Intuitive Eating
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And you knew that.DeguelloTex wrote: »
Except that that's done by putting quotes around the odd usage, not the whole thing. "Naturally" obese. "Naturally" thin. Thin and obese are used in their normal sense.
That's why the OP put quotation marks around the word.DeguelloTex wrote: »
So kind of the opposite of "natural."MamaBirdBoss wrote: »DeguelloTex wrote: »
I've been 6'9" and 180 pounds and I've been 6'9" and 335 pounds. I am naturally thin or naturally obese?MamaBirdBoss wrote: »When I was thin, I did not eat when hungry and stop when full. I ate at my assigned meal times and if I liked the food I ate it, if I didn't, I just didn't eat. Instead, I'd eat at the next meal.
Pretty much this, too.
"Naturally thin" people have a very, very different relationship with food than "naturally obese" people. They eat because it's mealtime. They eat about what they think, mentally, they SHOULD eat. If they don't like what's there, they'll just..not eat for a while. And it's no big deal.
These are all based on learned and adopted behaviors, not inborn metabolic differences.
The whole point is that people who appear to be naturally thin or naturally fat look that way because of behaviors, not that their bodies work differently.
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No, I didn't. That's why I was asking.
And you knew that.DeguelloTex wrote: »
Except that that's done by putting quotes around the odd usage, not the whole thing. "Naturally" obese. "Naturally" thin. Thin and obese are used in their normal sense.
That's why the OP put quotation marks around the word.DeguelloTex wrote: »
So kind of the opposite of "natural."MamaBirdBoss wrote: »DeguelloTex wrote: »
I've been 6'9" and 180 pounds and I've been 6'9" and 335 pounds. I am naturally thin or naturally obese?MamaBirdBoss wrote: »When I was thin, I did not eat when hungry and stop when full. I ate at my assigned meal times and if I liked the food I ate it, if I didn't, I just didn't eat. Instead, I'd eat at the next meal.
Pretty much this, too.
"Naturally thin" people have a very, very different relationship with food than "naturally obese" people. They eat because it's mealtime. They eat about what they think, mentally, they SHOULD eat. If they don't like what's there, they'll just..not eat for a while. And it's no big deal.
These are all based on learned and adopted behaviors, not inborn metabolic differences.
The whole point is that people who appear to be naturally thin or naturally fat look that way because of behaviors, not that their bodies work differently.
This is just another thread where people talk about learning to do something while calling it "intuitive." If you have to learn it, it's not intuitive. There's no limit to the distortion of definitions in an environment like that.
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DeguelloTex wrote: »
Except that that's done by putting quotes around the odd usage, not the whole thing. "Naturally" obese. "Naturally" thin. Thin and obese are used in their normal sense.
That's why the OP put quotation marks around the word.DeguelloTex wrote: »
So kind of the opposite of "natural."MamaBirdBoss wrote: »DeguelloTex wrote: »
I've been 6'9" and 180 pounds and I've been 6'9" and 335 pounds. I am naturally thin or naturally obese?MamaBirdBoss wrote: »When I was thin, I did not eat when hungry and stop when full. I ate at my assigned meal times and if I liked the food I ate it, if I didn't, I just didn't eat. Instead, I'd eat at the next meal.
Pretty much this, too.
"Naturally thin" people have a very, very different relationship with food than "naturally obese" people. They eat because it's mealtime. They eat about what they think, mentally, they SHOULD eat. If they don't like what's there, they'll just..not eat for a while. And it's no big deal.
These are all based on learned and adopted behaviors, not inborn metabolic differences.
The whole point is that people who appear to be naturally thin or naturally fat look that way because of behaviors, not that their bodies work differently.
Simply because of the way people use the words as a phrase. LOL. That's all. Think of it with quotes the other way, if you prefer.0 -
One part of my maintenance plan is this:atypicalsmith wrote: »When I get to maintenance, I'm strictly going by the scales. If I gain a pound or two, I'll exercise more and eat less until the needle is back where it belongs.
The other is that I'm going to buy a pair of 32 waist jeans that fit very comfortably, if they start to feel tight i will rein it back in.
