There has been much research on what causes overeating and in the past 10 years the answer has become clearer thanks to new understanding about how your body's hormones influence your metabolism, fat loss, and hunger level.
  With this new understanding we are starting to see that overeating used strategically can actually help a dieter lose fat.
Overeating is a response to hormonal signals in your body.
  This is best understood by looking at what happens when you diet.
When you restrict calories such as when you are on a diet, your body reads this as a threat.
  It cannot tell that you are voluntarily eating less in order to shed a few pounds, all it knows is that one of its basic needs - food - is no longer as available.
This decrease in calories is detected by a hormone in your body called leptin.
  Leptin gets the whole ball rolling by sending an alarm to the brain which in turn takes actions that keep you from starving and encourage you to eat.
  What happens is your brain slams the brakes on your metabolism in order to preserve your energy reserves (yes, I mean FAT).
  Then a few key hormones are kicked into action.
  One of these is ghrelin which is a hormone that stimulates hunger and boy does it ever.
  As you continue to reduce calories, ghrelin sends more and more hunger pangs out until you are so ravenous a cardboard box starts to look tasty.
What causes overeating is a trigger from your hormones telling you that it needs balance.
  And as we see from above dieting throws your hormones out of balance.
This is where the research gets interesting because it is now known that a dieter can restore their metabolism and quiet the hunger stimulating ghrelin by taking one day during their dieting week and overeating.
It seems ironic that strategically overeating on a diet can prevent spontaneous overeating but there are plenty of real life case studies that prove it works and works efficiently.
  This might be due to the psychological benefit of knowing that you don't have to deprive yourself and that in just a few days you can satisfy your cravings.
  What causes overeating is important to understand especially when your goal is to lose weight but what is even more important to understand is how to use overeating to your advantage.
  While on a diet enjoy a weekly "Cheat Day" and you will keep your metabolism burning at a high rate and keep your hunger under control throughout the week.