Do Macros Work If You Overeat? How to Break the Cycle

Nikkiey: Most women who overeat are not overeating everything equally. They're overeating specific macros. That person is almost always eating carbohydrates and fat while simultaneously under-eating protein. So how many of you have ever had sushi and an hour later you're hungry? It's because it's all carbs. It's all fats. Protein is the macro that most powerfully suppresses ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and activates other aspects of your hormones that help signal that you are full.

Without enough protein, those fullness signals are quiet and you keep eating past the point that your body actually needs. Overeating is not always about hunger. It's often about a habit. And habit-driven eating is one of the most important things to understand if you are going to address it effectively. You got overweight because of your habits. I'll tell you this from working with thousands of women: the overweight women have an easier chance of losing weight.

What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show with your host, Nikkiey Stott. On these episodes, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. So for today's episode, my friends, this was a question that came through our community that really intrigued me to bring it to the podcast platform.

The question was pretty simple. It was, does any of this macro stuff apply to the woman who is not under-eating, but actually eating too much? And plain and simple, the answer is yes. Completely. A hundred percent. Well, I'm not going to end the podcast there. But I know that I haven't ever brought this topic to the podcast, so I was really excited when this got brought to my attention.

Because this deserves its own dedicated conversation for the women who are experiencing this. So today is going to be exactly that. This episode is for the woman who knows that she overeats. She is not restricting her food. She is not in this suppressed metabolism spiral. Her problem is that she just eats and eats and eats, and she eats too much. And now she's in this spot where she's got 100 to 200 pounds to lose.

It's for someone who simply eats more than her body needs and has been wondering if macros, or any structured nutrition approach, can actually help her. And like I said, it can. I'm going to show you how in this episode today. Before I get into the strategy, I just want to spend a minute talking about why this is actually happening. Because I think the overeating woman has been made to feel like something is uniquely wrong with her in the health and wellness space.

Because there's not really much that is talking to her. There's a lot that talks to the people who are not eating enough. And I'm guilty of this. A lot of the podcast episodes I've shared with you are all around: you're not eating enough, you're in restriction mode, you have to build your metabolism back up. But on the other side, there are women struggling with the opposite. Restriction gets a lot of focus. Undereating gets a lot of attention. There is this whole framework in the nutrition world around healing your relationship with food after you've done a diet.

After you have yo-yoed and lost the same pounds over and over and over again. Their metabolism is suppressed. There is this whole narrative, framework, strategy, et cetera. And I'll say it is valid and important for the woman that it serves. But the woman who overeats, who knows she eats too much, struggles with portion awareness, reaches for food constantly out of habit or out of boredom rather than genuine hunger,

that person often feels like she does not get to have a complicated relationship with food. Food is her comfort. It almost feels like she just needs to eat less and have more willpower and there's nothing deeper to discuss. That may feel like somebody who's listening to this right now. That may feel like your situation. But I will say that this is not true and it's not fair. Because just like the space has the other narrative for restriction, and under-eating gets a lot of attention,

overeating is real. It's common. And it has causes that go deeper than willpower. There are habit loops. There's blood sugar dysregulation. There are reward-driven eating patterns. There's emotional coping. There are macronutrient imbalances that drive cravings, even when total calories are high. There are so many things happening in this world for this woman. And this woman who overeats is not less complex than the woman who restricts.

She is just less talked about in this space, okay? So this is where I want to open up the conversation for that person today, so that you understand there are strategies and methodologies and tactics and frameworks for you too. What I want to say to every woman who identifies as an overeater is, I hope this is going to reframe everything for you. I hope you're going to leave the podcast episode today thinking a little bit differently about some approaches you can put into place.

And also, most importantly, just knowing that you're seen and you're heard, okay? Most women who overeat are not overeating everything equally. They're overeating specific macros. What I mean by that is, a woman who is constantly overeating, constantly eating 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 calories or more in each meal, that person is almost always eating carbohydrates and fat.

Almost always. I will die on that hill. Almost always eating carbohydrates and fat while simultaneously under-eating protein. So in all of the episodes I've done around the narrative for women who are restricting or not eating enough, the same thing still applies for the woman who is overeating. You're still not getting enough protein. And this is exactly what was described inside the community. Too many calories, too many carbs, wrong macro amounts.