Also I don't really plan to ever stop logging. Maybe I'll let myself be a bit more sloppy about it and not stress as much about it but I love having a marker on just how much i took in in a day.0 -
I can maintain my weight without counting calories or having little food rituals to trick or check for hunger but there's nothing really intuitive about it. I eat foods that are satiating and I don't regularly eat foods that cause cravings or leave me hungry for more -- which is a biggie -- but just as important I stick to an eating schedule that does not include snacking.
I do eat until I'm truly full and satisfied but then I don't eat again until I'm hungry (which is nice and pretty much effortless at this point) but I can't eat whatever, whenever and maintain. In order to do that I'd need to count calories.0 -
No, I totally agree with you. There will be times when there is too much food on the plate. I've run across this already and ended up eating it all. Then I'm uncomfortably full and have to make adjustments elsewhere.AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »I agree. Unless you want to weigh every little bitfor the of food for the rest of your life, which some people do but I really do not, you will have to learn how to eat without the scale at some point. Why not now?
I haven't read any Intuitive Eating books, but from what I read here it sounds like this is, "Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full," which makes sense to me. A lot of people have mentioned that they do it and like it.
I go a day without checking calories and then log everything at the end of the day or the next morning. I can usually tell by how I'm feeling if I was way under, under, over or way over the goal, but am still working on single days. I find that I'm still focusing on the portions and calories as I dish stuff up. Hadn't planned to, but it's hard to stop, lol. This transition - tougher than I'd imagined! I'm glad I started early and have time.
The plan is to stretch these no-logging periods out further and further so that when I'm done losing I am not saying, "What do I do now?!" but am prepared to live my life, having learned to eat without the crutch of the scale. Like intuitive eating.
I don't know about leaving food on the plate, lol. I always ate all the food because I was chowing. Now, I eat all the food because if I'm counting those calories, I'm sure as hell eating them! I am going to have practice leaving food on the plate. Thanks for bringing that up!
I don't really give my hunger numbers, but I started paying attention to eating when I was hungry around the time I began all this, so I kind of have that part down.
The vast majority of people are not weighing food. They're no smarter than I am. I can figure this out, too.
Maybe I can start earlier, I have to think on this. I want to be also ready for the transition. You don't necessarily have to leave food on the plate, but I think that's part of the process.
Learning to leave food is a thing, for sure. I'm glad you brought it up. I needed to think about it! I just don't know how I'll go about it. Maybe "Put down the fork" is the best advice, lol.
In the book, she talks about stopping half way through the meal and take an assessment. I kept doing that last night when we were out to dinner. And throughout the meal, but the point of the last bite never came until I was finished with the entire meal.0 -
AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »
No, I totally agree with you. There will be times when there is too much food on the plate. I've run across this already and ended up eating it all. Then I'm uncomfortably full and have to make adjustments elsewhere.AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »I agree. Unless you want to weigh every little bitfor the of food for the rest of your life, which some people do but I really do not, you will have to learn how to eat without the scale at some point. Why not now?
I haven't read any Intuitive Eating books, but from what I read here it sounds like this is, "Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full," which makes sense to me. A lot of people have mentioned that they do it and like it.
I go a day without checking calories and then log everything at the end of the day or the next morning. I can usually tell by how I'm feeling if I was way under, under, over or way over the goal, but am still working on single days. I find that I'm still focusing on the portions and calories as I dish stuff up. Hadn't planned to, but it's hard to stop, lol. This transition - tougher than I'd imagined! I'm glad I started early and have time.
The plan is to stretch these no-logging periods out further and further so that when I'm done losing I am not saying, "What do I do now?!" but am prepared to live my life, having learned to eat without the crutch of the scale. Like intuitive eating.
I don't know about leaving food on the plate, lol. I always ate all the food because I was chowing. Now, I eat all the food because if I'm counting those calories, I'm sure as hell eating them! I am going to have practice leaving food on the plate. Thanks for bringing that up!
I don't really give my hunger numbers, but I started paying attention to eating when I was hungry around the time I began all this, so I kind of have that part down.
The vast majority of people are not weighing food. They're no smarter than I am. I can figure this out, too.
