Opinions on the "intuitive eating" trend?

Hausisse1

I've been seeing a lot of stuff about this lately- basically the opposite of counting calories. Just paying attention to your body and what it needs. As I understand it, people don't lose weight, but they're still happy and healthy. I dunno- I'm not sure there have been too many long-term studies. Just wondered if anybody else had read anything about it, and if so, what your opinions might be.
https://www.intuitiveeating.com/

Hausisse1

Honestly, it reminds me of the way folks who live in Europe and South American countries eat. They don't worry about their caloric intake so much, they just eat what they feel like- the thing is, though, they (usually) eat a well-balanced national cuisine and are walking like 5+ miles a day. When I lived in Russia I ate so much more, yet I lost 5 lbs (that I frankly didn't need to lose)

zyxst

I haven't tried it, so I'm just going on what I've read. It seems that it wouldn't work for me. Feeling full and satisfied is great and I love that, but it make me eat more than my body can use.

melimomTARDIS

i think intuitive eating is great for lots of people. as a binge eater, I dont think this approach will help me keep my pounds off. Because I intuitively want to eat a whole pie sometimes.

rybo

I didnt read the link because it looked to be selling books, but it is possible to eat "intuitively" and lose or maintain weight. I haven't tracked calories in years and pretty much only did track for a few months to understand how much I was eating and where my calorie pitfalls were. For me, not stressing, just eating makes the most sense. I do feel that eating mostly whole foods and avoiding processed stuff helps.

lynndot1

"Intuitive eating" is something millions of people do every day - it's how those people never become overweight. One of the many reasons people become overweight is they don't listen to hunger/full signals or "intuitively" they think it's okay to eat much more than they need to. Improper portion sizes, usually.

I've never been overweight, but I am this way with certain foods. Intuitively my body says half a bag of potato chips is totally okay, haha, even though they're a delicious way to go way over your caloric limit, esp if you eat them with other stuff.

I guess this is my way of saying intuitive eating probably is easiest for people who don't "need" it in the first place.

cwolfman13

There don't have to be any studies...there are millions and millions of healthy and fit people who eat intuitively...most of those people also eat very healthfully and live active lifestyles as well.

I used calorie counting to lose weight, but I've maintained that for 2 years without logging...so I guess I would be eating intuitively then.

Problem is that there are also a lot of people who don't have very good "intuition" when it comes to diet and nutrition.

Hausisse1

cwolfman13 wrote: »

There don't have to be any studies...there are millions and millions of healthy and fit people who eat intuitively...most of those people also eat very healthfully and live active lifestyles as well.

I used calorie counting to lose weight, but I've maintained that for 2 years without logging...so I guess I would be eating intuitively then.

Problem is that there are also a lot of people who don't have very good "intuition" when it comes to diet and nutrition.

I agree! I guess I just find it odd because most of the places where I run across folks discussing "intuitive eating" are people who consider themselves overweight and have decided to no longer attempt to lose weight, but to eat intuitively with the understanding that they will probably not lose weight... it seems as though it's popularly interpreted as being part of the fat acceptance movement. (which is fine if they are comfortable with who they are and healthy, I'm all for body positivity)

Sabine_Stroehm

Hausisse1 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

There don't have to be any studies...there are millions and millions of healthy and fit people who eat intuitively...most of those people also eat very healthfully and live active lifestyles as well.

I used calorie counting to lose weight, but I've maintained that for 2 years without logging...so I guess I would be eating intuitively then.

Problem is that there are also a lot of people who don't have very good "intuition" when it comes to diet and nutrition.

I agree! I guess I just find it odd because most of the places where I run across folks discussing "intuitive eating" are people who consider themselves overweight and have decided to no longer attempt to lose weight, but to eat intuitively with the understanding that they will probably not lose weight... it seems as though it's popularly interpreted as being part of the fat acceptance movement. (which is fine if they are comfortable with who they are and healthy, I'm all for body positivity)

This is not how I understand it at all.
Either the co-opted "movement" nor the original concept.

cwolfman13

Hausisse1 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

There don't have to be any studies...there are millions and millions of healthy and fit people who eat intuitively...most of those people also eat very healthfully and live active lifestyles as well.

