Combining "intuitive eating" with MFP?
thatATLgirl
Posts: 60 Member
Hi guys- after two years of weight gain, I am back.
I have been working with an “intuitive eating" coach for a few months and have gotten to the bottom of some of the “why” behind my emotional eating.
Some of the things I've learned:
1. My love for particular foods, like tortilla chips, goes back to childhood.
2. Loneliness and acute stress are triggers for me for emotional eating.
3. If I stop exercising, I feel like crap, and want to eat more.
4. My thinking is very black-and-white... I don't have to be perfect all the time.
5. Stopping automatic negative thoughts like "my stomach is UGLY" and changing that thought to "this is a HUMAN stomach."
However, I’ve gained 15lb since starting that program, and I've hit my so-called rock bottom. At 31, I'm now 5'5" and about 204lb.
So... I want to use MFP and combine it with the principles of IE. The IE folks would tell me I’m going against IE by doing calorie counting. But anyone else had success doing both?
I have been working with an “intuitive eating" coach for a few months and have gotten to the bottom of some of the “why” behind my emotional eating.
Some of the things I've learned:
1. My love for particular foods, like tortilla chips, goes back to childhood.
2. Loneliness and acute stress are triggers for me for emotional eating.
3. If I stop exercising, I feel like crap, and want to eat more.
4. My thinking is very black-and-white... I don't have to be perfect all the time.
5. Stopping automatic negative thoughts like "my stomach is UGLY" and changing that thought to "this is a HUMAN stomach."
However, I’ve gained 15lb since starting that program, and I've hit my so-called rock bottom. At 31, I'm now 5'5" and about 204lb.
So... I want to use MFP and combine it with the principles of IE. The IE folks would tell me I’m going against IE by doing calorie counting. But anyone else had success doing both?
7
Replies
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I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. One can IE and track what they eat. I have been experimenting with this myself. Some days I track, others I do not. Or, I track and if I get full I stop eating. If I am hungrier, I eat more. Finding your balance is key. I actually lost a lot of weight using IE. Then switched to counting. I think I responded to this already.7
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I eat intuitively on-and-off, interspersed with occasional calorie counting.
I'm curious, though; why have you chosen to pursue intuitive eating? Don't get me wrong, I think it's a fantastic way of life... but intuitive eating is not a weight loss method.
Intuitive eating, at its core, is a method of approaching food and health in a way that focuses on how you feel internally, focusing on your internal hunger and fullness cues. It does not rely on external rules about how to eat. Because of this, it's a wonderful way to help heal your relationship with food if you have a history of struggling through extremely restrictive diets, or have suffered with eating disorders, or struggle with emotional eating. However - again - it is not a weight loss method. Its aim is to help restore a more instinctive relationship with food. Its focus is not on helping you to lose weight. (I would recommend reading the Intuitive Eating book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, if you haven't already).
Fundamentally, in order to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. Intuitive eating does not guarantee this.
If you want to lose weight, and you are not opposed to calorie counting, I'd say go for it. I think intuitive eating has helped you out plenty in helping you to understand your emotional eating, but it's not putting you in a calorie deficit. If you simply logged everything you eat in a day, whilst eating intuitively, it might show you where in your diet you're going wrong.17 -
honestly I think intuitive eating and calorie counting are as near to mutually exclusive as you can get. You're either:
(a) not counting calories
or
(b) counting calories
It's actually quite binary when you think about it - which is why your IE person is telling you they don't fit together.
You've just tried not counting calories, and it hasn't gotten you where you want to be. Perhaps it is time for a few weeks of strict calorie counting, to see where it leads. You are not beholden to your intuitive eating coach, or anyone else. You can do what you want and see how it goes, and then reengage with the IE person as it suits your needs.
I tried IE way back and the results were DISASTROUS. I gained a huge amount of weight. Some of us were not designed for that style of eating. I have friends who can eat 5 chips, dip a couple of them in queso, and then just ... stop nibbling until their (light) dinner arrives, after which they order no desert. I am not like that. I am either "on plan" or off, and "on plan" for me means counting every calorie and exerting self-discipline to stop when the Diary says to stop. That is the only thing that has ever worked for me, and I know I'm far from alone in that. It sounds like you're more toward this camp than the intuitive eating camp. You will only find out by doing a phase of calorie counting and seeing where it gets you.
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IE and calorie counting do not go together.