Maybe I can start earlier, I have to think on this. I want to be also ready for the transition. You don't necessarily have to leave food on the plate, but I think that's part of the process.
Learning to leave food is a thing, for sure. I'm glad you brought it up. I needed to think about it! I just don't know how I'll go about it. Maybe "Put down the fork" is the best advice, lol.
In the book, she talks about stopping half way through the meal and take an assessment. I kept doing that last night when we were out to dinner. And throughout the meal, but the point of the last bite never came until I was finished with the entire meal.
If you are going to use that. My body takes longer than the one siding to say I am full.
Next time eat half ana wait some time. 5-10 minutes it would take for my body to say full or keep going.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Lots of thin people worry about calories. I was for the first 35 years (m/l) of my life. While I didn't count calories, I did pay attention to them. And when I put on a few pounds, I cut back to get them back off. This is actually how everyone I know who was/is thin stayed/stays thin. They nip weight gain in the bud quickly.
I'd bet there are actually very few people who are thin and never think about calories.
WHEN I'm athletic, I don't have to consciously worry about it. There are reasons I don't eat just cake, sure. But I actually did maintain within about 3-4lbs--low of 121lbs in workout gear, high of 125--without wasting any energy or willpower. Of course, I DO make a lot of good decisions ahead of time, in the grocery store. But it's not a fight or a battle, if that makes sense. I just run in my grooves of habit. Only if I start getting into a habit that doesn't work long-term (I got REALLY low fat mass for a while because I was working out SO much, so I started having a small bag of goldfish crackers or a tube of cookie dough YES I KNOW every week to snack on to get stable again, but when my PT and fencing dropped, I didn't change those habits at first!) that I would bump out of my groove and have to regroup.
My husband is much more like what you describe. And I'm that way when I'm NOT working out a lot. :P I like how I look and feel when I workout more, so I'm trying to get back a 7-10-hour-a-week habit!0 -
AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »I sortta do that now, but I still log to make sure I'm on track. Do I go over sometimes? Yes, especially when we have a special dinner. Which is why I still log. It's not 100% accurate, but it gives me an idea where I am and where I can go for the day, and keeps me from eating too much most of the time. Is that intuitive eating? I dunno, I just know that this what works for me. What works for you might be something different. The trick is to retrain your brain and body, which is still something I'm working on!
I think retraining is the key because right now I also eat fast. I have been learning to eat slower.
Yeah, eating slower will help. I learned to eat fast because my dad was in the Navy, and military eating times are very short, so you have to eat fast! It's something I still have trouble with, but I've had time to retrain my brain into seeing what a normal portion is, so now it's not so bad if I eat a little faster because I've given myself a normal portion of food, and when I'm done, I normally don't go back for more. It takes time, so you'll have to be patient and not beat yourself up over an occasional off day. If you screw up one day, it's ok. Log it and start fresh the next day. Once I convinced myself of that, it became much easier!
@MamaBirdBoss: Totally agree! Growing up, my parents did put emphasis on eating healthy, every dinner had to have veggies as well as meat, and while it wasn't always the healthiest of meals, it was balanced. My dad planted a garden to help save money, so we ended up eating lots of fresh veggies, as well as had to help in the garden. Plus, we spent a lot of time outdoors, especially in summer. To us, playing inside was when you did when the weather was bad, and that didn't include TV. My sister and I would play pretend in the den, play music and make up dances for it, reenact favorite movies, and so on. Because we were so active, the fact that we didn't have perfect diet wasn't a problem. We didn't demonize foods, but cakes and candies were for special events, not everyday things. Eating out was an occasional treat, not every night. Yes, holidays included a lot of food, but again, those were special events. The problem I had as an adult was when I stopped being as active but didn't cut back on the amount of food I ate. So a lot of it comes down to how your family views food and eating, and what you're taught as a kid.
My mom is the one to push food. When we were growing up it wasn't that much of a problem because we didn't have that much. But now, when we go visit, there is an abundance of food and my husband constantly has a problem with finishing the portions, not me though.0 -
MamaBirdBoss wrote: »
No, I totally agree with you. There will be times when there is too much food on the plate. I've run across this already and ended up eating it all. Then I'm uncomfortably full and have to make adjustments elsewhere.AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »I agree. Unless you want to weigh every little bitfor the of food for the rest of your life, which some people do but I really do not, you will have to learn how to eat without the scale at some point. Why not now?