I used calorie counting to lose weight, but I've maintained that for 2 years without logging...so I guess I would be eating intuitively then.

Problem is that there are also a lot of people who don't have very good "intuition" when it comes to diet and nutrition.

I agree! I guess I just find it odd because most of the places where I run across folks discussing "intuitive eating" are people who consider themselves overweight and have decided to no longer attempt to lose weight, but to eat intuitively with the understanding that they will probably not lose weight... it seems as though it's popularly interpreted as being part of the fat acceptance movement. (which is fine if they are comfortable with who they are and healthy, I'm all for body positivity)

So basically, they're just saying, "*kitten* it...gonna do what I want." To me, that's not intuitive eating. Intuitive eating would to me imply that someone knows how to properly fuel their bodies and know how to listen to their bodies to know what their bodies need...if people can do that, they don't generally end up being overweight.

fivelongmiles

If I do what I suppose you could call "intuitive eating" I gain at least a pound a week. Sometimes, your body really doesn't know best...

Lrdoflamancha

Eating that way....is why I am here... Learning how not to eat that way.

ninerbuff

It can work, but until someone who's overweight understands how much they have to eat to stay leaner, they may end up staying at maintenance or more and not in calorie deficit.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

TheVirgoddess

I've tested this for myself - stopped logging and just ate normally. I lost weight. This is my plan once I switch to maintenance. I've spent a lot of the past year learning how to listen to my body. I'm not referring to the book, btw. Just the concept of eating reasonably when you're hungry and stopped when you're full.

GoPerfectHealth

When people say, "I'm going to eat intuitively," it seems to me that they are making a choice to pay attention to their food in a particular way. You can pay attention to food in many ways. You can log it on MFP. You can mentally calculate your portions as you eat. You can eat to satiety. You can eat "intuitively" by listening to body signals. For people with problematic eating patterns It is probably possible to learn to differentiate hunger from cravings and to become a normal eater, but many people do not seem to be able to accomplish this.

isulo_kura

Most people are on this site because they were unable to eat intuitively and control their/weight health.

avskk

I think it's a useful and healthy way to eat, but it doesn't work for me -- my relationship to food is too messed up, my intuition is completely faulty. If I could eat intuitively, I wouldn't need MFP. I wish it were otherwise, but that's the plain truth.

lemurcat12

lynndot1 wrote: »

"Intuitive eating" is something millions of people do every day - it's how those people never become overweight.

Even for people without weight issues, I suspect many don't really intuitive eat. Most people eat based on schedule and a cultural understanding of what proper eating is. The idea that humans ever just naturally ate to satisfaction and stopped when full isn't really consistent with human biology, which evolved during a period in which food was scarce and we probably ate when it was available and dealt with periods when it was less so.

One of the many reasons people become overweight is they don't listen to hunger/full signals or "intuitively" they think it's okay to eat much more than they need to. Improper portion sizes, usually.

Agreed. Whatever the case with people who don't become overweight, people who do are likely to have difficulties with intuitive eating.

I do think getting better at focusing on genuine hunger/need to eat can be helpful, but that trying to replace other ways to monitor eating (like time, portion size, food choice) wholly by intuitive seems unlikely to work for many of us, even if it were possible (because my mind is always going to affect what I "intuitively" want).

lemurcat12

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

Hausisse1 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

There don't have to be any studies...there are millions and millions of healthy and fit people who eat intuitively...most of those people also eat very healthfully and live active lifestyles as well.

I used calorie counting to lose weight, but I've maintained that for 2 years without logging...so I guess I would be eating intuitively then.

Problem is that there are also a lot of people who don't have very good "intuition" when it comes to diet and nutrition.

I agree! I guess I just find it odd because most of the places where I run across folks discussing "intuitive eating" are people who consider themselves overweight and have decided to no longer attempt to lose weight, but to eat intuitively with the understanding that they will probably not lose weight... it seems as though it's popularly interpreted as being part of the fat acceptance movement. (which is fine if they are comfortable with who they are and healthy, I'm all for body positivity)

This is not how I understand it at all.
Either the co-opted "movement" nor the original concept.

I've seen that association. The idea is that people screw themselves up by trying to be thinner than they naturally are, mess up their relationships with food by dieting, and so get into binge/purge cycles. Usually the idea IS that they will lose some if they normalize the relationship with food through intuitive eating.

Whittedo

I've decided to drop my Ice Cream Fitness regime and instead of lifting progressively heavier at the gym I will just buy all the latest diet/nutrition/weight-loss books on the market and lift them. When a new one comes out I will add it to the pile. In no time I will be lifting well in excess of my body weight and since I will be doing this at home rather than the gym I will no longer have to listen to the grunts of the other people. A win/win!! Of course I won't read any of them because the contradictions among the gurus will make my head explode.

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Francl27

I think intuitive eating is how a lot of people who have never been overweight maintain a good weight, but I'm quite sure it only works for people who have a good notion of what proper nutrition is. If you follow your hunger cues but only eat high calorie food, it's not going to do you any favor.

For people who are overweight to start with? Probably not a great idea, obviously. I mean, sure, I eat when I'm not that hungry sometimes, but if it was easy to stop, I probably wouldn't be here either.

Oh and yeah... I can eat 4000 calories in a day before my period and still be hungry. It's also pretty well known that a lot of women eat 1000 more calories a day during PMS, when we burn *maybe* 200 more... So yeah, somehow I don't think that intuitive eating works so well...

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Hausisse1

Whittedo wrote: »

I've decided to drop my Ice Cream Fitness regime and instead of lifting progressively heavier at the gym I will just buy all the latest diet/nutrition/weight-loss books on the market and lift them. When a new one comes out I will add it to the pile. In no time I will be lifting well in excess of my body weight and since I will be doing this at home rather than the gym I will no longer have to listen to the grunts of the other people. A win/win!! Of course I won't read any of them because the contradictions among the gurus will make my head explode.

I laughed out loud at this comment! hahahaha, thanks for brightening my day.

Michael190lbs

y)[/quote]

So basically, they're just saying, "*kitten* it...gonna do what I want." To me, that's not intuitive eating. Intuitive eating would to me imply that someone knows how to properly fuel their bodies and know how to listen to their bodies to know what their bodies need...if people can do that, they don't generally end up being overweight. [/quote]

I agree 100% I lost 40 lbs working out extremely hard but still eating crap. Now I have lost another 38lbs eating healthy, working out healthy and my energy level is is through the roof!! Everyone who hasn't seen me in the last year is shocked at how young and healthy I look now at 46. I feel like I'm freaking 20 again and its from eating healthy and using food as fuel. If I ate intuitivly I would be putting Doritos on my Tuna sandwich or real mayo while making tuna into a soup practically..

Lourdesong

Maybe it's just the people I've been around, but the extent of intuition about how much food to eat almost entirely depended on how well someone's pants fit at any given time.
I also don't believe my body has any interest in keeping fat stores depleted. And I think I'd have to believe it does in order to believe my intuition has my best interests at heart.
Forming habits might help for a period of time, but going from eating correct portions to extra large portions can be gradual process.

snikkins

My SIL did this while pregnant and... well... let's just say she ate for like 4 (at one point, her aunt as if she was sure she wasn't having twins). She has bought into the Woo Woo Fad in pretty much every way possible in which you turn off your brain and hope you don't die.

jddnw

cwolfman13 wrote: »

There don't have to be any studies...there are millions and millions of healthy and fit people who eat intuitively...most of those people also eat very healthfully and live active lifestyles as well.

I used calorie counting to lose weight, but I've maintained that for 2 years without logging...so I guess I would be eating intuitively then.

Problem is that there are also a lot of people who don't have very good "intuition" when it comes to diet and nutrition.

Agree with this. I eat intuitively, and I didn't know it was a trend or a technique. I've never heard those promoters before.

However, I don't think of it as the opposite of calorie counting as expressed in the OP. I just know intuitively, and from experience with my weight, how much food is to much food. So I am mindful of calories.

zyxst

I'm going with this definition of intuitive eating (from here - https://www.intuitiveeating.com/content/what-intuitive-eating ):

Intuitive eating is an approach that teaches you how to create a healthy relationship with your food, mind, and body--where you ultimately become the expert of your own body. You learn how to distinguish between physical and emotional feelings, and gain a sense of body wisdom. It's also a process of making peace with food---so that you no longer have constant "food worry" thoughts. It's knowing that your health and your worth as a person do not change, because you ate a food that you had labeled as "bad" or "fattening”. 



The underlying premise of Intuitive Eating is that you will learn to respond to your inner body cues, because you were born with all the wisdom you need for eating intuitively. On the surface, this may sound simplistic, but it is rather complex. This inner wisdom is often clouded by years of dieting and food myths that abound in the culture. For example, “Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full” may sound like basic common sense, but when you have a history of chronic dieting or of following rigid “healthy” rules about eating, it can be quite difficult. To be able to ultimately return to your inborn Intuitive Eater, a number of things need to be in place—most importantly, the ability to trust yourself! Here is a summary of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating, from our book, Intuitive Eating, 2nd ed, 2003. With these principles, comes a world of satisfying eating and a sense of freedom that can be exhilarating!

Intuitive Eating Principles

Reject the Diet Mentality. Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.

Honor Your Hunger. Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.

Make Peace with Food. Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can't or shouldn't have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.

Challenge the Food Police. Scream a loud "NO" to thoughts in your head that declare you're "good" for eating under 1000 calories or "bad" because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.

Respect Your Fullness. Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you're comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?

Discover the Satisfaction Factor. The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence--the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you've had "enough".

Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food. Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won't fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won't solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You'll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.

Respect Your Body. Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It's hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.

Exercise--Feel the Difference. Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it's usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.

Honor Your Health--Gentle Nutrition. Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don't have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It's what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts.

I'm an emotional eating and use food to deal with illnesses, so it's hard for me to separate those from physical hunger (unless I'm having hunger pains, then I know the difference, lol).

lulufee317537

I recently read this book which advocates Intuitive Eating, here is a summary and comments on it: http://fitisafeministissue.com/2013/01/22/overcoming-overeating-not-for-everyone/

The idea is to first let yourself eat whatever you want, to "legalize" all foods. The assumption is that then you don't find those foods emotionally fulfilling because, I guess, basically you grow tired of them. The next thing they say to do is to learn when you are "stomach hungry" and when you are full, to calibrate your mind to these feelings.

My thing is, why not just pay more attention to feeling of hunger and satiety in the first place without going through the "eat your heart out" stage? I'm not convinced that "legalizing" the foods solve the emotional problems any more than simply building healthy eating habits and realizing that you were emotionally eating, and just accept the fact that you can't eat whatever you want to, whenever you want to. I mean, we're adults, right? In life, you have to accept things, move on. Change is hard.

To look at it another way, would someone allow a heroine addict to indulge themselves as much as they pleased with the idea that it would eventually cure them?? I think not. Granted, food is not an addictive drug... or is it?

Hausisse1

lulufee317537 wrote: »

I recently read this book which advocates Intuitive Eating, here is a summary and comments on it: http://fitisafeministissue.com/2013/01/22/overcoming-overeating-not-for-everyone/

The idea is to first let yourself eat whatever you want, to "legalize" all foods. The assumption is that then you don't find those foods emotionally fulfilling because, I guess, basically you grow tired of them. The next thing they say to do is to learn when you are "stomach hungry" and when you are full, to calibrate your mind to these feelings.

My thing is, why not just pay more attention to feeling of hunger and satiety in the first place without going through the "eat your heart out" stage? I'm not convinced that "legalizing" the foods solve the emotional problems any more than simply building healthy eating habits and realizing that you were emotionally eating, and just accept the fact that you can't eat whatever you want to, whenever you want to. I mean, we're adults, right? In life, you have to accept things, move on. Change is hard.

To look at it another way, would someone allow a heroine addict to indulge themselves as much as they pleased with the idea that it would eventually cure them?? I think not. Granted, food is not an addictive drug... or is it?

I understand what you mean. I used to be anorexic and I actually was advised to start using MFP as a means of ensuring that I eat enough calories daily and that I don't restrict any particular nutrient (I was terrified of carbs). I no longer binge on carbs and I have a much healthier relationship with food and I've maintained my weight... I find calorie counting actually helps put things in perspective for me and helps me relax *more* about eating. So I understand being told that "legalizing" all food is good (I can now eat pasta now and not hate myself) but you shouldn't forget that moderation is still key with everything, yeah...