You can't follow the principles of IE and count calories. It doesn't work. What happens if you are hungry, but you have had all your calories? Which wins? The diet... or respecting your hunger?6 -
It sounds like you’ve gained a lot of insights about yourself through IE. But it’s not serving your goal of losing weight. Adding the accountability of tracking calories might help you. I wouldn’t worry about what others think. You get to define your own journey.
You might consider setting your calorie goal to maintenance and tracking for a few weeks before adding a small deficit to find a way of eating that supports your goals at a slow loss rate. I find that tracking my calories often makes me pause and consider if I want to use my calories to splurge on a treat food instead of a lower calorie choice. (Sometimes the answer is yes!). Knowing my maintenance calories helps me know that I can choose to eat at maintenance on hungrier days or for planned social events.9 -
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I've done it before. I've tracked some days not others, some meals, some food items, protein only (just main sources). I've also used MFP as a food diary and logged food without using a scale. Right now I am in a deficit but not entering anything, sometimes I do search items from fast food places just out of curiosity before I order. It all works for me to help me reach my goals.4
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psychod787 wrote: »
Lamb and peanut butter can go together, but that is not the right analogy for IE and calorie counting.
Does eating a leg of lamb go together with veganism? No. Because they are direct opposites.7 -
I do IE when I am on vacation and/or eating out, and also when I get fed up with the weighing and logging and I need to take a break. It has worked for me.
In maintenance for over 9 years gave a good idea about portion control and what works for me or not. I am not an emotional or binge eater and I have never been obese or overweight; I just needed to lose few lbs and get a better idea about my eating choices.
However, it seems that it doesn't work for the OP or for other people posting in this thread. So it is time for @ thatATLgirl to reconsider. But it doesn't' mean that both approaches can't be used successfully by others (like as @psychod787, @sardelsa, @ axsxmxa) on occasions.
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I think calorie counting is great training/education to enhance and improve the chances of successful mindful eating - but intuitive eating and calorie counting, sorry I just don't see the overlap.
At 5'5" and 204lbs I think calorie counting is far more likely to be helpful compared to intuitive eating. Maybe park that as a future ambition when/if you get to a healthy weight?
I can see it's been helpful to understand your non-hunger/non-actual need drivers to eat but I'd just see that as educational too and not a likely path to successful weight loss.12 -
I think calorie counting is great training/education to enhance and improve the chances of successful mindful eating - but intuitive eating and calorie counting, sorry I just don't see the overlap.
At 5'5" and 204lbs I think calorie counting is far more likely to be helpful compared to intuitive eating. Maybe park that as a future ambition when/if you get to a healthy weight?
I can see it's been helpful to understand your non-hunger/non-actual need drivers to eat but I'd just see that as educational too and not a likely path to successful weight loss.
ok sir, here is my story. 400lbs..... decided one day to cut out the "junk", I personally hate that word now, but thats how I viewed things then. Ditched the Chips, Soda, Bread, Cookies,ect...... except on rare occasions. Potatoes, Rice, Whole grain Pasta, leaner meets, vegetables, fruit. Quit going out as much once every 2 weeks vs 3-4 times a week. Started walking a little. I ate to hunger and satiety. I didn't count a dang thing. Lost 75lbs in a year. Didn't start calorie counting until 325lbs. Actually massively underrate because I refused to go over my calories. Thpugh, was not really ever hungry until I dropped below 200lbs. I didn't know a dang thing about nutrition. No idea that Leucine might have effects on the set range, or the role of fiber, or the role of monounsaturated fats effects. I "think" the father on ventures outside of the affluent diet... IE Energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra processed. The more someone can eat intuitively. JMHO8 -
IE and calorie counting do not go together.
You can't follow the principles of IE and count calories. It doesn't work. What happens if you are hungry, but you have had all your calories? Which wins? The diet... or respecting your hunger?
You eat something, but you choose a low calorie option that will satiate your hunger but not destroy your calorie goal. Then either you accept that you didn't do quite as well as you had hoped that day, or you adjsut a bit the following day to try to maintain you deficit for a week.
There should be some respect paid towards hunger cues while calorie counting. If you are constantly hitting your goal and still hungry, than something needs to change.
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I’m kind of confused about saying the two aren’t compatible. I’m not an expert on either, but feel like I practice both.
For the most part I eat to my calorie goal, but there are days that I’m just not hungry...I don’t force myself to eat until I make my minimum. Then there are days where I am ravenous I eat until I’m satiated. These two extremes are rarely in the same week. I track the calories on all of my days. I haven’t chucked out the potato chips in favor for an all kale diet.
I eat mostly nutritionallly sound food, but nothing that is going to get me on the cover “super foods weekly”.
To me, both IE and calorie counting are probably the two most compatible schools of thought as long as there is a healthy and balanced approach to both.4 -
@psychod787psychod787 wrote: »I think calorie counting is great training/education to enhance and improve the chances of successful mindful eating - but intuitive eating and calorie counting, sorry I just don't see the overlap.
At 5'5" and 204lbs I think calorie counting is far more likely to be helpful compared to intuitive eating. Maybe park that as a future ambition when/if you get to a healthy weight?
I can see it's been helpful to understand your non-hunger/non-actual need drivers to eat but I'd just see that as educational too and not a likely path to successful weight loss.
ok sir, here is my story. 400lbs..... decided one day to cut out the "junk", I personally hate that word now, but thats how I viewed things then. Ditched the Chips, Soda, Bread, Cookies,ect...... except on rare occasions. Potatoes, Rice, Whole grain Pasta, leaner meets, vegetables, fruit. Quit going out as much once every 2 weeks vs 3-4 times a week. Started walking a little. I ate to hunger and satiety. I didn't count a dang thing. Lost 75lbs in a year. Didn't start calorie counting until 325lbs. Actually massively underrate because I refused to go over my calories. Thpugh, was not really ever hungry until I dropped below 200lbs. I didn't know a dang thing about nutrition. No idea that Leucine might have effects on the set range, or the role of fiber, or the role of monounsaturated fats effects. I "think" the father on ventures outside of the affluent diet... IE Energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra processed. The more someone can eat intuitively. JMHO
Sorry but not quite seeing the point you are making?
Are there some missing words in the sentence "The more someone can eat intuitively."?
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@psychod787psychod787 wrote: »I think calorie counting is great training/education to enhance and improve the chances of successful mindful eating - but intuitive eating and calorie counting, sorry I just don't see the overlap.
At 5'5" and 204lbs I think calorie counting is far more likely to be helpful compared to intuitive eating. Maybe park that as a future ambition when/if you get to a healthy weight?
I can see it's been helpful to understand your non-hunger/non-actual need drivers to eat but I'd just see that as educational too and not a likely path to successful weight loss.
ok sir, here is my story. 400lbs..... decided one day to cut out the "junk", I personally hate that word now, but thats how I viewed things then. Ditched the Chips, Soda, Bread, Cookies,ect...... except on rare occasions. Potatoes, Rice, Whole grain Pasta, leaner meets, vegetables, fruit. Quit going out as much once every 2 weeks vs 3-4 times a week. Started walking a little. I ate to hunger and satiety. I didn't count a dang thing. Lost 75lbs in a year. Didn't start calorie counting until 325lbs. Actually massively underrate because I refused to go over my calories. Thpugh, was not really ever hungry until I dropped below 200lbs. I didn't know a dang thing about nutrition. No idea that Leucine might have effects on the set range, or the role of fiber, or the role of monounsaturated fats effects. I "think" the father on ventures outside of the affluent diet... IE Energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra processed. The more someone can eat intuitively. JMHO
Sorry but not quite seeing the point you are making?
Are there some missing words in the sentence "The more someone can eat intuitively."?
I got nothing.... 1 -
I'm not sure that I understand what people are talking about in regards to intuitive eating.
I'm logging my food, but for me, a vital part of what I'm doing is ensuring that I'm still enjoying eating. I want to make sure that I'm eating when I'm hungry and that I'm eating foods that I like. Logging my food is a way of gathering information for me: I don't want to be eating food that I don't understand (hidden sodium, hidden calories, wonky nutrient profile, etc). Logging my food has been such a gift because it has enabled me to figure out how to eat foods that make me full, taste good, and work better for me as opposed to eating foods that I don't know what they do to me and I quickly become hungry again and don't taste any better than foods that would work better for me.6 -
@psychod787psychod787 wrote: »I think calorie counting is great training/education to enhance and improve the chances of successful mindful eating - but intuitive eating and calorie counting, sorry I just don't see the overlap.
At 5'5" and 204lbs I think calorie counting is far more likely to be helpful compared to intuitive eating. Maybe park that as a future ambition when/if you get to a healthy weight?
