The Macro Approach If You Struggle with Overeating

00:00Most 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 guys have ever had sushi and like an hour later you're hungry? It's because it's all carbs. It's all fats. Protein is a macro that most powerfully suppresses ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and activates other aspects of your hormones that will help you to signal that you are full.

00:32Without you having 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 over thousands of women. The overweight women have easier chance of losing weight.

01:06What's going on everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show with your host, Nikki Stott. And 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.

01:41The 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, guys, the answer is yes. Completely. A hundred percent. Well, I'm not going to end the podcast there. But I don't think, like, I know that I haven't brought this topic ever to the podcast. So I was really excited when this got brought to my attention.

02:12Because this conversation, it deserves its own dedicated conversation for the women that are experiencing this. So today is going to be exactly that. We're going to have that type of discussion here. So this episode is for the woman who knows that she overeats. She is not restricting her food. She is not in, like, this suppressed metabolism spiral. Like, 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.

02:47It's for someone who simply just eats more than her body needs and has been wondering if macros or, like, any structured nutrition approach can actually help her. And like I said, it can. And I'm going to show you how in this episode today. So before I get into the strategy, I just want to spend a minute here talking about, like, 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.

03:18Because there's not really much that is talking to her. There's a lot of things that are talking to how, like, the people that are not eating enough. And I'm guilty of this. A lot of the podcast episodes I have shared with you guys is 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's women struggling with the opposite. And, you know, 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.

03:50After you have yo-yoed and lost the same pounds over and over and over again. Higher metabolism is suppressed. Like, there is this whole narrative framework, strategy, etc. And I'll say it is valid and important for the woman that it serves. But the woman who overeats, like, she knows she eats too much, struggles with portion awareness, reaches for food constantly out of habit, or on their board, or rather than, like, genuine hunger.

04:22That 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 maybe somebody that's listening to this right now. Maybe that may feel like your situation and may feel similar. But I will say that this is not true and it's not fair. Because overeating, like, how the space has the other narrative for the restriction and a lot of under eating gets a lot of attention.

04:59Overeating is real. It's common. And it has causes that go deeper than willpower. There's habit loops. There's blood sugar dysregulation. There's reward-driven eating patterns. There's emotional coping. There's macronutrient imbalances that drive cravings, even when total calories are high. There's so many things happening in this world for this woman. And this woman who overeats is not, she's not less complex than the woman who restricts.

05:30She is just less talked about in this space, okay? But, again, this is where I want to open up the conversation for that person today so that you have an understanding, like, there are strategies and methodologies and tactics and frameworks for you also. So, what I want to say is to every woman who identifies as an overeater, and I hope that this is going to reframe everything for you. Because I hope you're going to leave the podcast episode today thinking a little bit differently about some approaches that you can put into your place.

06:03And 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. So, what I mean by that is a woman who is constantly overeating and constantly, you know, eating 1,000 calories or more, 1,500 calories or 2,000 calories in each meal, that person is almost always eating carbohydrates and fat.

06:36Almost always. I will die on the hill to that. Almost always eating carbohydrates and fat while simultaneously under eating protein. So, in all of the episodes that I have had around the narrative for women that are restricting or not eating enough and they're not getting it, it still lies the same for the woman that 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.

07:09Like, there was that question in the community and there's people that were commenting underneath of it. Because people in the community are like, yes, this works. Like, they're like, even though you are overeating, the methodology that we talk about inside of Warrior Babes still applies for the person that is overeating. So, the people who are coming back to this question being like, yeah, like, you're eating too many calories, you're eating too many carbs, you have the wrong macro amounts. And that specific pattern, the high carbs, high fat, low protein, is one of the most powerful drivers of continued overeating.

07:43Because 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 that it needs to genuinely feel like you are full and satisfied. That is exactly what that macro combination does.

08:13So, to elaborate a little bit more, what happens in a high carb, high fat, low protein eating pattern is pretty similar for those also that don't eat enough. Like, it's simultaneously, like, just the strategies and methodologies are pretty much the same. Like I said, macronutrients does work for the overeater too. It's just that this narrative is not pushed in the fitness industry because majority of people do undereat. And I've seen that. Like, I proved that with Dr. – who did I just have on?

08:46JJ Virgin, right? When we were talking about the – I forget what we were talking about. But I was like, you know, we – I've seen so many women undereating because we see their logs. They're MyFitnessPal logs. They log for seven days. And they're barely eating 1,000 to 1,200 calories. Okay? So, anyway, side brands. But when that happens, your blood sugar still spikes after meals from the carbohydrate load. Your body will release insulin to manage that carbohydrate load. And when your blood sugar drops, and it's going to drop often below baseline, and that drop will then trigger urgent hunger and craving signals again,

09:23specifically for more carbs and more sugar, even though you just ate. So, then you eat again. Have ever you guys noticed that – I mean, shoot. I'll be honest. This past weekend, I was just 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 completely fully digested the sweets, I felt like I was going to throw up.

