Intuitive Eating vs. Tracking

MyEvolvingJourney

I've been floundering lately and it's very frustrating. I'll track consistently for a couple of weeks, then decide I want to try eating intuitively for a bit. Then I'll go back to tracking and it goes back and forth.
What are your thoughts on the two?

sijomial

What is the appeal to you of intuitive eating?
Does it work for whatever your personal diet goal or do you go back to tracking because it's not working for your weight management or for some other reason?

Thoughts:
Food logging was useful and educational during my weight loss period but I don't need to log food to maintain weight successfully. I do find it useful to track my exercise expenditure though as it's often a major part of my very variable calorie needs.

Intuitive eating - tried that and it confirmed that my wants outstrip my needs, if I wanted to gain about a pound a week it would be perfect!

Don't forget the third option of mindful eating. Works for me along with being vigilant about monitoring my weight trend.

MyEvolvingJourney

sijomial wrote: »

What is the appeal to you of intuitive eating?
Does it work for whatever your personal diet goal or do you go back to tracking because it's not working for your weight management or for some other reason?

Here’s my dilemma. I’ll track for a few weeks, get super hungry, then decide I’ll just try to eat healthy intuitively. And yes, the thing that sends me back to tracking is my weight gradually creeping up.
I don’t know what the deal is. I mean, I’m getting super hungry on 1900 calories. I’ve worked hard to lose my weight. I lost 70 pounds super slowly, over 4 years. This past few months I put on close to 20 pounds. I was not tracking for most of this year. So like I said, I’ll track for a couple weeks, get frustrated, then I’ll try to just eat healthy, then I’m back to tracking. I’m stuck in a loop.

sijomial

Intuitive eating isn't going to help you when you are "super hungry" - that's the worst possible time to try it.

Sounds like it's the hunger issue at maintenance calories that you need to conquer first, changing what and when you eat would be worth experimenting with. Eat healthy but eat the right amount of calories too.

The other part of the solution could be increasing your calorie allowance though higher activity and/or more exercise.

Raegold

I personally don't think that I could LOSE weight while intuitively eating. I think with practice I could maintain, and I did for about a year maintain without tracking prior to the pandemic. I do believe that our bodies want to store extra calories for a caveman famine scenario, so I think it's totally possible to feel hungry when eating "maintenance" for your weight. Idk what the solution is though. If you want to lose the 20 lbs you put on, then I would track to do that

wilson10102018

Aversion and denial are the two most powerful forces on cognition. Momma honestly believes her 22 year old son with the BMW and the 22" rims who sleeps till noon has a high paying job at Starbucks. That little snack might have 100 calories, more or less. Uh huh.

MyEvolvingJourney

It sounds like I just need to get back to basics and get back to tracking. Thanks for your help!