I can see it's been helpful to understand your non-hunger/non-actual need drivers to eat but I'd just see that as educational too and not a likely path to successful weight loss.
ok sir, here is my story. 400lbs..... decided one day to cut out the "junk", I personally hate that word now, but thats how I viewed things then. Ditched the Chips, Soda, Bread, Cookies,ect...... except on rare occasions. Potatoes, Rice, Whole grain Pasta, leaner meets, vegetables, fruit. Quit going out as much once every 2 weeks vs 3-4 times a week. Started walking a little. I ate to hunger and satiety. I didn't count a dang thing. Lost 75lbs in a year. Didn't start calorie counting until 325lbs. Actually massively underrate because I refused to go over my calories. Thpugh, was not really ever hungry until I dropped below 200lbs. I didn't know a dang thing about nutrition. No idea that Leucine might have effects on the set range, or the role of fiber, or the role of monounsaturated fats effects. I "think" the father on ventures outside of the affluent diet... IE Energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra processed. The more someone can eat intuitively. JMHO
Sorry but not quite seeing the point you are making?
Are there some missing words in the sentence "The more someone can eat intuitively."?
Obviously not the original author, but I think the last sentence was supposed to be one sentence, not two. So maybe a typo rather than an incomplete thought? Maybe it is meant to be "... the farther one ventures outside of the affluent diet...IE energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra-processed, the more one can eat intuitively."
Just my guess at what previous poster meant!4 -
PrismaticPhoenix wrote: »I'm not sure that I understand what people are talking about in regards to intuitive eating.
I'm logging my food, but for me, a vital part of what I'm doing is ensuring that I'm still enjoying eating. I want to make sure that I'm eating when I'm hungry and that I'm eating foods that I like. Logging my food is a way of gathering information for me: I don't want to be eating food that I don't understand (hidden sodium, hidden calories, wonky nutrient profile, etc). Logging my food has been such a gift because it has enabled me to figure out how to eat foods that make me full, taste good, and work better for me as opposed to eating foods that I don't know what they do to me and I quickly become hungry again and don't taste any better than foods that would work better for me.
It does seem people are using the phrase "intuitive eating" in completely different and indeed contradictory ways.
To me what you describe is a million miles away from intuitive eating using a dictionary definition of intuitive as "based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive".
You are consciously thinking about your food choices and making those choices based on different criteria, to me that's mindful eating not instinctive eating. Thinking not feeling.7 -
PrismaticPhoenix wrote: »I'm not sure that I understand what people are talking about in regards to intuitive eating.
I'm logging my food, but for me, a vital part of what I'm doing is ensuring that I'm still enjoying eating. I want to make sure that I'm eating when I'm hungry and that I'm eating foods that I like. Logging my food is a way of gathering information for me: I don't want to be eating food that I don't understand (hidden sodium, hidden calories, wonky nutrient profile, etc). Logging my food has been such a gift because it has enabled me to figure out how to eat foods that make me full, taste good, and work better for me as opposed to eating foods that I don't know what they do to me and I quickly become hungry again and don't taste any better than foods that would work better for me.
It does seem people are using the phrase "intuitive eating" in completely different and indeed contradictory ways.
To me what you describe is a million miles away from intuitive eating using a dictionary definition of intuitive as "based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive".
You are consciously thinking about your food choices and making those choices based on different criteria, to me that's mindful eating not instinctive eating. Thinking not feeling.
Fair enough.......2 -
PrismaticPhoenix wrote: »I'm not sure that I understand what people are talking about in regards to intuitive eating.
I'm logging my food, but for me, a vital part of what I'm doing is ensuring that I'm still enjoying eating. I want to make sure that I'm eating when I'm hungry and that I'm eating foods that I like. Logging my food is a way of gathering information for me: I don't want to be eating food that I don't understand (hidden sodium, hidden calories, wonky nutrient profile, etc). Logging my food has been such a gift because it has enabled me to figure out how to eat foods that make me full, taste good, and work better for me as opposed to eating foods that I don't know what they do to me and I quickly become hungry again and don't taste any better than foods that would work better for me.
It does seem people are using the phrase "intuitive eating" in completely different and indeed contradictory ways.
To me what you describe is a million miles away from intuitive eating using a dictionary definition of intuitive as "based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive".
You are consciously thinking about your food choices and making those choices based on different criteria, to me that's mindful eating not instinctive eating. Thinking not feeling.
As I said I’m not an expert, but I looked it up and the 10 principles sound pretty close to what the common advice is here. https://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/
Of course the application can be where things start to split, but people skew calorie counting all the time here,
I guess my stance is they can compliment each other, if moderation and common sense are applied.0 -
Lobsterboxtops wrote: »PrismaticPhoenix wrote: »I'm not sure that I understand what people are talking about in regards to intuitive eating.
