Intuitive eating and calorie counting

2»

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    GoCleanGoLean wrote: »
    Oh hey! Annacole94's reminded me about yet another question I have: how do you know when to stop? I know I'm supposed to eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. That is great. I know when I'm hungry -- hunger is relatively easy to identify. But what about how to know when I'm full? I've tried the frequent check-ins, and all that happens is I get confused. Because there is a point where I'm not hungry, but I'm not full. Do I keep eating? Do I stop?

    I don't know when to stop :s

    But I know how an appropriately large (for me) and balanced portion looks like (and it's a range, not a number of calories/macros) now, after two years(?) of counting. I have to trust my knowledge in this, because I don't always feel full, and if I feel full, it can take 30-40 minutes after I'm finished, so if I eat until I feel full, I get overly stuffed. And when I eat, my appetite is awakened, so my judgement is better before I start eating. So I portion out in advance. Then I will feel not-hungry when the food is gone; and uneasy, because I'm used to that after eating, you shouldn't be able to get down another bite. But I cherish the uneasy feeling now, it's not unpleasant, just new. Like being in a new and strange but nice place.

    I don't even have to hit that "full" feeling right on the head - I just have to fill up periodically. My body will take care of itself if I let it - that is, if I give it access to enough varied and nutritious food, and permission to take what it needs. It's so simple. Food is not the enemy. We are just so good at creating problems :p
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Intuitive eating was helpful to get me started on my loss, when I had plenty to lose. I can't imagine it would work well if you were within 10lbs or so of goal. I plateau'd on it and started counting cals to make sure I was coming in at a deficit and started losing again. At the end of the day, intuitive eating really is calorie counting, just in a sort of zoomed out way.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories