Intuitive Eating or Calorie Counting
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BINGO at least in my case. I would be living on biscuits and piecrusts LOLIntuitive eating doesn't work for me because I intuitively want to stuff my face.
Exactly! None of us got overweight because we have a good, intuitive, healthy relationship with food!
Now I want a good pot pie. Or biscuits in gravy...
Hey, you're in Spearfish! Neat town. I spent a few weeks there some years back.0 -
Mmmm, I'll take a stack of pancakes and some cadbury eggs.0
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I think for many people they eventually will be able to eat intuitively. For many years I did and did fine. Some other health issues caused some weight gain that I'm now battling to get off. I also was never super big. I think at my heaviest I was about 30 lbs over my ideal weight but I was also 9 months pregnant. So for me to lose weight I need to count. Once I stabilize in my weight I can wean off the counting.
My hubs is obese at this point although he is about 40 lbs lighter than he was at his max. He will never count but he made himself think about how much he was eating. By paying more attention to his body signals he was able to eat the same foods but slow down and not eat until stuffed. He dropped 40 lbs with little effort although he is still about 40 or 50 lbs overweight.
I think what would help my hubs is if he would use mfp so he could understand what he was putting in his body, how many cals and how much nutrition. If he ate less junk food and more veggies he would probably drop another 20 or 30 lbs without having to try too hard. So I think counting is pretty important to really lose weight since if your intuitive eating trigger was working well you wouldn't be overweight. But I think that many people, once pretty set in eating healthy foods in healthy amounts can become intuitive.0 -
Intuitive eating always worked fine for me, which means that I have never been anywhere close to over weight, which also means what worked for me won't necessarily work for other people. I have never had issues with disordered binge eating. And the only time I ever kept a food journal was when I was pregnant, I kept a written food journal only for the purpose of counting my protein intake (I did not count the calories). With intuitive eating and an active/fit lifestyle I also easily lost the baby weight both times, bouncing right back to my pre-pregnancy weight within 7 months after giving birth.
I joined mfp because I've always been interested in furthering my fitness and continuing to learn and explore new options. And I like it. I do not weigh and measure my food (except for a few things), so I use mfp as a guideline, but continue with my intuitive way of eating. I also feel I've learned a lot about the calorie content of food and how much I need, so I could do even better with intuitive eating now.
I don't see any reason why you must do one or the other. You should do what works best for you and what you enjoy doing while still being able to achieve your goals.0 -
I see a lot of folks saying that they got fat for eating what they wanted.
Personally, I really want to eat healthy foods. The whole biscuits and pie crusts thing doesn't phase me. Most of the time, I seek out fruits and veggies, whole grains, and proteins all on my own. Usually, when I eat junk food, it is because I don't have time to cook or because someone offered it to me. I don't get all giddy over potato chips most of the time.
I think I gained weight not because my eating habits changed, but because my activity level dropped. Due to some health issues, I got really tired, achy, and dizzy, and found all sorts of reasons to sit all day and take a lot of naps. I struggled to get my energy.
I find that when I workout more, my whole metabolism evens out... and most of my health problems are not nearly as bad as they used to be.
Intuitive eating can work. It might not work for everyone, but it is doing alright for me.0 -
I think that anyone with a history of severe overweight or obesity should probably count calories until he or she has a VERY good idea of the calorie content of food they usually eat. Then, they can try to eat semi-intuitively, sticking to a repertoire of healthy meals with a known calorie content. You also have to be willing to weigh yourself regularly.
I've never been overweight. I am very aware of the calorie content of foods, so I rarely track. I weigh myself several times a week and take action if the number moves in the wrong direction.0 -
1. Yes. The macro ranges are a target, not a cage. It's better to eat something and enjoy it than to not eat it and wish you had - especially if it's in your calorie range.