I'm logging my food, but for me, a vital part of what I'm doing is ensuring that I'm still enjoying eating. I want to make sure that I'm eating when I'm hungry and that I'm eating foods that I like. Logging my food is a way of gathering information for me: I don't want to be eating food that I don't understand (hidden sodium, hidden calories, wonky nutrient profile, etc). Logging my food has been such a gift because it has enabled me to figure out how to eat foods that make me full, taste good, and work better for me as opposed to eating foods that I don't know what they do to me and I quickly become hungry again and don't taste any better than foods that would work better for me.
It does seem people are using the phrase "intuitive eating" in completely different and indeed contradictory ways.
To me what you describe is a million miles away from intuitive eating using a dictionary definition of intuitive as "based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive".
You are consciously thinking about your food choices and making those choices based on different criteria, to me that's mindful eating not instinctive eating. Thinking not feeling.
As I said I’m not an expert, but I looked it up and the 10 principles sound pretty close to what the common advice is here. https://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/
Of course the application can be where things start to split, but people skew calorie counting all the time here,
I guess my stance is they can compliment each other, if moderation and common sense are applied.
Those ten principles do seem to be all about feeling and emotions - but a bit biased towards currently overweight people or those with issues or emotional feelings well beyond food as nutrition.
To me those ten principles are also incompatible with food logging, calorie counting, macro tracking - all very conscious decisions.
My son is an intuitive eater: drinks when thirsty, eats when hungry (often very irratically), stops when he's had enough and balances a large appetite with a highly active job and exercise for enjoyment and stays a good weight, strong, fit and healthy.
On the other hand when I've tried intuitive eating it's always resulted in steady weight gain - my feelings and my actual needs are slightly out of line. But I can successfully manage my weight with mindful eating, using my logical mind to question and moderate my feelings of hunger, fullness etc.6 -
PrismaticPhoenix wrote: »I'm not sure that I understand what people are talking about in regards to intuitive eating.
I'm logging my food, but for me, a vital part of what I'm doing is ensuring that I'm still enjoying eating. I want to make sure that I'm eating when I'm hungry and that I'm eating foods that I like. Logging my food is a way of gathering information for me: I don't want to be eating food that I don't understand (hidden sodium, hidden calories, wonky nutrient profile, etc). Logging my food has been such a gift because it has enabled me to figure out how to eat foods that make me full, taste good, and work better for me as opposed to eating foods that I don't know what they do to me and I quickly become hungry again and don't taste any better than foods that would work better for me.
Not an expert on IE here, but I think this is the main idea: Instead of counting calories or engaging in other "diet" behaviors, in IE, you train yourself to pay attention to your own hunger signals. You eat when you're hungry, and stop eating when you're no longer hungry. You don't binge, because you learn to pay attention to what you're body's saying instead of giving in to emotions, bad behaviors, etc. Most people are not all that hungry all that often; if you really stop to listen to what your body's saying, it doesn't want to be stuffed to the gills with food. That's emotions and bad behaviors speaking, not stomach hunger signaling. Reasonable amounts of healthy food will stop the hunger signals. So in theory, learning to pay attention to your body could cause someone to stop overeating.
It did not work at all for me.
I see no reason why someone shouldn't try to listen to their body more, and to eat when they're hungry and then not overeat, but I just think there is a personality type that needs structure, logging, and counting. Anyone with huge girth or previous huge girth is probably of that personality type, I am definitely on that list. Intuitive eating just completely does not work for me.
And it doesn't work for the OP either, who's gained 15 pounds. Time to start counting and logging.
In the end, it boils down to this: If you do X and gain weight, then stop doing X and do something else. Whatever the X is.5 -
I would think that a body would "intuitively" eat to maintain status quo, and not intuitively eat in a calorie deficit. So someone who needs to lose weight should probably first get to a healthy weight before learning to eat intuitively. You can practice identifying your feelings of satiety, etc while losing but just bec youre hungry while trying to lose doesnt necessarily mean your body needs more food.9
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IMHO, they both have a place.
I've had IE therapy and it's helped me maintain. Apparently the amount my intuition tells me to eat is a maintenance level. And at times its stopped me from eating just to be eating, even if I had the calories. But to stay in a calorie deficit I need to count calories. I also track macros to see how they affect my satiety. I'm less hungry eating more protein. I feel snackier when I eat higher carbs or sugar. And I swell up eating lots of sodium.
