Finally losing after 7 months! What worked for me.. mindful eating

mengqiz86

After 7 months of weighing my food and myself - and not losing - I took a different approach and am finally seeing results. I do need to caveat this post by saying a) calorie in calorie out is important b) some form of logging is helpful and c) i started at healthy weight and didn't have much to lose (needing to lose 1-2 inches around waist, thighs, butt.. around 5-8lb), which made it hard.

Over the past couple weeks, what worked for me was that I changed my relationship with food, and to achieve that, I stopped weighing every oz of my food and every lb of myself. I know this goes against what this community suggests.. but it worked for me - because weighing made me obsessed, and obsession is not healthy - in fact it led me to binges and "cheat meals".

Still, all those months spent weighing every single almond was critical in resetting my relationship with food. I still remember the first time I measured out 1oz of almond and was so astounded and disappointed at the 20 or so nuts I was allowed to eat. I learned to eye-ball a 4-oz grilled pork loin, and 1 cup of milk. Still, although thought I was being diligent, I wasn't losing.

So, building upon the awareness of food that came from weighing, I ditched the scales and focused on being mindful with what I eat. I learned to be more in tune with my body - am i thirsty, bored, or truly hungry? I also learned to be OK with a slight feeling of hunger. I never thought I'd say this but - I've finally learned to SAVOR food.

I still log, but only rough estimates, to make sure I'm within the ballpark of a reasonable calorie intake. Also, tea helps curb snack stacks BIG TIME. Pre-logging helped me take the mind off food.

Instead of weighing myself on a scale, I use measuring tape and body fat calipers exclusively. Helps take my mind off the fluctuations that used to upset me easily.

I think this approach worked for me because it stopped the binges and some of the cheat meal/fasting cycles. It also allowed me to focus on other things more, taking my mind off dieting. At the end of the day, it is indeed about calorie-in-calorie-out -- but we need to find a way that is sustainable for ourselves. I just want to share my very personal experience, in case someone else is looking for a different approach.

elisa123gal

I totally agree with you! I stopped logging calories and weighing myself and I'm making progress without the stress. I'm dead set on being in control of my life and refuse treat myself like Im beyond hope and need to document something as primal as eating.

For me, weighing food and counting calories makes me more obsessed with food..and i think it is a form of an eating disorder to live life like that.

I trust myself to do what i already know.. eat healthy and right. Exercise for fitness. I know how to not over eat. .i know what is healthy.. i think counting calories turns me into a "food victim."

fr33sia12

I'm very much in favour of listening to your body, but you have to think about it not just act upon it. For example this morning I was feeling hungry & tired, but I knew this was due to hormones and I didn't need to eat. Instead I went for a walk as I'd originally planned to and 15mins later the hunger had gone and I felt great.

courtneyfabulous

I think it's important to have a good relationship with food- if measuring everything and weighing yourself constantly was leading you to a cycle of restriction and bingeing & obsession then that definitely was not the right method for you.

However if you're restricting & bingeing then you are not using myfitnesspal properly anyways. You are supposed to hit your calorie goal every day- not go over, and not go under either.

I think you may have been doing what a lot of people mistakenly do, which is to set their daily calorie goal too low and then also to try to eat LESS than that calorie goal. Setting your daily calories too low is counterproductive, and implementing a further deficit by trying to eat a few hundred calories below that is a binge waiting to happen.

I'm glad you found a way that is sustainable for you long term. I also think it is extremely important to listen to your body! Yes! Too many just focus on the calories- most do not even pay attention to macronutrients which is so important, and most forget completely about fiber and micronutrients and water. When you're trying to just eat as few calories as possible it's easy to forget that food is fuel, not the enemy! It provides the energy we need for our brain and muscles and organs to function. It provides the vitamins and minerals we need to stay healthy. Food is a good thing! Especially real whole unprocessed nutritious foods.

For me though, I got to be more than 20 pounds overweight eating mindfully, intuitively, clean, etc. Unfortunately my natural tendencies lead me to the correct foods, but my own sense of fullness and proper portions is off. I ate a healthy diet, but often a slight calorie surplus. I even implemented more exercise to try to counteract my growing waistline but my appetite increased and made up for the extra burned calories. I have an endomorph body type and its natural most comfortable state is unfortunately to be overweight. But that is not healthy and makes me depresssed when I look in the mirror or try to fit into clothes... literally the ONLY thing that has worked for me to lose weight is to count my calories and exercise more than I would naturally be inclined to.

