Can’t stick to any plan...Wish I were ready for IE

_Tara_T

So I lost 37 pounds but wasn’t able to maintain it but am maintaining losing 30 (for over a year now). I just can’t seem to stick to anything. I bounce between Weight Watchers (which is how I lost the weight), counting calories and LCHF. NOTHING STICKS. I really wish I were more in tune with intuitive eating as I’d love to have that balance. Here’s my legitimate question though. How can you practice intuitive eating but also be healthy. I don’t want to be overweight but I also cannot see “dieting” for the rest of my life. Just in a lost space right now. Eating is all over the place but I’m staying on top of my exercise simply because it makes my body feel good. Anyone got any advice they’d like to share?

L1zardQueen

How many calories do you need to eat to maintain your weight? Have you been using the MFP food diary?

_Tara_T

L1zardQueen wrote: »

How many calories do you need to eat to maintain your weight? Have you been using the MFP food diary?

1740 to maintain. Some days I track and some days I don’t. Like I said, I just cannot wrap my brain around having to track food for the rest of my life yet I don’t want to be unhealthy. I need balance but am not sure how to find it.

88olds

I tracked for 5 years before I could maintain for long stretches without it. Twice I’ve hit my red line and have gone back to tracking. It has worked all 3 times I’ve tried it. I think it’s been 4 years since I’ve tracked. At this point I don’t think I’m going to regain a significant amount unless I lose my mind. Which could happen. Anyway, it’s turned out not to be the rest of my life.

Why not concentrate on what’s in front of you and concern yourself with what happens next after you make goal weight?

I lost the last 40lbs on WW. First thing I noticed at WW was the revolving door. I vowed not to get in it. I didn’t change a thing until long after I made Lifetime.

Things aren’t going to just stick. You have to stick. It’s something, really a set of things, that you have to do.

Intuitive eating? What’s that? I don’t track, haven’t for years. But I’ve got a pretty good idea how many calories I’ve eaten by the end of lunch. And what snacks I’ve had today. My food scale is out on the kitchen counter and gets used every day. It’s my portion control. My intuition would likely suggest I eat more. It always has before.

Why don’t you do what you have to do to get to your goal weight and end that part? But if you’re hoping for a lifetime of mindless eating, you won’t be at GW for long.

It’s ok. Just accept that life has some limits. We live with all kinds of limits we never even think about. But if we want to eat without limits we are going to gain weight. It’s how our bodies are designed.

L1zardQueen

Well, this is how I do it. I have been tracking my calories for a while and by using my food scale, I am really good at eyeballing sizes of fruit, vegetables, and meat. Have you used a food scale to weigh everything?

TerriRichardson112

It's a sad fact that if you want that killer body, you have to make sacrifices. Your body reflects what you do and what you put into it. It's not a temporary process. It needs to be a permanent lifestyle choice.

smolmaus

The idea behind Intuitive Eating is that you are able to listen to what your body needs without categorizing healthy or unhealthy or restricting or cutting out food groups, you just eat relying on your own hunger and fullness signals. You don't diet until you can eat intuitively.

If you think that if you tried to eat intuitively you would make unhealthy choices all the time then you probably have some control issues around food. Most of us do. If you have spent time restricting foods you see as bad or unhealthy, of course you are feeling like if you slip the reins a bit you're going to gorge yourself but that's not what your body wants, it's what your brain wants. You've created forbidden fruits to crave. For intuitive eating to really work you have to give up the "diet mindset" or you're still going to be trying to use your brain to override what your body is telling you. Lots of people eat intuitively without thinking about it (that's the point), it doesn't even cross their mind except to maybe cut back on snacks/ alcohol if they notice a bit of weight gain. If you've ever been significantly overweight then you're not this kind of person.

Most of the IE material I come across is from anti-diet culture, eating disorder recovery people, people who have spent so long dieting and controlling their appetites that they don't have realistic hunger/ fullness signals anymore and for whom the controlled tracking was obsessive and damaging. I don't know of you are that person and IE is what you need or if you just need to look at tracking as less of a diet and more as a guideline? Counting calories isn't a diet, it's just information gathering and basing decisions on that information.