Overeating
by VIRGINIA PORCELLO, Ph.D.
Director, Solutions Weight Management Program

Many people who join Solutions claim that they know why they overeat. While knowing is the first step, you need to follow through and explore these reasons in a deeper way. For example, if you develop an insight that the only reason you are eating is because you are bored, go further. Explore why you are bored, what makes you feel bored, is boredom a cover-up for other feelings, what makes you stay in a boring situation? Next, you need to understand why you choose to overeat when you feel bored. Only then can you get to the root of the problem.

Let’s take a look at the symbolic meaning of fat:

1. Fat as non-verbal communication of seemingly unacceptable emotional expression, e.g., “I’m angry.” “I’m hurt.” “I hate you.” “I’m in pain.”

2. Fat as a social barrier, communicating the desire to be left alone to avoid a range of social interactions.

3. Fat as a demonstration of power and control, e.g., “I refuse to look the way you want me to look.”

4. Fat as a means of maintaining the status quo and avoiding the fear and anxiety- producing challenges of, for example, moving up the corporate ladder, applying for a better job, leaving a bad relationship and seeking new relationships, and taking risks.

5. Fat as a way of communicating that one should approach with minimal expectations, e.g., “don’t’ expect too much of me because I am fat and lazy as you can plainly see.”

6. Fat as a protective barrier against sexual overtures in order to avoid feelings of guilt and shame, vulnerability, and exposure. Essentially, it is a way to avoid intimacy in a culture which is certain to reject the obese.

Obesity, especially in women, has reached epidemic proportions. It is little consolation to tell a compulsive eater “reduce your caloric intake” and “all you need is motivation and will power”. Now that so much more is know about the causes of obesity and compulsive eating disorders it is important for all who suffer from such problems to explore new avenues and not close yourself off to the possibility that there are hidden psychological issues that lie at the root of your eating problem.

Free yourself from the tyranny of compulsive eating, seek help!