It's not healthy to be obsessed. It's not healthy to over restrict. But it is nescessary to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. So for me the only way to ensure that I am, is to measure every bit of food for now. Probably when I get to the point where I just need to maintain I will ease up and go back to intuitive eating, but I'll be keeping an eye on the scale and keep hitting the gym because I know how fast weight can creep back on for me.

kommodevaran

I have had a similar experience. Focusing on "eating healthy" and weight management - even though I never technically underate, I just aimed for a low-fat, restrictive mock-normal diet - made me desperate for taste and satisfaction, and when I crashed, I'd eat just for pleasure and without any structure. When I instead focus on eating functionally - enough to keep me going, and pleasurably - food I like and that make me feel good, I automatically eat healthy and in appropriate amounts.

I spend a lot of time planning my meals, but I enjoy it so I don't think it's "obsessive". I used to spend just as much time worrying about how badly I ate, and planning to make my dreadful and way too frequent grocery hauls look as inconspicuous as possible; I bought a lot of produce as part "cover-up" part "good intentions" that I just left to rot in the fridge, which produced even more guilt.

ninerbuff

So IMO, too many people put emphasis on the scale. It's their measurement of success. For all my clients who struggle with it, I always say the same thing: If you like how you look, fit the clothes you want and get good feedback from people around you, does it REALLY MATTER what that number on the scale says?

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

Chadxx

I don't even keep a log, nor do I carefully weigh everything. I have a certain number of calories I eat per day and I do count calories but I have no intention of making this process any more complicated than it needs to be.

Cbestinme

I really love this post!!! I'm glad you've found a way that works & shared thanks! I think your approach may really suit me better. Have you been on the mindful path for some months, and seeing the weight loss? Was it easy to stay on track?

My natural sense of fullness and portions is also off, that's where measuring comes in while I still learn to intuitively tell when to stop. I hope I can also learn to eyeball the right portions as I'm looking forward to making decisions without logging or measuring each morsel! I think it's driving me nuts, but it has also helped alot so I'm also really thankful for mfp *sigh maybe there's a mindful mfp mash-up somewhere

workinonit1956

For me, I find that logging helps immensely. I don't weigh my foods, but will measure them. I also don't weigh myself very often, every 2-3 weeks or so. I think we all need to figure out what fits us best and what we are willing to do long term.

vingogly

I've fought the Battle of the Bulge for the last 40+ years and have come to believe diets don't work because you are dividing your life into Dieting and Non-Dieting portions - and for most of us, we don't have a clue what to do in the Non-Dieting portions of our lives. When I've been on a medically supervised diet in the distant past, maintenance meant "here's a sheet with tips on how to keep the fat off; good luck".

That's because medicine's focus has mostly been on dealing with disease, rather than on wellness. This is changing, but it's a slow process.

I use mindful and intuitive eating principles as part of my maintenance. However, I've found that I also need the logging part and weighing once a week -- at least for now -- to keep me focused and accountable. I might eventually be able to do away with the logging and weigh-ins but for now, they're a sort of security blanket.

There are three major approaches to weight management that don't involve dieting that I recommend to people. I suspect which one appeals to you is a matter of temperament.

Cognitive Behavioral - identifying and dealing with thought patterns and belief systems that keep us fat; the Beck Diet Solution is a great example of this.

Mindful Eating - becoming aware of your food choices and your eating rather than mindlessly grabbing something and shoving it in the old pie hole; the Center for Mindful Eating is a good source for information.

Intuitive Eating - changing our relationship to hunger and food; Tribole and Resch's site Intuitive Eating is a great resource. They developed this approach in working with folks with eating disorders.

Cbestinme

Thanks for the link to mindful eating I really appreciate this as approaches with the term diet in them sound scary! I really like this mindful idea and will review the link and tools. I agree with you it would be scary to have two separate lives diet vs non-diet. Hopefully with this mindful approach I can learn to keep a healthy weight long term even without a measuring spoon. Thanks!!

trigden1991

Well done for finding how you can adhere to a calorie deficit.