There was that question in the community, and there were people commenting underneath it, because people in the community are like, yes, this works. Even though you are overeating, the methodology that we talk about inside of WarriorBabe still applies to the person who is overeating. So the people coming back to this question were saying, yeah, you're eating too many calories, you're eating too many carbs, you have the wrong macro amounts. And that specific pattern, high carbs, high fat, low protein, is one of the most powerful drivers of continued overeating.

Because it is a macro combination that does the least to support you feeling satiated. It does the most to spike and crash your blood sugar, and the least to send your body the signals it needs to genuinely feel full and satisfied. That is exactly what that macro combination does.

To elaborate a little bit more, what happens in a high carb, high fat, low protein eating pattern is pretty similar for those who don't eat enough. The strategies and methodologies are pretty much the same. Like I said, macronutrients do work for the overeater too. It's just that this narrative is not pushed in the fitness industry because the majority of people do under-eat. And I've seen that. I proved that with Dr. — who did I just have on?

JJ Virgin, right? When we were talking about — I forget what we were talking about. But I was saying, I've seen so many women under-eating because we see their logs. Their MyFitnessPal logs. They log for seven days and they're barely eating 1,000 to 1,200 calories. Okay? So anyway, side note. But when that happens, your blood sugar still spikes after meals from the carbohydrate load. Your body releases insulin to manage that carbohydrate load. And when your blood sugar drops, and it often drops below baseline, that drop triggers urgent hunger and craving signals again,

specifically for more carbs and more sugar, even though you just ate. So then you eat again. Have you ever noticed that? I'll be honest. This past weekend I was at a baby shower, and there were so many yummy desserts. And I had me some yummy desserts. But wow, did my body not like it. What I first experienced is I was still hungry a couple hours later. But then after eating that meal, because I hadn't fully digested the sweets, I felt like I was going to throw up.

And this is exactly what's happening inside my body. So think about the person who does this over and over and over again, right? Your body is just looking for you to eat again. Sushi is a really good indicator of this. How many of you have ever had sushi and an hour later you're hungry? It's because it's all carbs. It's all fats. Once you balance in protein, and I'll talk about it in a second, you'll feel more satiated. I've talked about why protein makes you feel more satiated. But that type of cycle will run all day long.

Your blood sugar spikes, then it crashes, then it triggers urgent cravings, and then you eat again. Meanwhile, without adequate protein, the hunger hormones that keep you feeling full are not being properly activated. Protein is the macro that most powerfully suppresses ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and activates other aspects of your hormones that help signal that you are full. Without enough protein, those fullness signals are quiet.

And you keep eating past the point that your body actually needs. Does that make sense? So for a lot of women who identify as overeaters, the primary intervention is not just eating less. It's eating differently. Specifically, dramatically increasing your protein while bringing your carbs and your fats into a more structured range. And when protein goes up and carbs and fats come into balance, your total calorie intake often comes down naturally,

because the body is finally getting the satiating signals it has been missing. Right? So those of you inside the community saying, well, I'm at 2,000 calories, I'm already overeating my day, now you want me to still eat around that same amount? Yes, but it's drastically different from how you're eating now. It's eating differently. You don't need to eat less. You need to eat differently. That's the main thing I want you to take away from this episode. Because if you can increase your protein and bring down your fats and your carbs,

and this is another hill I would die on, and I would die on a lot of hills when it comes to nutrition and strength training, you will see a difference. This is why macros work for overeaters just as powerfully as they do for under-eaters. Not by restricting in the punishing sense, but by restructuring what the calories are made of in a way that works with your body's hunger signals instead of against them. Okay? I hope that lands. Quick break.

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Now I want to talk about the habit and pattern piece. Because overeating is not always about hunger. It's often about a habit. And habit-driven eating is one of the most important things to understand if you are going to address it effectively. You got overweight because of your habits. You got overweight because of the food and how much of it you're eating, but you also got overweight because of the habits and the loops being driven in your mind every single day to take the action to eat the food. Remember the habit loop I've discussed in previous episodes? It's cue, routine, reward. You can also read Atomic Habits to understand this in even greater detail. But your brain identifies a trigger,

it executes the associated behavior, and it receives a dopamine reward that reinforces that loop. Over time, the loop becomes automatic. You are not deciding to eat. You are just executing a deeply grooved pattern. Have any of you ever just been eating and thought, how did I get to this point? And you just eat and keep eating and keep eating? This is a common cue, routine, reward that overeaters experience.