I haven't read any Intuitive Eating books, but from what I read here it sounds like this is, "Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full," which makes sense to me. A lot of people have mentioned that they do it and like it.
I go a day without checking calories and then log everything at the end of the day or the next morning. I can usually tell by how I'm feeling if I was way under, under, over or way over the goal, but am still working on single days. I find that I'm still focusing on the portions and calories as I dish stuff up. Hadn't planned to, but it's hard to stop, lol. This transition - tougher than I'd imagined! I'm glad I started early and have time.
The plan is to stretch these no-logging periods out further and further so that when I'm done losing I am not saying, "What do I do now?!" but am prepared to live my life, having learned to eat without the crutch of the scale. Like intuitive eating.
I don't know about leaving food on the plate, lol. I always ate all the food because I was chowing. Now, I eat all the food because if I'm counting those calories, I'm sure as hell eating them! I am going to have practice leaving food on the plate. Thanks for bringing that up!
I don't really give my hunger numbers, but I started paying attention to eating when I was hungry around the time I began all this, so I kind of have that part down.
The vast majority of people are not weighing food. They're no smarter than I am. I can figure this out, too.
Maybe I can start earlier, I have to think on this. I want to be also ready for the transition. You don't necessarily have to leave food on the plate, but I think that's part of the process.
Learning to leave food is a thing, for sure. I'm glad you brought it up. I needed to think about it! I just don't know how I'll go about it. Maybe "Put down the fork" is the best advice, lol.
My husband will eat my food until he's sick if I leave it. We just eat off TINY plates (8" and 6.5" square), and I go back for a little more if I'm actually hungry!
Yes, maybe I should get rid of our big plates.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »I'd bet there are actually very few people who are thin and never think about calories.
This is what I observe too, especially once I was past my 20s.0 -
AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »I sortta do that now, but I still log to make sure I'm on track. Do I go over sometimes? Yes, especially when we have a special dinner. Which is why I still log. It's not 100% accurate, but it gives me an idea where I am and where I can go for the day, and keeps me from eating too much most of the time. Is that intuitive eating? I dunno, I just know that this what works for me. What works for you might be something different. The trick is to retrain your brain and body, which is still something I'm working on!
I think retraining is the key because right now I also eat fast. I have been learning to eat slower.
Yeah, eating slower will help. I learned to eat fast because my dad was in the Navy, and military eating times are very short, so you have to eat fast! It's something I still have trouble with, but I've had time to retrain my brain into seeing what a normal portion is, so now it's not so bad if I eat a little faster because I've given myself a normal portion of food, and when I'm done, I normally don't go back for more. It takes time, so you'll have to be patient and not beat yourself up over an occasional off day. If you screw up one day, it's ok. Log it and start fresh the next day. Once I convinced myself of that, it became much easier!
@MamaBirdBoss: Totally agree! Growing up, my parents did put emphasis on eating healthy, every dinner had to have veggies as well as meat, and while it wasn't always the healthiest of meals, it was balanced. My dad planted a garden to help save money, so we ended up eating lots of fresh veggies, as well as had to help in the garden. Plus, we spent a lot of time outdoors, especially in summer. To us, playing inside was when you did when the weather was bad, and that didn't include TV. My sister and I would play pretend in the den, play music and make up dances for it, reenact favorite movies, and so on. Because we were so active, the fact that we didn't have perfect diet wasn't a problem. We didn't demonize foods, but cakes and candies were for special events, not everyday things. Eating out was an occasional treat, not every night. Yes, holidays included a lot of food, but again, those were special events. The problem I had as an adult was when I stopped being as active but didn't cut back on the amount of food I ate. So a lot of it comes down to how your family views food and eating, and what you're taught as a kid.
My mom is the one to push food. When we were growing up it wasn't that much of a problem because we didn't have that much. But now, when we go visit, there is an abundance of food and my husband constantly has a problem with finishing the portions, not me though.