09:53And this is everything what's happening inside my body. So, think about the person that just does this over and over and over and over again. Right? So, your body is just looking for you to eat again. Sushi is a really good indicator of this. How many of you guys have ever had sushi and like an hour later you're hungry? It's because it's all carbs. It's all fats. Once you balance a protein, I'll talk about it in a second, then you'll feel more satiated. And I've talked about why protein makes you feel more satiated. But that type of single cycle will run all day long.

10:27Your blood sugar spikes, then it crashes, then it triggers urgent cravings, and then you eat again. Meanwhile, without you having adequate protein, the hunger hormones that keep you feeling full are not being properly activated. Protein is a macro that most powerfully suppresses ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and activates other aspects of your hormones that will help you to be the signal that you are full. Without you having enough protein, those fullness signals are quiet.

10:59And you keep eating past the point that your body actually needs. Does that make sense? So, this means for a lot of women who identify as like overeaters, the primary intervention is not just you 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 comes into balance, then your total calorie intake often comes down naturally

11:32because the body is finally getting the like satiating signals that it has been missing. Right? So, those of you guys are inside the community and you're like, well, I'm 2,000 calories, man. I'm already eating 20. Like, I'm already overeating my day. Now, you want me to still eat around that same? Yeah, but it's drastically different than how you're eating. It's eating differently. You don't need to eat less. You need to eat differently. It's the main thing that I want you to take away from this podcast episode. Because if you can increase your protein and bring down your fats and your carbs,

12:06you're, again, another thing I would die on the hill. I would die on the hill for a lot of things when it comes to nutrition and strength training. But 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 restricting what the calories are made of in a way that works with your body's hunger signals instead of against them. Okay? So I hope that lands. Quick break.

12:37If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or a review, or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat, and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me. Now I want to talk about like the habit and the 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

13:11if you are going to address it effectively. You got overweight because of your habits. One, you got overweight because of the food and how much of the food you're eating, but you also got overweight because of the habits and the loops that are being driven in your mind every single day to take the action to eat the food. Remember the habit loop that I've discussed before in previous episodes? It's cue, routine, reward. You can also read atomic habits to understand this in even more grave detail. But your brain identifies a trigger.

13:41It executes the associated behavior and receives a dopamine reward that reinforces that loop. So over time, the loop becomes automatic. Like you are not deciding to eat. You are just executing a deeply grooved pattern. Have any of you guys ever just been eating? You're like, how did I get to this point? And you just eat and then you keep eating and you keep eating? This is a common cue, routine, reward that overeaters experience.

14:15Like 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 you being comfortable and relaxed and then the taste, that is the reward. And after enough repetitions of you doing this, sitting down to watch TV, this automatically triggers you to reach for the food regardless of whether you are actually hungry or not.

14:46Or another example is you're finishing 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 then that brief dopamine spike that you feel and the transition away from the stress, that is your reward. Food becomes like 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.

15:17And then the stimulation of taste while doing something that is boring and monotonous is the reward. This one is so automatic for so many people. They barely even notice that they are doing it. How many of you guys, you know, stop at a restaurant stop, right? When you're traveling or driving. Or you stop at a gas station and you get gas. When you go in and you get a snack, right? Like this is... Or you bring snacks because you just want to eat when you're bored inside the car.

15:48This one is so automatic for so many people. And one thing I got to say is these Louis, they're not you having these like moral failures. They're just patterns that your brain built because they worked at some point. And patterns can be changed. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause?

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16:54Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. But they have to be like redesigned. Like you can't, it's not just by you being like, I gotta be more disciplined. I gotta have willpower. It's not by just doing those things alone. They have to be redesigned.

17:27So like the practical approach for each habit loop that you identify, you need to either change the cue or substitute the routine or disrupt the reward. Ideally, at least two of the three of them. So 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 and watch TV. Do you know how many times this has worked for me over and over and over again?

18:01I will have my meal and then I will sit down and watch TV show at the end of the night. And I'm like, I don't know. I'm just gonna have some like dub chocolate, like two pieces. That's where that dub chocolate thing came into play. I changed the routine. Like that was the changing of the routine part. The changing of the cue is you just eating something beforehand. You don't have the cue for sitting down in front of the TV and thinking about food. Or, you know, for substituting a routine,

18:31it could look like having a specific non-food activity. Or what going back to the other one to make it a little bit more clear because sitting down in front of the TV is the cue. You having the meal beforehand, the high protein is your cue. And then the switching of the routine is you 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 you're stressed out at work is your cue, then having, substituting your routine

19:02could be like a non-food activity. It could be going out for a walk. It could be reading a book. It could be something that like is something that will create something different in the moment. Or disrupting the reward could also be that same type of move. It could be like you adding enough awareness in the moment. Like, am I actually hungry right now? Like that automatic behavior gets interrupted before it executes.

19:34Now, you don't have to redesign every single habit loop. I would just say pick one that is costing you the most and start there. One loop that you can break and rebuild is worth more than 10 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 like the practical

20:05conversation with you guys. Because 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 to where you are now in the first place. So, the first thing that I would do is find out what you are actually eating. That would be step one. Before you change anything, track what you are currently eating for a full week. We make every single warrior babe do this. And do it honestly. Track everything. Every sauce,

20:36every handful that you have, every bite while you're cooking, like, every coffee that you have that has cream inside of it. Like, be honest here. But don't change your behavior. Don't just like, don't be like, 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 what that data shows. Not because the over total is high as a fear that it would be, but because the macro breakdown is so lopsided.