For example, when you sit down and watch TV in the evening, that is your cue. Getting a snack is the routine. And the combination of being comfortable and relaxed and then the taste, that is the reward. After enough repetitions of this, sitting down to watch TV automatically triggers you to reach for food regardless of whether you are actually hungry.

Another example: you finish a stressful work task. That is the cue. Then you eat something, usually something sweet or salty, carbs and fats. That is your routine. And the brief dopamine spike you feel and the transition away from the stress, that is your reward. Food becomes the punctuation mark at the end of hard work. Or when you're driving. Driving is a cue. Eating in the car is the routine.

And the stimulation of taste while doing something boring and monotonous is the reward. This one is so automatic for so many people that they barely even notice they're doing it. How many of you stop at a rest stop when you're traveling or driving? Or you stop at a gas station, get gas, go in and get a snack, right? Or you bring snacks because you just want to eat when you're bored in the car.

This one is so automatic for so many people. And one thing I have to say is that these loops are not moral failures. They're just patterns your brain built because they worked at some point. And patterns can be changed.

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But these patterns have to be redesigned. It's not just by saying, I've got to be more disciplined, I've got to have willpower. It's not by doing those things alone. They have to be redesigned.

So the practical approach, for each habit loop you identify, is to either change the cue, substitute the routine, or disrupt the reward. Ideally, at least two of the three. Changing the cue for the TV snack might look like eating a high-protein dinner late enough that you are genuinely not hungry by the time you sit down to watch TV. Do you know how many times this has worked for me, over and over and over again?

I'll have my meal and then sit down and watch a TV show at the end of the night. And I'm like, I don't know, I'm just going to have some Dubai chocolate, like two pieces. That's where that Dubai chocolate thing came into play. That was the changing of the routine part. The changing of the cue is you eating something beforehand, so you don't have the cue of sitting down in front of the TV and thinking about food. Or, for substituting a routine,

it could look like a specific non-food activity. Going back to the other one to make it a little clearer: sitting down in front of the TV is the cue. Having the high-protein meal beforehand changes your cue. And then you're just sitting down and watching TV, so you don't have that cue, right? You don't have that hunger cue. That makes sense. Or if being stressed out at work is your cue, substituting your routine

could be a non-food activity. It could be going out for a walk. It could be reading a book. It could be something that creates something different in the moment. Disrupting the reward could be a similar type of move. It could be adding enough awareness in the moment, asking, am I actually hungry right now? That way the automatic behavior gets interrupted before it executes.

Now, you don't have to redesign every single habit loop. I would just say pick the one that is costing you the most and start there. One loop that you break and rebuild is worth more than ten you vaguely intend to address someday, right? Focus on one. Is it the TV? I know a lot of Americans struggle with that. Is it that? Then figure out how to redesign the new habit loop.

So, getting into the practical conversation. If you're an overeater and your goal is fat loss, you need a specific approach to creating a deficit that does not send you spiraling back into the patterns that got you where you are in the first place. The first thing I would do is find out what you are actually eating. That's step one. Before you change anything, track what you are currently eating for a full week. We make every single WarriorBabe do this. And do it honestly. Track everything. Every sauce,

every handful, every bite while you're cooking, every coffee that has cream in it. Be honest here. But don't change your behavior. Don't think, well, I'm tracking so I have to eat better. No, be honest. Don't change your behavior. Just get the real number at the end of the week. Because most overeaters will be surprised by what that data shows. Not because the overall total is as high as they feared it would be, but because the macro breakdown is so lopsided.

Again, very low protein, very high carbs and fats, and lots of the calories coming from sources they weren't even registering as significant. Empty calories, or things like fats and carbs. If you are over-consuming fats, just bringing them down — fats are the most calorically dense macronutrient — so bringing them down a little bit will move you into

a good range for your calories and your macronutrients. But that's your starting point: tracking and finding where you're at, because you can't build a plan from a number you're guessing at. The second thing I would say is to raise your protein before you lower your calories. This is the counterintuitive move that makes everything else possible. Before you cut your total calories, just add protein. Aggressively add protein. One gram per pound of body weight,

