Sept. 17, 2025 – Researchers have identified five distinct patterns of overeating that can sabotage weight loss efforts, even among the most diligent dieters. Recognizing them may be key to maintaining a healthy weight.
The goal is to help people understand their triggers and root causes of overeating, “so that the food doesn't become the problem,” said study author Nabil Alshurafa, PhD, associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL.
This strategy may be more effective than common approaches like calorie counting or keeping food diaries, which often fall short due to inaccuracy – people tend to overlook small snacks or misjudge serving sizes. Alshurafa recalled observing a dietitian’s session with a patient who fixated on a single visit to McDonald’s – neglecting to mention other meals and likely missing broader patterns of overeating as a result.
For the new study, participants wore two sensors – one like a smartwatch, and the other a smart necklace – plus a body camera programmed to record during eating and drinking. Participants wore the equipment for two weeks. Alshurafa, who is also a computer scientist, and his team analyzed the data to identify the five overeating patterns:
- Take-out feasting: Some gorged on delivery and take-out – a habit often tied to shared experience, like deliberating with friends what to order and then enjoying the food during a movie night together at home.
- Evening restaurant reveling: Restaurant dinners that feel indulgent and socially engaging – particularly with family and friends you’re comfortable with – can draw out mealtimes, often resulting in eating more.
- Evening craving: Those who turn to late-night snacks, especially prepared at home and with the goal of unwinding, risk eating past the point of fullness.
- Uncontrolled pleasure eating: These spontaneous, pleasure-seeking binges often occur during work or study and may be due to cognitive overload, impairing one’s ability to self-regulate.
- Stress-driven evening nibbling: Anxiety-fueled grazing – usually on snacks, not large meals – was associated with high stress levels and other emotions like feeling lonely.
It was common among participants to have more than one of these patterns.
What to Do
The good news: If you identified with any of those eating patterns, you’ve already taken the first step toward overcoming them. Understanding your eating patterns and paying attention to how your body feels can empower you to make positive change, said Sara Styles, PhD, a behavioral nutrition expert at the University of Otago in New Zealand, who focuses on “intuitive eating” – listening to body cues to guide what, when, and how much to eat.
“If we define 'perceived overeating at meals' as feeling uncomfortably full,” said Styles – and that’s affecting health or quality of life, then it might be helpful to notice times when you feel uncomfortably full.
Think back to how you felt prior to eating, Styles suggested. What were your thoughts, feelings, emotions, bodily sensations, or memories? What behavior preceded eating -- what did you do, or not do?
“It's important to identify what is within someone's personal control to change,” Styles said. “Focus on one pattern to change -- what can you do in the next 24 hours that sets you up well for eating within a comfortable range? What can you do longer term in that situation of interest to reduce the likelihood of eating beyond being comfortably full?”
Styles added that occasional eating beyond the point of fullness is OK if you have an urge to do so -- just “do it intentionally, without guilt or shame.”
It’s worth noting that three of the five patterns occur at night, and that aligns with what’s known about how the body’s internal clock – or circadian rhythm -- impacts eating, said Satchidananda Panda, PhD, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California and an expert in circadian rhythm and time-restricted eating.
“In circadian rhythm research, we know that food craving increases, and our self-control reduces as the day progresses,” said Panda.
Panda was not involved in the new study but said that it raises the question of whether people with obesity might have more hunger at night, or have a harder time resisting that hunger, or both. All the people in the study had obesity, with an average age of 41 and an average body-mass index of 37.
People with sleep problems also tend to have reduced ability to regulate behavior, so “we cannot rule out the possibility that the overeating may also – at least partly – result from sleep disruption.”
What’s Next
The next research step, Alshurafa said, is to evaluate treatments and interventions to see which are effective for each pattern.
“We really want to empower people by building their knowledge and skills so that they can change their own daily habits for better health,” Alshurafa said.
Panda noted that overeating isn’t always just a matter of willpower – biological factors can play a role, such as the body’s natural drive for food. In people with obesity, what feels like hunger may not be true biological hunger – but rather a disruption in the hormonal signals that control hunger and satiety, Panda said.