21:06Again, like the very low protein, the very high carbs and fats, a lot, and lots of the calories coming from sources that they were not even, like, registering as significant. Like, empty calories, calories, or things like, yeah, fats and carbs. If you are over consuming and fats, guys, you just bring, I mean, fats are more, the most calorically dense macronutrient. So by you just bringing that down a little bit will send you into

21:36a good range of your calories and your macronutrients. Um, but that's your starting point, tracking and finding where you're at because you can't build a plan from a number that where you are guessing at. The second thing that I would say is, um, raising your, raising your protein before you lower your calories. So, this is the, like, counter, it's 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,

22:08that, 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 will go down, your cravings will reduce, blood sugar will stabilize, and the total calorie intake often drops without you having to force it because your body is finally getting adequate, um, fullness signals. It's finally being like, I'm satisfied, I'm satiated. Those signals are working for you. So, naturally, you're not going to want to

22:39overeat because you're already, you're having these signals do the work for you. Many overeaters find that simply just getting their protein targets restructured enough will, it helps them to just automatically create a calorie restriction reduction without them feeling like they're deprived. Literally, literally, the protein will do the heavy lifting for you. Here, you just have to eat more of it and aggressively get that in there, get that up. And then from there,

23:10this is where like, some of you guys would recommend like, working with a VIP coach or getting inside of our Warrior Bay 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 this is where we can see, okay, do we need to do a deficit? Probably not because some of you guys are probably going to already start initially. I'll tell you this, from working with over thousands of women inside of Warrior Babe, the overweight women have easier chance

23:41of losing weight once this stuff happens. It's like, 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 the metabolism is suppressed. The metabolism has been through some through some ups and downs with dieting and yo-yoing over and over again, right? So like, this is where you guys have an advantage. But some of you guys may not need to go into a deficit, right? It's different for everybody. So that would be

24:12where I would say you need maybe a deficit, but maybe not. Maybe not even an aggressive one. And then the last thing that I would say is structuring your eating environment to be supportive for you. Like what is in your house determines what you eat. If the foods that drive your overeating patterns are accessible and they're visible and they're there, the habit loops, they will keep firing. This is not about you cutting out or banning foods forever, but it is about designing your environment to support your goals. If you're keeping trigger feuds

24:43out of reach, out of the house, during the early weeks of you building these new habits and you're keeping high protein, easy to grab options front and center in your fridge, it's going to, this is going to become a default choice for you. And it's going to become a default choice 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 you

25:13in those moments. So, with everything that I discussed today, I just want to kind of close it down with this. Because I want overeaters to take this episode feeling like this approach is hers. It's a woman that 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.

25:44If you are very, very overweight, then I would say focus on your desired body weight to get to and then hit that gram in body weight. That's a non-negotiable. And then you build every meal around that. And then that will change literally everything. Higher protein, lower appetite, better sugar regulation, more fullness, more muscle preservation during you losing the fat. You guys, these are my favorite clients also because not only will you lose the fat fast when you put this strategy in place,

26:15but you doing strength training at the same time and you eating protein will help you to preserve muscle that you have, build more of it while you lose fat. All right? For you, for the overeater, protein is not just a macro target to hit. It is literally an appetite management strategy for you. And then the carbohydrates and the fats, like 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.

26:46The goal is to steady blood sugar. The goal is to choose sources that come with fiber like vegetables, whole grains, fruit, over picking refined process sources that spike your blood sugar rapidly. And then you're pairing every single protein with the carbohydrate always. The protein slows glucose absorption and prevents the spike to crash cycle that drives continued overeating. And fats are so important for hormone production.

27:16They don't need to be eliminated, but they need to be just lowered and tracked better. All right? This framework works. It works for the under eater, but it also works for the overeater. Macros work. Give it eight weeks before evaluating whether an adjustment is needed, whether you need to like change anything. But the most important thing is you need to track first, give it time, and then knowing that this framework works. It can work for anybody that's an overeater as well because it's built around how your body actually functions, not around

27:47restriction for restriction's sake. You belong in this type of tactic. You belong in this type of methodology. But your starting point just may look a little bit different. But your destination with those that are under eating is the same. All right? So for any way that's been listening to this podcast wondering if like there's a place for you in this nutrition world, yes, there totally is. You having 200 pounds to lose is not a disqualifier. It's a starting

28:17point. And macros, when you do them correctly, with the right protein target, with the right data, it's one of the most powerful tools available for you regardless of which direction you're coming from. All right? I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Share it with a woman who needs to hear this and maybe is inside your community that has been quietly wondering. You know, the same thing that maybe the questions that, that the question that was presented to me to, to, to have this type of podcast episode, right? Do macros actually work for people that are

28:47overeating? Because she deserves to hear this too. I'll see you guys in the next episode. Peace out. Hey, really quick, before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference, helping more women discover the tools they need to transform the fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review.

29:18I appreciate you so much.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.