2. I suspect that most people who wind up turning to calorie-counting wouldn't do well trying intuitive eating. In fact, it may be intuitive eating that got us all here.0 -
If you're the kind of person who is shocked by the "calorie content shocker" posts intuitive eating is probably not for you right now. People who do this successfully have read and internalized the information in the labels. They know, for example, that coffee creamer has a ton of calories and that EVERYTHING counts. Exercise is real exercise, not cleaning the house.0
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Counting calories is what I need. The intuitive eating is coming back but I have a long way to go, baby!! I try to log my day BEFORE I overeat. Planning ahead really helps me stay on track. Knowing I have acheat meal coming helps me eat lightly early in the day. That's intuitive, isn't it? Good luck on tis quest!!0
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I typed a ridiculously long answer to this question with entirely too much personal information. The shorter version is:
Intuitive eating works for me until I become overly stressed or life gets very hectic, which it often does for me. Then I find that I stop caring. There is no accountability (for me) with intuitive eating. I can pretty easily avoid weighing myself. I spent most of my adult life at a healthy weight but when a couple ankle surgeries and a pregnancy put me in a place where it was easy to gain weight, I did. I lost the bulk of it eating intuitively but then when things got stressful, I gained back about 15 (out of 50) lbs and had trouble getting back on the wagon. I found myself going for the cheap and easy meals which involved a lot of fast food and terrible choices.
Right now, I am eating intuitively (also practicing IF which is intuitive for me) but also tracking my calories. Sometimes this puts me a few hundred calories under my goal but sometimes I am a few hundred calories over. At the end of the week, my macros and calories all average out so I don't worry about it.
TL;DR: Counting calories gives me accountability that I need but I also practice intuitive eating.0 -
Intuitive eating is the goal. I hardly want to count calories for my life. I think it is a good way to get in line and learn how the foods we eat impact our weight. A great education but hardly the way to live the rest of your life.0
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What I hearing a lot from people is that they try to think their way through Intuitive Eating - it is a process to re-learn this but remember your body has a wisdom that you can never outsmart. Your micro/macro management of your diet is an attempt to control something - and listening to your body, because you've eroded the trust, is impossible. You have to work on it to regain trust of yourself with food. I am a pure IE eater and teacher. It took a lot of years to retrain myself from my binge eating disorder to IE, but it was worth it - what else you going to do? End the battle and return to peaceful eating. :-) Good luck and just keep at it - read books and /or work with a IE pro.0
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My intuition told me to eat a Whopper Jr. last night. It was really good and fit within my macros, but I definitely think my intuition sucks...
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Hi friends,
I am just looking for some opinions. I have finished reading the book titled, "Intuitive Eating," and am in the process of still counting calories, etc. One of the main points in the book is to eat what you are hungry for. Here is where one of my questions lies... 1) do you eat what you want if it fits into your calories but NOT your macros... as in, if you go over fiber or fat?
2) do you intuitive eat and log the calories? Or just count calories? Opinions on calorie counting vs. intuitive eating?
Thanks!
I read that book about two months ago and wonder the same thing. Thanks for asking!!!0 -
When I don't track, I gain. I make poorer choices and eat more calorie dense food. Weighing food is another thing. I once ate 8 ounces of salmon that I would have estimated at being half that weight.0
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Intuitive eating doesn't work for me because I intuitively want to stuff my face.
This for sure. I "intuitively" ate 6000 calories on Friday.0 -
The main thrust of the intuitive eating directive reminds me of Steve Jobs' response to complaints about that iPhone 4 defect: "don't hold it that way". Telling overweight people to just listen to their bodies and "eat when they are hungry, then stop" betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of their difficulties.
Calorie counting is a reproducible experiment. If you approach it as a scientific method of weight loss, it will most likely work for you, unless you have serious mental or physical health problems.0 -
I don't know many people who would do well eating intuitively. The people I know personally who are overweight know what they need to do to be healthy, but it's just not a priority for them. Very few are overweight through sheer ignorance. I know a few who've lost weight successfully on MFP and then decided they were gonna go intuitive and gained it all back. Most of them need strong guidance and most of them would probably need that guidance for the rest of their lives.
