant underfeeding? Now, if you guessed the latter, which you probably did because I already basically said this earlier, research agrees. Studies show people tend to gain the most weight through weekend and holiday binging. You see, those people who have weight issues fail to compensate for their excessive calorie intakes by subsequently reducing intake until the damage has been undone, which of course they could do. If you eat way too much on the weekend, if all you care about is your body weight and you ate way too much on a Saturday and Sunday, you could eat way too little for the following, you know, might take three to five days and lose the fat that you gained.

And that wouldn't necessarily be good for your body composition and for your health and general wellbeing. But if we were just looking at body weight, you probably could do it that way. That's not what the average overweight person does though. The average overweight person usually just tries to eat clean throughout the week. And what that really comes down to is a neutral energy balance. They're not even really in a calorie deficit because they are just eating according to their instincts and that more or less never results in a calorie deficit because the body does not want to be in a calorie deficit. It at least wants to get the amount of energy that it's burning. So you have someone who's kind of eating clean, sticking to the

quote unquote good foods throughout the week, no real change in body composition because their energy balance is balanced. So they are more or less eating the amount of calories that they're burning throughout the week. And then the weekend comes and as a reward for being good throughout the week and eating some salads or some vegetables or whatever, all of their dietary whims and urges are indulged. And then you have a couple of days of excessive calorie intake that adds, let's just say it's a half a pound of fat. And then this new fatter weight is maintained throughout the next week. And then the weekend comes and another, maybe it's a quarter pound of fat this weekend is added, or maybe it's another half pound of fat or whatever, and so on and so forth. And this fattening routine is then maintained throughout

the year. And it also accelerates a bit during the holidays because there's even more delicious food around. And that's kind of the ritual is you eat a bunch of food and you drink a bunch of alcohol and rinse and repeat that process. And then voila, you have now gained 20 to 30 pounds of fat in, let's say, a year, despite feeling like you did pretty well, feeling like you quote unquote ate right for most of the year. And this is exactly why many people fail to lose weight with forms of calorie counting. They maintain a proper calorie deficit throughout the week and they lose some fat, but then they go and gain it back on their weekend cheat days. And then you add in the holiday cheat days or sometimes cheat weeks.

And of course, that only gets in the way further. And I have seen this many, many times over the years. And I still see it often when people reach out to me before reading any of my books or articles or listening to podcasts, they just reach out because they're struggling to gain weight. And oftentimes they are a bit confused. They don't know why their weight is stuck despite sticking to their meal plans or their calories or macros. And of course, then when I ask, what do your weekends look like? What did you eat last weekend?

What about the weekend before? And more often than not, we don't even need to go any further than that. And so the bottom line here is if you have a problem with binge eating, you will probably never get as lean as you would like to be. And you definitely will not be able to maintain it for any period of time. That said, the good news is there is a way to maybe not binge, but indulge regularly without getting fat. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, most of the mainstream chatter about weight gain and weight loss revolves around the types of foods that you are eating. And in some cases, specific foods you are eating and the supposed effects that they have on your body weight and

your body composition. So you have demagogue A, expert A, he tries to convince you that foods W and X are fattening while Y and Z are slimming. And then expert B, he tries to say that A has it all wrong and his diet is the one true way to getting rippling abs and radiant health and everlasting longevity. And you see the problem with this type of nutritional advice is it really is missing the forest for the trees. When it comes to weight gain and weight loss, what you eat is not nearly as important as how much you eat. Foods do not have any special properties that make them inherently fattening or slimming, but they do have varying amounts of energy, calories, right? Potential energy. And they also have varying types of macronutrient profiles, meaning that they break down into

different amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. And these two factors, the calories that are contained in food, and then how those calories break down into protein, carbs, and fat, that are contained in food and then how those calories break down into protein, carbs, and fat. Those are what make certain foods more suitable for losing weight or gaining weight than others. Not best, but just more suitable. And if you know how to regulate and balance your food intake properly, you can eat just about anything and lose weight or maintain weight or even gain weight. And on the point of gaining weight, what I mean is you could eat the cleanest, quote unquote, cleanest foods in the world and eat your way into obesity. If you wanted to, you could do it. It wouldn't be very enjoyable because it is not nearly as fun to overeat all the nutritious stuff that our moms

told us we should be eating every day to the point of obesity, but you could do it. And if you're not exactly tracking with me at this point, and if you're not sure what energy balance is and why the relationship between calories in and calories out matters, I would actually recommend you pause this podcast and then go find the episode that I recorded on energy balance. It's in the feed. If you search for energy balance, you'll find it. Listen to that and then come back here because I don't want to get too sidetracked off into energy balance because that really is a whole nother discussion if we're going to do it justice, if you don't know what it is. But if you don't want to do that and you're going to take my word for it, really all you need to know for the purposes of this discussion is if

you consistently feed your body less energy than it burns, regardless of where that energy is coming from food-wise, regardless of what foods you're eating, you will lose weight. And if you do the opposite, if you consistently feed your body more energy than it is burning, regardless of the types of foods that you are eating, you will gain weight. And so what that means then is that weight loss does not require that you only eat certain types of foods or avoid other types or combine foods in various ways or any other type of quackery. It only requires that you feed your body less energy than it burns consistently over time. Now, what does all that have to do with binge eating? Well, most people think of binging as excessive indulgence in junk foods, right?

Candy, French fries, desserts, stuff like that. But they fail to realize that excessive calories of any kind are the problem, not the foods. So you would probably agree that a couple thousand calories of Twizzlers or popcorn or soda qualifies as a binge, but what about a couple thousand calories of butter, sweet potato, and whole grains? And you would probably also expect to gain weight from the movie theater binge, but not the Thanksgiving binge, right? And I run into this all the time with people that reach out to me and that I work with. They don't realize that their weekly quote unquote clean calorie binges can be just as counterproductive for weight loss or weight maintenance as a couple pints of their favorite ice cream. And another important aspect of food

intake that many people don't realize is binging is not an absolute. It's just relative to your total daily calorie intake. So consider this. A couple years ago, my dinners would often contain between 2,000 and 2,500 calories and would also include some sort of homemade dessert. So for a while, I was doing these baked oatmeal dishes that were delicious. And that's a lot of calories. That's about as many calories as most people eat an entire day. And I was eating that much in one meal. It was a lot of food. If you saw it, you'd probably call it a binge. My mother-in-law would see it and be confused as to how I can eat so much food at night and have a six pack always. And it would be a problem if it weren't for one simple fact. It was about 80% of my calories for the entire day.

I would eat light throughout the day. I would have a protein shake or like a smoothie in the morning after I'd work out. I would have a simple salad with some protein, some lean protein for lunch. I usually have another protein shake in the afternoon, maybe a piece of fruit. So by the time I got to dinner, I had quote unquote saved up a lot of calories and I was burning a fair amount of calories every day at the time, probably around 3000 calories per day. So despite my huge 7 p.m. feast that often included quote unquote fattening foods like pasta, bread, dairy, and yep, some sugar too, I would end the days more or less in a state of neutral energy balance. And of course, then nothing was really changing in terms of my

weight or body composition. And so then what might be a fattening binge for you, if you were to just take your normal daily eating habits and start eating dinners the way I did, that'd be a problem. That was just another dinner for me. And I did that for years. And if you go into my Instagram and you look back at my selfies that I've taken over the years, you'll see that I have maintained more or less the same body composition for years now. And on the high end of my body fat percentage, I don't know, maybe 11 or 12. And on the low end, probably eight or so, eight or nine. And I've done that generally eating very large dinners. These days they're smaller just because I decided to change my daily meal composition in terms of how much food I want to have in the morning versus lunch versus at night.

