Intuitive Eating - Hmm?

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FeelinTheLove
FeelinTheLove Posts: 30
edited February 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
I have recently been bombarded with messages through various resources (friends, a therapist, emails, etc.) about Intuitive Eating. This is supposed to be one of the solutions for people with eating issues. Has anybody ever tried this? Isn't the whole point of MFP that we couldn't manage the Intuitive Eating and therefore really need to count the calories of what we put in our faces? This concept goes beyond my understanding of how to fix my food issues. Any thoughts?
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  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
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    I have nothing to offer other than I hope you find the answers you need and find a way to get your health under control. Good luck.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,459 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Anne092114 wrote: »
    I have recently been bombarded with messages through various resources (friends, a therapist, emails, etc.) about Intuitive Eating. This is supposed to be one of the solutions for people with eating issues. Has anybody ever tried this? Isn't the whole point of MFP that we couldn't manage the Intuitive Eating and therefore really need to count the calories of what we put in our faces? This concept goes beyond my understanding of how to fix my food issues. Any thoughts?

    I think it's meant as a way to deal with whatever issues your therapist and friends think you have about food, and not so much with controlling your weight as such. Even in people without EDs, calorie counting can invite a bit of an obsessional approach, in the beginning, especially.

    I have no idea about how intuitive eating is supposed to work, but the wiki suggests the key is "eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, and reliance on internal hunger/satiety cues." So I would imagine it would involve retraining yourself to attend to and interpret internal cues in a new way, one that aligns more closely with eating for satiety, rather than eating for other reasons.

    If that can be done successfully, I can imagine that it wouldn't necessarily be opposed to weight control.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Different things work for different people.

    Some people become overweight because they eat for all kinds of reasons other than hunger: boredom, sadness, socializing, etc. When they practice stopping to pay attention to whether they are truly hungry and not eating when they aren't hungry, they might lose weight because they are eating less.

    Other people become overweight because they are not able to eyeball portion sizes, don't know enough about what foods are high cal or low cal, or are bad at telling whether they are hungry or not, etc. so counting calories can help them to correct these issues.

    For some people, counting calories helps them to feel in control and make smart decisions. For other people, counting calories can become obsessive or cause them to eat too little or feel burdened or punished.

    You have to figure out what works for you. Weight loss always comes down to taking in less calories than you burn, but there are several ways to do that. For me, I am a numbers person and a list maker by nature, so logging is interesting and sometimes even fun for me. Best wishes on finding what works for you :drinker:
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Reading about it, I can say that it wouldn't work for me, MFP does.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,624 Member
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    Well intuitive eating is what got me to 188lbs. So doesn't work for me.

    Actually, that's only partially true. It ONLY worked for me when I was doing 6-7hrs of cardio a week and eating clean. Drop the exercise (or lowered significantly) and gained 10-15lbs on a cycle (would exercise again to lose, then slow it down and gain, and on and on). Drop the clean eating, exercise or not, and I gained way more because of calorie dense foods.

    So for me, tracking cals and eating foods I love works the best for me.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    Some people do get obsessive about calorie counting, and they may fall into eating disorders.

    For me, my intuition tells me to eat as much as possible, as fast as possible, so I need to count calories.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    The concept of forever counting calories is foreign to me. Sometimes people gain weight slowly just by not paying attention. A check and evaluation of their diet can reign things in and they can continue on without issue. I feel intuitive eating is most easily accomplished when your diet consists mostly of whole foods, especially vegetables.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    edited February 2015
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    Intuitive eating is about understanding how your body works, how different food affects you, not eliminating particular foods, using hunger and satiety to guide the amounts that you eat. It actually takes a lot of effort and attention to do intuitive eating right. It is great if calorie counting feeds into disordered thinking and eating.

    I don't think it is ideal for weight loss for a few reasons, 1) our bodies actually don't want to lose weight, so hunger/satiety signals will usually guide you to an intake that keeps you overweight, 2) it's hard to stop eating when you are just satisfied and not feeling full yet, 3) it's hard to pay that much attention while eating, especially when out socially, 4) there are lots of conditions and obesity itself that can mess up hunger and satiety signals.

    I do pay attention to hunger and satiety and this informs my eating to an extent, but primarily I use calorie counting to lose weight.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    It all boils down to "eat less, move more" no matter what else you are using. MFP has helped me tremendously in that area with logging in food eaten and exercises done. If left to my "Intuitive Eating", I would surely be about 300 lbs. by now!
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    MFP has helped me become more mindful about what and when and how much I eat. Seeing in writing what I have eaten and what I am going to eat, and observing that this is more than I'd think if I didn't pay attention, and learning that it is indeed enough to be satiated and happy - sets my mind at ease.
  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
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    I think this does work for some people who are simply eating at maintenance. I know people who don't count calories but have never really had to worry about their weight.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    herrspoons wrote: »
    It's a fantastic way for most people who need to lose weight to fail.