and then build your meals around a complete protein source first, then fill in the carbs and the fats around it. What you will notice is that your hunger goes down, your cravings reduce, your blood sugar stabilizes, and your total calorie intake often drops without you having to force it, because your body is finally getting adequate fullness signals. It's finally saying, I'm satisfied, I'm satiated. Those signals are working for you. So naturally, you're not going to want to

overeat, because those signals are doing the work for you. Many overeaters find that simply restructuring around their protein targets automatically creates a calorie reduction without them feeling deprived. Literally, the protein will do the heavy lifting for you. You just have to eat more of it, aggressively get it in there, get it up. And then from there,

this is where I would recommend working with a VIP coach or getting inside our WarriorBabe programs, because we're going to be able to show you step by step what to do from here. Once your protein is dialed in and your baseline intake is accurately tracked, then we can see, okay, do we need to do a deficit? Probably not, because some of you are probably already going to start losing. I'll tell you this, from working with thousands of women inside WarriorBabe: the overweight women have an easier chance

of losing weight once this stuff happens. If you are overweight, it will be easier for you to lose weight when you get the strategy dialed in. It's harder for the others because their metabolism is suppressed. Their metabolism has been through some ups and downs with dieting and yo-yoing over and over again, right? So this is where you have an advantage. But some of you may not need to go into a deficit, right? It's different for everybody. So that would be

where I would say you may need a deficit, but maybe not. And maybe not even an aggressive one. And the last thing I would say is to structure your eating environment to be supportive. What is in your house determines what you eat. If the foods that drive your overeating patterns are accessible and visible and there, the habit loops will keep firing. This is not about cutting out or banning foods forever, but it is about designing your environment to support your goals. If you're keeping trigger foods

out of reach, out of the house, during the early weeks of building these new habits, and you're keeping high-protein, easy-to-grab options front and center in your fridge, that becomes your default choice. It becomes the default for you to make the right choice. Because on low-willpower days, you are going to eat what is easy to reach. Trust me. Our brains and our habits will overpower us

in those moments. So with everything I discussed today, I want to close it out with this. Because I want the overeater to take this episode feeling like this approach is hers. She's a woman who needs to hear this message. It's not a version of what works for other women, right? This is a real thing that you can start doing right now. So, macro framework: one gram per pound of body weight.

If you are very, very overweight, then I would say focus on the desired body weight you want to get to and hit that number in grams. That's a non-negotiable. And then you build every meal around that. That will change literally everything. Higher protein, lower appetite, better sugar regulation, more fullness, more muscle preservation while you're losing the fat. You guys, these are my favorite clients, because not only will you lose the fat fast when you put this strategy in place,

but strength training at the same time and eating protein will help you preserve the muscle you have and build more of it while you lose fat. All right? For you, the overeater, protein is not just a macro target to hit. It is literally an appetite management strategy. And the carbohydrates and the fats, you don't have to eliminate them. You don't need to be excessive with them. They're just moderate and structured for you. Because the goal is not to be low carb. The goal is not to be low fat.

The goal is steady blood sugar. The goal is to choose sources that come with fiber, like vegetables, whole grains and fruit, over refined, processed sources that spike your blood sugar rapidly. And you're pairing every single carbohydrate with a protein, always. The protein slows glucose absorption and prevents the spike-and-crash cycle that drives continued overeating. And fats are so important for hormone production.

They don't need to be eliminated, but they need to be lowered and tracked better. All right? This framework works. It works for the under-eater, and it also works for the overeater. Macros work. Give it eight weeks before evaluating whether an adjustment is needed, whether you need to change anything. The most important thing is to track first, give it time, and know that this framework works. It can work for anybody who's an overeater as well, because it's built around how your body actually functions, not around

restriction for restriction's sake. You belong in this type of tactic. You belong in this type of methodology. Your starting point just may look a little bit different, but your destination is the same as for those who are under-eating. All right? So for anyone who's been listening to this podcast wondering if there's a place for you in this nutrition world, yes, there totally is. Having 200 pounds to lose is not a disqualifier. It's a starting

point. And macros, when you do them correctly, with the right protein target and the right data, are one of the most powerful tools available to you, regardless of which direction you're coming from. All right? I hope you enjoyed this episode. Share it with a woman who needs to hear this, maybe someone in your community who has been quietly wondering the same thing as the question that was presented to me for this episode: do macros actually work for people who are

overeating? Because she deserves to hear this too. I'll see you guys in the next episode. Peace out.

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