But I still prefer to eat most of my food at night because I'm busy during the day I'm working. I don't like the way that I feel with a lot of food in me. It makes me a little bit lethargic. So when I'm at the office and I'm busy and I have to think and I want to be getting through my work quickly, I would rather just have less food in me basically. Whereas at night, I naturally am slowing down anyway, so I'm okay with it. So anyway, my point is that simply eating a lot of calories in one meal is not the problem. It is energy balance. That's what it comes down to. If you are maintaining a neutral state of energy balance week after week, it doesn't matter how small or large any individual meals you are eating are. And it also doesn't really matter from that perspective what foods you're eating. Now, of course, there's more to consider than just body composition.

There's long-term health and vitality and well-being. term health and vitality and well-being. And if you want to have a healthy body that is going to perform well and feel good for the long run, you need to be eating a lot of nutritious calories. That goes without saying, but if you just looked at body composition, you don't really have to care that much about the foods that you're eating. It really is just calories and macronutrients. That said, there are certain nutritional deficiencies that you can develop that can make it harder to maintain the body composition you want. For example, I talked about this in one of the last few episodes that I recorded on If It Fits Your Macros. If you develop a zinc deficiency, this has been shown in case studies with women, it can markedly slow down your metabolic rate, which of course can make it harder

to not get fatter. But again, if you just know how to manage your energy balance properly, what you eat doesn't really matter so much in terms of body composition. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you.

You can find me on Instagram at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness. Okay, so now that we've gotten that stuff out of the way, let's talk about how to stop binge eating. Now, it's no surprise that a common and powerful trigger of binge eating is restrictive dieting. So a type of diet where you severely limit your food choices. And this type of diet, it can be a viable way to lose weight or even to maintain weight because you get sick of eating the same foods every day, which makes it hard to overeat. And often the foods you

are restricting are the foods that you like to overeat or that you often overeat. And while this is a solution of sorts, it's not a sustainable lifestyle because if you are like most everyone, the more you abstain from eating foods you actually like and the stuff that you have a hankering for, which then turns into cravings, you only can say no for so long. And if you are prone to binging, that's when things can get pretty ugly. When you finally give in, it can be many, many, many thousands of calories sometimes over the course of days, not even a meal or one day, but multiple days. Fortunately, there's a better way of going about dieting. So instead of confining yourself to a short list of quote-unquote diet-friendly foods, you can regularly eat a very long list of foods that you like, even sugary treats, you are just less likely

to develop the uncontrollable urges to eat too much of them. And it takes a lot less willpower to put the pint of ice cream away when you know you can eat a couple hundred calories worth of it every day and still achieve your health and fitness goals. Now, I know that approach doesn't necessarily work for everyone. I would say it generally works well. Most people do well with that flexible dieting approach and find that it is an effective way to control their cravings and reduce binging. But there are some people who find that at least with certain foods, once they start eating them, they find it very hard to stop. Like

chips is a common one. Ice cream is another common one, candy is one, where they just know that if they start eating one of their quote-unquote trigger foods, chances are they're not going to stop after the 200 calories that they allotted in their meal plans. And in that case, yes, it makes sense to stay away from those foods and find some alternatives. Find something that gives at least maybe a similar sense of enjoyment but doesn't spiral out of control. Another common problem is passive overeating. So people eat the foods that they plan to eat but they just eat more than they planned. A couple more tablespoons of peanut butter than what's in their meal plans or maybe a

bit more oil in the salads and a few extra bites of mashed potato at dinner and those calories add up. Little by little they add up and it doesn't take much to tip the scales too far in the wrong direction. Yet another common issue is eating out. Many people fall victim to their love of restaurants and they eat out several times per week, which just is a dietary nightmare unless you order very boring, bland dishes because you just never really know how many calories are in whatever you're eating. There are just too many hidden calories in food, in restaurants, in the form of usually it's just the stuff that makes food taste good, right? So it's butter and oil and cream and sugar and other things that make food delicious, but more calorie dense. And so I want to share

