Pretty Much Everything Will Make You Overeat

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In our previous chronicles of overdetermination, we've learned that pretty much everything can predict the winner of the Super Bowl and everything has more germs than a toilet bowl. Today we look at what's making you overeat. 

Researchers recently found that simply seeing fat people can lead to overeating. Their study consisted of a small number of participants looking at either "a fat person, a normal-weight person, or a lamp." People who looked at the "fat person" ate more candy afterwards. But if you think just averting your gaze from fat people will make you skinny, you're sadly mistaken. Here's a small sample of other things that researchers have also linked to overeating. If you lump these all together, a quest to lose weight feels comically daunting.

Things Research Linked to Overeating:

• Having overweight friends  leads to overeating.
• Thinking too much  leads to overeating.
• Playing video games for over an hour leads to overeating.
• Larger food portions on your plate leads to overeating.
• Smaller food portions  leads to overeating.
• Oversleeping  leads to overeating.

• Undersleeping  leads to overeating.
• Morbid thoughts  lead to overeating.
• A sense of pride or achievement leads to overeating.
• Small snack packages  lead to overeating.
• Stress  leads to overeating.
• Low-calorie diet meals lead to overeating.
• Fatty foods  leads to overeating
• Eating quickly  leads to overeating

Photo by Jeff Brownell via Flickr

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.