Intuitive Eating

mrsgoodwine wrote: »

"Intuitive eating is a nutrition philosophy based on the premise that becoming more attuned to the body's natural hunger signals is a more effective way to attain a healthy weight, rather than keeping track of the amounts of energy and fats in foods."

Anyone doing this? If so, have you been successful? Lost weight, maintained weight? What has been your experience? I get tired of logging sometimes...

Really? a philosophy? I eat when my blood sugar drops or I get hungry. Like now, my stomach is growling because all I;ve had today was coffee and an apple at 5am. Im about to go find something to munch. I'll eat until im not hungry, then i'll stop eating.

I'mgenuinely confused. I was under the impression that's when you're SUPPOSED to eat...when you're hungry.

ETA-when I stopped having time to just eat whenever, and only stopped long enough to eat once my blood sugar ws low, I lost 13 lbs. So yeah, I guess it works.

The people who say that intuitive eating is what made them over weight don't understand the concept. Eating when your mind wants you to eat and eating when your BODY wants you to eat are 2 different things. When you start and really pay attention and eat when your BODY is hungry (when your stomach starts to growl) and stop when you are comfortably full, it is nearly impossible not to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight if you are already there. Check out this book at Amazon (Getting Thin By Tuning In - ). She does a good job of explaining how we got overweight and what cues to look for to know when you are truly hungry. It is so freeing to eat exactly what I want and know, that the leftovers will still be there the next time I am hungry. (Toaster oven has saved me). I can stop eating something I really love when I am satisfied so much easier when I know that I can have it again the next time I am hungry. It takes retraining at first to remember to ONLY eat when you are hungry and not just whenever you don't have anything better to do. You do find yourself waiting for your stomach to growl at first. I know now, that I can put a much smaller portion of food on my plate and be satisfied. Before I discovered intuitive eating I would put a haphazard amount on the plate and eat it because it was there regardless of how my stomach felt. My mind was eating more than my body needed. If I am not comfortably full with the portion on my plate, I will go get a little more. The thing that helps with knowing you are comfortably full is chewing each bite 20 times (or at least a count of 20 if there is not enough in your mouth to chew that long). This helps your brain fullness catch up to your stomach fullness so that your brain tells you that you are comfortably full. I used to get way too full because I ate so fast my brain didn't get the cue. After about 15 or 20 minutes I would realize I was uncomfortably full. This is a really wonderful alternative to measuring and logging all the time. Try it you'll like it!

I'm aiming towards it. Basically I see it as making peace with food, and to be able to eat widely yet not in a way that leads to weight gain. I think a good way to go about it is from an IF dynamic like 14:10, 16:8, etc, as such a reduced eating window tends to moderate the volumes many people can eat, so it's kinda like training wheels if your goal is intuitive eating. Carb control is probably another equally effective option to come at it too, as many find controlling their range of daily carbs as an effective lever to manage their intake and natural appetite.

At least those are my thoughts. I'm not one that plans to log forever, and have taken forays into not logging already, but being honest with myself, there's still 5- 10 lbs I would like to lose, so may put any overarching intuitive eating goals on temporary hold for the moment, until I drop those lbs.

For what it's worth also, I think most people can probably figure out a few loose rules for themselves that would help them maintain their weight handily enough. Sometimes a little purposeful (and manageable) restriction in that way, can lead to a lot of freedom I've found.

SergeantSausage wrote: »

leighn62 wrote: »

The people who say that intuitive eating is what made them over weight don't understand the concept. Eating when your mind wants you to eat and eating when your BODY wants you to eat are 2 different things. When you start and really pay attention and eat when your BODY is hungry (when your stomach starts to growl) and stop when you are comfortably full, it is nearly impossible not to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight if you are already there. Check out this book at Amazon (Getting Thin By Tuning In - ). She does a good job of explaining how we got overweight and what cues to look for to know when you are truly hungry. It is so freeing to eat exactly what I want and know, that the leftovers will still be there the next time I am hungry. (Toaster oven has saved me). I can stop eating something I really love when I am satisfied so much easier when I know that I can have it again the next time I am hungry. It takes retraining at first to remember to ONLY eat when you are hungry and not just whenever you don't have anything better to do. You do find yourself waiting for your stomach to growl at first. I know now, that I can put a much smaller portion of food on my plate and be satisfied. Before I discovered intuitive eating I would put a haphazard amount on the plate and eat it because it was there regardless of how my stomach felt. My mind was eating more than my body needed. If I am not comfortably full with the portion on my plate, I will go get a little more. The thing that helps with knowing you are comfortably full is chewing each bite 20 times (or at least a count of 20 if there is not enough in your mouth to chew that long). This helps your brain fullness catch up to your stomach fullness so that your brain tells you that you are comfortably full. I used to get way too full because I ate so fast my brain didn't get the cue. After about 15 or 20 minutes I would realize I was uncomfortably full. This is a really wonderful alternative to measuring and logging all the time. Try it you'll like it!

If we could do that, we would have no need to be here, right?

The problem is, we can't/don't/won't do that.

Who is 'we'? Many of us do it, or constantly work on refining the skill.

But I totally agree that anyone who thinks they can't do it is right.