with you here several simple strategies you can use to not only keep yourself from binging, but also from passively overeating as well. So the first one is out of sight, out of mind. And it's pretty simple. The more you have food around you, the more likely you are to eat it. It's that cut and dried. The more people see foods, the more they think about them. And the more they think about them, the more likely they are to actually eat them more frequently than they normally would. This has been shown in a number of studies. So if every time you feel the slightest hunger, something quick and tasty is just a hop, skip and away, it might even be within arm's reach,

it is going to take some serious willpower to avoid overeating. And when you have to say no to yourself 10 times an hour, no to your favorite goodies, eventually you will say yes. And then you might say yes again and yes again. So the solution here is of course simple. Stop booby trapping your environment with foods. You have trouble resisting. Do not surround yourself with food and you will avoid this pitfall. And that means also don't fill your pantry and your cupboards and your drawers to the brim with your favorite snacks and treats. Don't fill your fridge with high calorie beverages. Don't have candy lying around the office and so forth. Okay, so let's move on to the next tip,

which is summarized by a question. How many calories is that hamburger in the window? Why that? Well, us humans are full of psychological quirks and one that works against our waistlines is our tendency to underestimate sizes and amounts as things get bigger. You see, studies show that both normal and overweight people predictably underestimate the calorie content of meals with mathematical predictability. Research also shows that the more food we eat, the less accurate we get in our estimations. So if we eat a 300 calorie hamburger meal, we are likely to underestimate the calories by about 10%. That's what the data shows. But if we eat a 900 calorie hamburger feast, if we are like most people, we will tend to underestimate it by a whopping 40% on average. And the implications of this are obvious. the implications of this are obvious. And they also explain why so many overweight people believe they just can't lose weight despite quote unquote, not eating a lot. And I run into this often. I

hear from people who come to me who believe their metabolisms are broken or calorie counting doesn't work, or they just have bad genetics. And in the end, after I have enlightened them, they're relieved and often thrilled to learn that they were just eating too much and moving too little and they didn't realize it. And every one of them can lose fat with ease once they properly calculate their approximate daily energy expenditure, and then plan and track their food intake properly. So if you want to be able to eat by instinct and still maintain a lean physique, you must familiarize yourself with the calorie content and the macronutritional breakdown of the foods you like to eat. This will go far in preventing you from dramatically underestimating your calorie intake and accidentally gaining weight or putting yourself in a situation where you simply can't

lose weight and you don't know why. And this is one of the major benefits of meal planning, by the way. If you get into the habit of meal planning, you will naturally start to learn the calories and the macros of the foods that you eat, and you'll find it in time easier to deviate from your plan, to make changes on the fly, because you will have a decent idea of how many calories you are considering eating and how those calories are going to break down into macros. So for example, let's say you normally have about 500 calories in your breakfast and you are in a situation where you can't eat your normal breakfast, for example, or maybe you just want to eat something different.

Well, if you have been meal planning for some time, you will be able to quickly put together a 500-ish calorie meal with other types of foods that you have available, or you'll be able to quickly look over a menu and choose something that is probably 500-ish calories. All right, another tip is how to feel full on fewer calories. Now, interestingly, scientists don't really know what makes us feel full. They don't know what the primary factor is because we know that how much we chew, taste, swallow, and think about the food that we eat all play a role. However, the interactions are complex and there may be other factors that have not been identified yet. What

we do know though is we tend to eat the same amount of food every day. When you look at in terms of volume, just the total volume of food is something that we tend to keep constant. And the absolute amount of food that we eat is a major factor in making us feel full, not the calories contained in it. You see, if someone is used to eating, let's say a large half pound hamburger, and then they go and eat a smaller quarter pounder, they will probably still feel hungry. If, however, he takes that smaller burger and then adds some lettuce, tomato, and onion, let's say, which makes it larger, it increases the volume of the meal and doesn't squash it all down together, he will find that meal just as filling as the huge burger, despite having