I would probably be a good candidate for intuitive eating, because I have strong self-control and no emotional hang-ups with food. For the first few decades of my life I was an intuitive eater and very good at it. I naturally gravitate towards healthy foods and I know when to stop eating. I've never been overweight. But just knowing what foods are healthy may not be enough. As I've gotten older my metabolism has slowed a bit and if I don't follow my eating and exercise, over time I start a slow creep up.
I've been on maintenance for a couple of years now and it's no hassle. Tracking is just so easy and it's a habit now, so I'd rather just stick with it and not have to fix problems down the road when I turn out to be less intuitive than I think I am. I don't mind taking a few minutes out of my day to maintain my weight and it doesn't bother me at all to think of doing it for the rest of my life. It's just a part of good maintenance.
If a person is naturally intuitive, then it sounds like a great idea. I just don't think that's the norm, though. Just do what you feel works best for you. Sounds like it would be easy enough to test your ability to succeed at intuitive eating. :drinker:0 -
I read a book a few years ago by Paul McKenna (who made his name being a UK stage hypnotist but is also a therapeutic hypnotist). It was called I can make you thin. I was sucked in by the title (please make me thin Paul. I need you to take all the responsibility for my eating habits
).
It had some interesting ideas which correspond to the intuitive eating ones: eat when you are hungry, stop when full, chew slowly, be concious of each mouthful, and another one (there were 5 rules). He also advocated visualisation - see yourself as a thin person. I do think that this is the best way to eat and it is the way thin people eat. But I'm not thin (yet!). So I need another method to help me become thin, and in the meantime I can practice this kind of eating. I don't pay any attention to my nutrients apart from trying to eat 5 fruit and veg a day. I eat when I'm hungry during the day, until my packed lunch is gone - I usually have eaten my sandwich by 11.30 am. I might buy something else if I get hunger pangs at 4pm but I log it. I seem to be more hungry during the day so eat more calories then. I keep to my calories but don't force myself to eat more in the evenings if there are some left.
So far this works for me and isn't hard at all.0 -
The main thrust of the intuitive eating directive reminds me of Steve Jobs' response to complaints about that iPhone 4 defect: "don't hold it that way". Telling overweight people to just listen to their bodies and "eat when they are hungry, then stop" betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of their difficulties.
Calorie counting is a reproducible experiment. If you approach it as a scientific method of weight loss, it will most likely work for you, unless you have serious mental or physical health problems.
This^^^^^^^
I used to practive WeighDown Workshop which is intuitve eating. It can work. The problem is that obese people have messed up their body signals. They don't remember what real hunger feels like or confuse hunger for thirst. Instead of focusing on the feeling, counting calories keeps you accountable. You aren't going to be tricked by a hunger pang that is really a stress reaction and not a call for fuel. Using the Roadmap and approaching this logically has changed my whole mindset. Sometimes I feel like a cigarette but does my body really need that tobacco - no! BTW, I quit smoking 19 years ago but when stressed, I still crave! Your mind can play some weird tricks on you. COunting calories helps you make good, logical choices.0 -
My intuition is a sadistic b*stard! It's always telling me "this, now this, some of that, a handful of this other thing." I think I'm giving my hunger what it wants, but it always wants something else.
I bought into the idea that my body would settle naturally at the weight it wanted to be and stopped monitoring myself at about 162 pounds. I would turn my back on the scales at the doctor's office because I just didn't want to know how much weight I was gaining, and I didn't want my thoughts to interfere with my body's natural wisdom. What a crock!
When I finally checked, I discovered to my horror that I was up to 207 pounds. I knew without a doubt that my weight would continue to climb as long as I allowed it. I don't care if my body wants to weigh 250+ pounds, I do not, and I am in charge, not my appetite!
So intuitive eating can bite me! It's monitoring and calorie counting all the way.
LMAO!!0 -
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