    I mean think about it: eating intuitively is why you're here in the first place.

    Not necessarily. I used to eat mindlessly.

  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
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    herrspoons wrote: »
    It's a fantastic way for most people who need to lose weight to fail.

    I mean think about it: eating intuitively is why you're here in the first place.

    That's a misunderstanding of what Intuitive Eating is. Intuitive Eating is NOT eating when you aren't hungry. Do you think most people get to be obese, overweight from never eating for non-hunger reasons?
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
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    It's not where I'd start. IMO most people trying to lose weight should probably start by counting calories and accurately logging/measuring their foods. It's far too easy for a lot of people to say "oh this one cookie isn't a big deal" and it might not be...as long as you know the energy content of the cookie. A good cookie for dessert can double the calorie content of a meal : )--note I said *good*

    That said, I think most people who count calories eventually get a little burned out. By that point you should have a better idea about what foods you can eat in a day and in what amounts. Then, I think eating intuitively can be a nice break, but as others have indicated, quality becomes a little more important just because less nutrient-dense/higher energy dense foods (some people call them "junk foods") tend to very palatable and easy to over indulge in.
  • kelfran1
    kelfran1 Posts: 1,213 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    Different things work for different people.

    Some people become overweight because they eat for all kinds of reasons other than hunger: boredom, sadness, socializing, etc. When they practice stopping to pay attention to whether they are truly hungry and not eating when they aren't hungry, they might lose weight because they are eating less.

    Other people become overweight because they are not able to eyeball portion sizes, don't know enough about what foods are high cal or low cal, or are bad at telling whether they are hungry or not, etc. so counting calories can help them to correct these issues.

    For some people, counting calories helps them to feel in control and make smart decisions. For other people, counting calories can become obsessive or cause them to eat too little or feel burdened or punished.

    You have to figure out what works for you. Weight loss always comes down to taking in less calories than you burn, but there are several ways to do that. For me, I am a numbers person and a list maker by nature, so logging is interesting and sometimes even fun for me. Best wishes on finding what works for you :drinker:

    ^^This
  • bethanyka
    bethanyka Posts: 159 Member
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    Yes. i agree. ^ I've read a few books about Intuitive Eating ,, For example the one i thought was best -- "How to Have Your Cake and Your Skinny Jeans Too: Stop Binge Eating, Overeating and Dieting For Good Get the Naturally Thin Body You Crave From the Inside Out"
    It is very interesting. Eating when you are not hungry ? I can blame that on my weight issues to some extent. Which means i am eating for emotional reasons (bored, angry, lonely, happy, etc)
    after reading this book my mind was a lot more open about WHY and WHEN i was eating... and "Am i really Hungry?" --- after eating half of my plate, check in again and ask myself " Am i still hungry ?" ....
    It's a very interesting concept and worth a read in my opinion.
  • dym123
    dym123 Posts: 1,670 Member
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    I tried it many years ago when there was this british guy touting it as the end all be all of weight loss. You can eat whatever you want, but only when you're hungry and stop when you're full. Didn't work. Now that I'm smaller from counting calories and have learned how to eat better, I have no problem with intuitive eating, but it took a long time to learn it.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
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    dym123 wrote: »
    .. You can eat whatever you want, but only when you're hungry and stop when you're full. Didn't work. ....

    lol, yeah. If I relied on just hunger signals, I'd be very overweight by now.

    After a lot of experimentation over the years of messing with my calorie goals, macro breakdowns, and meal timing, it seems that unless I'm in a decent surplus, I'm going to be hungry at the end of the day (at least a little bit)--and possibly throughout the day, depending. I can minimize the hunger and make it manageable, but it's always there.

  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
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    herrspoons wrote: »
    girlviernes wrote: »
    herrspoons wrote: »
    It's a fantastic way for most people who need to lose weight to fail.

    I mean think about it: eating intuitively is why you're here in the first place.

    That's a misunderstanding of what Intuitive Eating is. Intuitive Eating is NOT eating when you aren't hungry. Do you think most people get to be obese, overweight from never eating for non-hunger reasons?

    I think most people get obese because they ate too much and didn't know when to stop.

    Right, they don't stop when no longer hungry. We ignore hunger/satiety all the time due to social effects, emotions, boredom, distracted eating, scarfing things down, etc.

  • marshallexi
    marshallexi Posts: 162 Member
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    You don't do Intuitive Eating to lose weight, you do it understand how your body works in relation to food and appetite etc. That's one of the first principles of IE. If weight loss happens, then great, but it's not a given that it will. IE is for when you're ready to stop being so reliant on 'diets' and just eat based on hunger signals and what your body needs.

    It's not until much later down the line when you start focussing on nutrition, in the first instance it's all about your issues with food.

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