hundreds of fewer calories. And that's not a hypothetical. That's not just a theory. That has actually been demonstrated in research. That experiment has been done. And what we know then is that it's the volume our stomachs want, not necessarily the calories. And again, that's backed up by research that shows that you could take your normal volume of food intake and then you could double its calorie content and you would have no trouble finishing it at all and on the flip side so long as you preserve the volume you could have the calories that you're eating and still feel full after each meal and this is useful information because that means that let's say you're looking to lose weight. Well, then you're going to want to stay away from low volume,

high calorie foods like many processed prepackaged foods and many snack foods and high fat foods, including nutritious ones like oils and cheese and fatty meats and so forth. Instead, what you'd want to do is you'd want to fill your meal plans with high volume, low calorie foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, low fat dairy, other forms of lean protein and so forth. And on the flip side, let's say you are looking to gain weight and you are struggling to hit your daily numbers. Then of course you flip that advice around and then you would be intentionally looking at eating more low volume, high calorie foods and less high volume, low calorie foods. And as for weight maintenance, of course, you'd want to have a balance. If your meal

plan is full of too many low volume, high calorie foods, you are going to find it hard to maintain your weight because it just is easier to overeat. You are more likely to experience hunger throughout the day, and you can either fight the hunger and ignore it, which then can lead to the spiraling out of control, or you can just eat more food, which can lead to weight gain, of course. Another tip here is do not snack while you are watching TV, or maybe more appropriately these days, video of any kind. Audio as well, podcasts as well. And the reason for this is research has shown the more people watch TV, the more likely they are to overeat and to be overweight. And this isn't surprising because when you're watching TV

or Netflix or YouTube or whatever, you are not paying attention to how much you're eating. And then before you know it, the whole bag of chips is gone or the whole pint of ice cream is gone. And oftentimes, you weren't even hungry to begin with. And the reason for this is studies show that anything that takes your attention off the food you're eating makes you more likely to overeat, makes you less likely to respond to your body's natural satiety, fullness signals. So if you're going to eat something while you're watching TV or any sort of video or listening to anything really, whether it's entertaining or educational, what you want to do is regulate

your food intake by bringing a pre-decided amount of food to the couch or wherever you're watching or listening. And you eat just that amount and nothing more. Another tip here is to prepare and serve your meals intelligently. So if you have trouble with overeating, I'm willing to bet a shiny shekel or two that you do one or more of the following things. You buy bigger packages of food to save money or time. You tend to eat most of what you serve yourself for your meals. You eat from large containers, plates, and bowls, and you drink from large glasses, and or you stop eating and drinking when your plate and glass are empty, not when you're full. Now, why those four things? Well, those four habits typify the average American dining experience, the quote-unquote fat family

style of eating, and each of them have been scientifically proven to subtly increase food intake. For example, research shows that people eat 20 to 25% more food from larger packages than small ones and about 92% of what they serve themselves. And studies also show that serving food on larger plates, bowls, and glasses influence people to eat more. And this makes sense, right? When we bring large packages of food into the kitchen, it feels normal to make and serve more food than if the packages were small. And if we serve food onto and into large tableware, then we are more likely to serve more food and fill the pieces up and then eat and drink everything that we have laid out. And so in this way, setting the table incorrectly sets the stage for overeating.

If you do it differently though, if you use small plates, bowls, and glasses, and if you eat only until you're no longer hungry, you will be less likely to overeat. The next tip is to not go back for seconds. So if you have a habit of eating several helpings of food in a meal or eating directly out of boxes or containers or cookware, you are going to have trouble regulating your food intake. I promise it. This is also something that has been shown in research. Studies show that these habits lead to eating more with most people.

So an easy way then to prevent overeating in this way is to pre-plate your food with the amount of food you plan on eating and then skipping seconds and thirds. And similarly, if you put your foods on a plate or in a bowl before you start eating, you won't have to remember or guesstimate how much you have taken. You can quantify it exactly and then eat it. All right, the next tip, make tempting foods inconvenient. And this is a very simple but very effective way to prevent overeating. And that is simply because the harder it is to eat something, the less we eat of it. Research shows, for example, people who use chopsticks at a buffet are less likely to be overweight than those who use silverware.

One study showed that if people have to go into a separate line to pay for junk food, they buy less of it. Another little interesting tidbit from the literature is if the lid of a checkout ice cream cooler is left open, people are twice as likely to take some than when it's closed. Interesting, right? Subtle too. So what can we learn from that? Well, what we can do is we can use our inherent dislike of effort, of difficulty to our dietary advantage by making our temptations less convenient.

So for example, if you stick the cookies in the back of the top covered, and if you hide the foiled leftovers in the back of the fridge and keep the ice cream in the garage freezer instead of the kitchen, and if you eat snacks at a table and on a plate and so forth, you can help control your calorie intake. All right, the next tip is watch out when you eat out. Now, social events, these, well, the ones involving food at least, and especially those involving food and alcohol, are the bane of many dieters. This has been shown in research as well. For example, studies have shown that on average, people who eat with one other person eat about 35% more calories than they would otherwise than they would if they were just eating alone. And then if you increase the

party to four, calorie intake increases to about 75% higher than if any of the individual people would have just eaten alone. And then, if you make it a grand social affair with seven or more people, the average person will eat nearly twice as many calories as they would have eaten alone. And scientists have identified several reasons for this, including our tendency to match our eating speed and our total food intake to the group average, as well as spending more time at the table with the food available for nibbling. And this helps us understand why many experienced dieters prefer solitary eating when they are cutting in particular. They just know that eating with others makes it harder to control their food intake and

eating by themselves makes it much easier. It doesn't mean though that you got to be a hermit to be lean. You just have to be aware of your tendencies when you are going out to eat and then consciously override them. So for example, when I eat out, I decide on exactly what I'm going to eat. And then I generally don't let the amount and speed of other people eating influence how I'm eating. Now I say generally, because I can't say it, it always works out that way exactly. And I don't ever accidentally eat a bit more

than I intended, but by just consciously deciding this is what I'm going to eat. Maybe I'm going to have an appetizer. This is going to be my entree and I'm going to have two pieces of bread with some butter. It makes it a lot easier to do that and not be influenced by how everyone else is eating. All right. Well, those are all my tips and all of the informations I wanted to share with you about binge eating. And now you know more about it than 99% of people out there. And I hope I have given you at least some power to keep it from ruining your efforts to get fit. I can tell you that if you go ahead and apply the strategies that I've given in this podcast, you will do better and you can beat the binge problem once and for all. And you can do it

without having to adopt a life of dietary asceticism. You can eat the foods that you like and you can learn to control how much you eat of them and you can learn how to use moderation. And remember that so long as you understand and you use the laws of energy balance to your advantage, and so long as you pay attention to your macronutrients and take simple precautions to prevent passive overeating, you can regularly enjoy the foods you like without having to pay the price of regular weight gain. And you can also enjoy social events, enjoy holidays, and enjoy weekends. I hope this podcast helps you get there faster. Hey, Mike here. And if you like what I'm doing on the podcast

and elsewhere, and if you want to help me help more people get into the best shape of their lives, please consider supporting my company, Legion Athletics, which produces 100% natural, evidence-based health and fitness supplements, including protein powders and protein bars, pre-workout and post-workout drinks, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more. And even better, we are currently running our big Labor Day sale, which means for the next few days, you can save up to 25% on everything in our store over at www.legionathletics.com. All you have to do is use the code LABOR at checkout, and you will immediately save 15% on your entire order. And if you buy four supplements or more, you will save an additional 10% for a total savings of 25%.

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