My hunger hormones went crazy with my last kid. I was starving ALL THE TIME for several months. We visited my in-laws, who are huge foodpushers, and I chirped up (because I'm kinda mean), "Now that I'm fat and I eat all the time, you'll be happy with what I eat!"
My MIL looked shocked...then thoughtful as the meal progressed and she realized it was true. Since SHE has been told that she MUST lose weight (and is only getting fatter), I think it made her think a bit. (She also tried to tell me I wasn't overweight, and I cheerfully brought out the BMI chart that showed that I was).0 -
WaterBunnie wrote: »The satiety scale wouldn't work for me. I've had a lifetime of pretending to myself that I've not eaten too much! Since you're happy to slide into goal slowly why don't you set your calorie goal to the amount you'd be allowed for maintenance if you were already at your goal weight and eat at that rate (might even be similar to what you're eating already at your current deficit) and then you'd have this last year actually eating the portion sizes you need to learn for maintenance once you're done. You could always boost loss with extra exercise if it's coming off too slowly doing that. I think the temptation must be to sneak in what we'd consider 'non-diet foods' a bit too frequently once we consider we've finished.
That's an idea. I don't know if I'm ready for it though. I will have to think about it. Thanks0 -
MamaBirdBoss wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Lots of thin people worry about calories. I was for the first 35 years (m/l) of my life. While I didn't count calories, I did pay attention to them. And when I put on a few pounds, I cut back to get them back off. This is actually how everyone I know who was/is thin stayed/stays thin. They nip weight gain in the bud quickly.
I'd bet there are actually very few people who are thin and never think about calories.
WHEN I'm athletic, I don't have to consciously worry about it. There are reasons I don't eat just cake, sure. But I actually did maintain within about 3-4lbs--low of 121lbs in workout gear, high of 125--without wasting any energy or willpower. Of course, I DO make a lot of good decisions ahead of time, in the grocery store. But it's not a fight or a battle, if that makes sense. I just run in my grooves of habit. Only if I start getting into a habit that doesn't work long-term (I got REALLY low fat mass for a while because I was working out SO much, so I started having a small bag of goldfish crackers or a tube of cookie dough YES I KNOW every week to snack on to get stable again, but when my PT and fencing dropped, I didn't change those habits at first!) that I would bump out of my groove and have to regroup.
My husband is much more like what you describe. And I'm that way when I'm NOT working out a lot. :P I like how I look and feel when I workout more, so I'm trying to get back a 7-10-hour-a-week habit!
I didn't mean to suggest it was a fight or battle for those that stay thin. The exact opposite actually. I meant that it's pretty intuitive. It's not that they like cake or any food any less than heavier people. They simply choose not to overeat because they don't want to be fat. They aren't accidentally thin. There may well be people out there who never give calories or food amounts a thought and stay thin. But, I've never met one.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Lots of thin people worry about calories. I was thin for the first 35 years (m/l) of my life. While I didn't count calories, I did pay attention to them. And when I put on a few pounds, I cut back to get them back off. This is actually how everyone I know who was/is thin stayed/stays thin. They nip weight gain in the bud quickly.
I'd bet there are actually very few people who are thin and never think about calories.
Maybe that was just my perception watching my husband and son.0 -
AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »MamaBirdBoss wrote: »
No, I totally agree with you. There will be times when there is too much food on the plate. I've run across this already and ended up eating it all. Then I'm uncomfortably full and have to make adjustments elsewhere.AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »I agree. Unless you want to weigh every little bitfor the of food for the rest of your life, which some people do but I really do not, you will have to learn how to eat without the scale at some point. Why not now?
I haven't read any Intuitive Eating books, but from what I read here it sounds like this is, "Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full," which makes sense to me. A lot of people have mentioned that they do it and like it.
I go a day without checking calories and then log everything at the end of the day or the next morning. I can usually tell by how I'm feeling if I was way under, under, over or way over the goal, but am still working on single days. I find that I'm still focusing on the portions and calories as I dish stuff up. Hadn't planned to, but it's hard to stop, lol. This transition - tougher than I'd imagined! I'm glad I started early and have time.
The plan is to stretch these no-logging periods out further and further so that when I'm done losing I am not saying, "What do I do now?!" but am prepared to live my life, having learned to eat without the crutch of the scale. Like intuitive eating.
