Is "Overeating" an Eating Disorder?
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Is “Overeating” an Eating Disorder?
I’ve been asked this question many times, so I thought I’d address it here on my blog! The word “overeating” is a vague, ubiquitous term that is often not well-described or well-defined. In this blog post I’d like to address a few topics about “overeating” including:
The problems that arise when trying to describe or define “overeating”
The differences among normal eating, disordered eating, and eating disorders
How “overeating” gets confused with binge eating disorder
What your “overeating” behavior may be communicating to you
What does “overeating” mean to you?
As you may have noticed, I’ve put the word “overeating” in quotes because the definition of “overeating” varies from person-to-person and is often situation-specific. When a client uses the term “overeating” I typically ask, “what does overeating mean to you?” Here are a few examples of what I’ve heard:
“I ate until I was uncomfortably full/felt like I was going to pop/felt sick to my stomach”
“I ate more than I intended to”
“I ate too much”
“I finished my entire plate of food”
In these examples “overeating” is defined or described in a variety of ways including as an unpleasant body sensation, the transgression of an implied rule about how much “should’ve” been eaten, and as an empty plate. Many of these definitions contain nebulous phrases like “more than I intended to” and “too much.” Consider the following questions:
How much is someone “supposed” to eat?
How did an empty plate come to signify “overeating”?
How are intentions different than direct experiences?
How does the sensation of fullness relate to the perception of how much you ate?
The problem with internalized food rules as a proxy for “overeating”
In my private practice I see individuals who are working to heal their relationships with food and their bodies. It’s common for my clients to enter this type of work with preconceived notions about “appropriate” portion sizes and the “right” and “wrong” foods to eat, along with misinformation about hunger/fullness cues and emotional eating that they’ve internalized from years of living in diet culture. This often translates into the perception of “overeating.”
Truth be told, the amount that we eat can vary considerably day-by-day based on many factors (e.g., appetite, physical activity, hormonal fluctuations, stress level, mood, etc.) and it changes with the seasons of our lives (e.g., during puberty, during pregnancy, with illness, as we age, and so on). External cues such as an empty plate or pre-portioning meals may have little to no bearing on whether our nutritional and energy needs are being met. Cleaning your plate is possible with meals or snacks of any size!
The problem with using body sensations as a marker for “overeating”
A sense of fullness or eating past comfortable fullness is not necessarily associated with the amount of food someone consumes. As far as body sensations go, if your hunger and fullness cues are “offline” due to an illness or an eating disorder it’s possible to feel early satiety or discomfort after eating regardless of the amount of food you’ve eaten.
“Overeating” and food shaming
Finally, the term “overeating” has a negative connotation, and is often associated with a sense of guilt or shame. I’ve heard way too many heartbreaking stories from clients about food shaming and portion size monitoring. Words are powerful; I’d like to propose with ditch the word “overeating” and start to describe our experiences, body sensations, and feelings.
Instead of using the word “overeating” we could say:
“My stomach feels uncomfortably full right now. Feeling overly full is part of being a human being that eats.”
“I’m having a thought that I ate too much compared to everyone else.”
“I noticed that I felt a sense of shame when the server commented that I cleaned my plate.”
Where does “overeating” fall along the eating spectrum?
Eating exists across a spectrum and there are many places to be along this spectrum. In order to differentiate “overeating” from an eating disorder, I’d first like to share a little bit about the eating spectrum.
“Normal” eating
Let’s start by defining “normal” eating. As I said above, there is considerable variability from person-to-person with regard to nutritional and energy needs. “Normal” eating has traditionally been defined by the following characteristics:
A healthy relationship with food where eating has a place in one’s life, but isn’t the focus of one’s life
Eating in response to a biological or emotional need for food and eating to satiety, with space to be a human being that will sometimes wish they had more to eat and sometimes wish they’d eaten slightly less
Trust in one’s body to guide eating and food choices
Flexibility to respond to changes in appetite, schedule, budget, feelings, and proximity to food
Eating foods that are nourishing and satisfying
Disordered eating
Disordered eating is a phrase that describes a pattern of eating habits that neither meet the criteria for “normal” eating or the diagnostic criteria of an eating disorder. Here are some common examples of disordered eating habits and behaviors:
Yo-yo dieting and weight cycling
Rigid rules about what, when, and how much to eat
Rigid or compensatory exercise patterns
Skipping meals, eliminating entire food groups
Feelings of anxiety or shame related to eating certain foods
Preoccupation or obsession with food or eating that gets in the way of living life
Eating disorders
Eating disorders are psychological and physical disorders that are characterized by abnormal eating habits that negatively affect a person’s physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being. Eating disorders are psychiatric diagnoses made by healthcare providers (e.g., psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists) using established criteria from the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) of the American Psychological Association. The following are examples of eating disorder diagnoses:
Anorexia nervosa (restricting or binge/purge subtype)
Avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder
Binge eating disorder
Bulimia nervosa
Other specified eating and feeding disorders
Pica
Rumination disorder
Where does “overeating” fall along the eating spectrum?
Because of variability in the description or definition of “overeating”, it could fall anywhere along the eating spectrum. For example, eating until you feel uncomfortably full could be part of “normal” eating or it could be a behavior that is part of an eating disorder diagnosis. Similarly, if “overeating” is described as the transgression of an internalized food rule, might be a characteristic of disordered eating.
This reiterates the importance of defining what “overeating” means to you specifically and why describing the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations you’re experiencing is helpful. I had a professor in college who said, “context matters.” This is especially applicable to “overeating.” Context matters here. The situation matters. Your personal definition matters. The thoughts, feelings, sensations, and symptoms that you’re experiencing matter.
How “overeating” gets confused with binge eating disorder
As mentioned previously, eating disorders are established by the DSM-5 criteria and diagnosed by a health care provider. Here are the criteria for binge eating disorder:
Recurrent episodes of binge eating which are characterized by: eating, (in a discrete amount of time- say 2 hours), an amount of food that is substantively larger than what most people would eat during a similar period of time/under similar circumstances; AND a sense of loss of control over your eating (e.g., feeling as if you can’t stop or control what or how much you are eating).
Binge eating episodes are associated with three or more of the following: eating more rapidly than is typical for you; eating until feeling uncomfortably full; eating large amounts of foods when not physically (or biologically) hungry; eating alone out of embarrassment or shame about how much you’re eating; feeling disgusted with yourself, guilty, or depressed after eating
Marked (or severe) distress regarding binge eating behavior
Binge eating that occurs, on average, at least once a week for three months
The binge eating is not associated with other compensatory behaviors (e.g., purging) that are part of other eating disorders (e.g., bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa)
As you can see from the criteria, there is a distinction between feeling uncomfortably full or guilty about what you’ve eating and experiencing a cluster of severe symptoms that are part of binge eating disorder. Whether or not you’d meet the criteria, you deserve treatment and care if your eating behaviors are causing you any degree of distress, are impacting your well-being, or are limiting your quality of life!
What your “overeating” behavior may be communicating to you
Consider what it might be like to approach eating past comfortable fullness, feelings of early satiety, or fears about how much you’ve eaten with curiosity, and as information. Since we do things for some reason (even subconsciously), perhaps your body is trying to communicate the following to you:
You have unmet physical, emotional, social, or spiritual needs
You may be experiencing an increase in stress secondary to life changes, transitions, etc.
You have a complicated or disordered relationship with food and could use support in the healing process- if this is where you’re at, click here for another blog post about where to find help!
You may be stuck in a daily restrict/binge cycle
You may be underfueling your body
I’d love to hear from you about whether you found this information helpful! Please leave me a comment below!!