There's some experts who insist that IE works for weight loss because it's your body telling you when to nourish it and when it's had enough. Problem is some of us need the nutritional guidance that calorie counting can provide. I for myself would nourish myself on brownies and cheezits. Seeing that dietary damage in numbers guides me away from that decision.7 -
thatATLgirl wrote: »Hi guys- after two years of weight gain, I am back.
I have been working with an “intuitive eating" coach for a few months and have gotten to the bottom of some of the “why” behind my emotional eating.
Some of the things I've learned:
1. My love for particular foods, like tortilla chips, goes back to childhood.
2. Loneliness and acute stress are triggers for me for emotional eating.
3. If I stop exercising, I feel like crap, and want to eat more.
4. My thinking is very black-and-white... I don't have to be perfect all the time.
5. Stopping automatic negative thoughts like "my stomach is UGLY" and changing that thought to "this is a HUMAN stomach."
However, I’ve gained 15lb since starting that program, and I've hit my so-called rock bottom. At 31, I'm now 5'5" and about 204lb.
So... I want to use MFP and combine it with the principles of IE. The IE folks would tell me I’m going against IE by doing calorie counting. But anyone else had success doing both?
I don't like the term intuitive eating, but try to practice mindful eating, which I think it often similar to what others call intuitive eating. It worked well with MFP (I typically don't log much at maintenance).
I definitely focused on WHY I overate and emotional eating triggers. I definitely find that exercise helps, and I very much had that issue with black and white thinking and getting place it was key for me when losing, and being nicer to myself in general. So those all seem similar to what you are doing.
For me, I found that I tended to overeat when eating mindlessly (which for me mostly happened not at meals), and when emotional eating (often stress related or self-comfort generally). So the first thing for me was to decide to eat only at meals (I tend to have pretty nutrient dense meals and home cook them anyway).
Then I started logging what I ate and figured out easy ways to cut cals by reducing added fats, and portions of side starches. At first my eye and stomach weren't in line, but I trusted the food would be sufficient (or just added more veg) and found that it was. Understanding how much would satisfy me and lower cal ways to bulk it up if I wanted more bulk helped, and after I stopped logging I found I could still do the same by being mindful. In fact, very soon after starting MFP, I found I was easily hitting my goals daily without having to adjust much -- I understood what amounts would give me reasonable cals and be satisfying.
The other thing I did was if I wanted to eat between meals I reminded myself that I was going to be eating before too long anyway and was not actually hungry, and journaled about what was going on that made me want to eat (or sometimes just planned a meal that would be delicious based on what I wanted, and then ate that -- it was as satisfying as eating in the moment would have been).
I also started with weekly goals in addition to my calorie goals (eat veg at all meals or homecook all lunches or some such) and would note in my journal about successes and struggles daily, treating it as a learning experience and not a failure or something that meant everything was ruined if I failed to meet an exercise goal or overate one day or whatnot.
Anyway, just some ideas, obviously different approaches will work for different people.3 -
Perhaps you can try weighing and calorie counting to get a better idea of what a serving looks like, then slowly transition to intuitive eating as your food intuition begins to closely match actual serving sizes.3
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This is an interesting topic. For what it's worth - I follow the basic principles of eating intuitively and I also weight, measure, log and track everything I consume up to my daily calorie target. I follow a vegan diet so pretty much everything I consume is nutritionally dense and that pretty much eliminates any cravings or hunger I might have following a regular calorie counting/restrictive diet. I guess I don't know why someone can't do both. Now that you're armed with the reasons behind your eating habits and have worked to change the mental aspects, can't you also include the calorie counting/weight loss aspects?2
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I don't understand why calorie counting and intuitive eating have to be mutually exclusive. You can still eat when you're hungry and stop when you're satisfied but still log calories for a better idea on how that's working out or if you pay attention to macros.
(It wouldn't work out for me. My appetite will always be bigger than my stomach.
)
5 -
If you're counting calories, you're not intuitively eating. Intuitive eating...ie using your intuition and instinct. Like my 9 and 7 year old boys eat intuitively. They ask for food when they're hungry...they stop eating when they are satisfied, regardless of whether there is food still there or not, even when it's something tasty. My 9 year old didn't finish his ice cream at lunch yesterday because he was full.
I don't count calories, but I don't intuitively eat either...because I have various rules for myself and I am mindful which means I'm thinking and actively making decisions based on those rules and whether or not something is calorie dense or if I had a big lunch I should probably have a smaller dinner, etc.7 -
I counted calories for years, then once I understood the calorie content of the foods I ate, I switched to IE. But first I think you need to learn what you are putting into your body and the calories in everything before you can be successful at IE.2
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