I don't know about leaving food on the plate, lol. I always ate all the food because I was chowing. Now, I eat all the food because if I'm counting those calories, I'm sure as hell eating them! I am going to have practice leaving food on the plate. Thanks for bringing that up!
I don't really give my hunger numbers, but I started paying attention to eating when I was hungry around the time I began all this, so I kind of have that part down.
The vast majority of people are not weighing food. They're no smarter than I am. I can figure this out, too.
Maybe I can start earlier, I have to think on this. I want to be also ready for the transition. You don't necessarily have to leave food on the plate, but I think that's part of the process.
Learning to leave food is a thing, for sure. I'm glad you brought it up. I needed to think about it! I just don't know how I'll go about it. Maybe "Put down the fork" is the best advice, lol.
My husband will eat my food until he's sick if I leave it. We just eat off TINY plates (8" and 6.5" square), and I go back for a little more if I'm actually hungry!
Yes, maybe I should get rid of our big plates.
I CANNOT TELL YOU what a difference this made for my "clean plate club" husband. He used to literally eat himself sick several times a WEEK. He just doesn't know what "full" feels like because of his parents. It's been months since he's done that now.0 -
DeguelloTex wrote: »
No, I didn't. That's why I was asking.
And you knew that.DeguelloTex wrote: »
Except that that's done by putting quotes around the odd usage, not the whole thing. "Naturally" obese. "Naturally" thin. Thin and obese are used in their normal sense.
That's why the OP put quotation marks around the word.DeguelloTex wrote: »
So kind of the opposite of "natural."MamaBirdBoss wrote: »DeguelloTex wrote: »
I've been 6'9" and 180 pounds and I've been 6'9" and 335 pounds. I am naturally thin or naturally obese?MamaBirdBoss wrote: »When I was thin, I did not eat when hungry and stop when full. I ate at my assigned meal times and if I liked the food I ate it, if I didn't, I just didn't eat. Instead, I'd eat at the next meal.
Pretty much this, too.
"Naturally thin" people have a very, very different relationship with food than "naturally obese" people. They eat because it's mealtime. They eat about what they think, mentally, they SHOULD eat. If they don't like what's there, they'll just..not eat for a while. And it's no big deal.
These are all based on learned and adopted behaviors, not inborn metabolic differences.
The whole point is that people who appear to be naturally thin or naturally fat look that way because of behaviors, not that their bodies work differently.
This is just another thread where people talk about learning to do something while calling it "intuitive." If you have to learn it, it's not intuitive. There's no limit to the distortion of definitions in an environment like that.
I think it would be intuitive in my son's case because I surely didn't teach him to eat like he does. My other son on the other hand is like me and we have to teach him to eat slowly and what not, as I'm learning it myself.0 -
AlabasterVerve wrote: »just as important I stick to an eating schedule that does not include snacking.
This is most simply what works for me too. My habit or learned understanding of what a meal should be is pretty consistent with maintaining my weight and, unless I am eating all the time at restaurants and telling myself it's a special occasion, as I did once upon a time, I tend to expect, desire, and eat pretty calorie appropriate meals.
But if I add in a bunch of snacks--and the macro make-up of the snack really does not matter--I still expect, desire, and if I let myself will eat the same meals that would have been appropriate absent the snacking.
So if I keep snacks at a minimum I tend to eat at maintenance. If I snack a lot, I don't. Or at least I'd have to think about it a lot more.
To go back to my hobby horse about humans not really being innately intuitive eaters for the most part, I think one of the reasons people are so frequently overweight today is that all the old ideas about eating at mealtime are gone and people often eat continually throughout the day. (There are also lots of other reasons, of course.) It's asking to much for most people to want to be able to do this, and not to think about calories, and just to naturally stop when they have eaten enough. Some probably can (the people who have never even thought about it, likely, since they've never had a weight issue), but I bet most cannot.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »MamaBirdBoss wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Lots of thin people worry about calories. I was for the first 35 years (m/l) of my life. While I didn't count calories, I did pay attention to them. And when I put on a few pounds, I cut back to get them back off. This is actually how everyone I know who was/is thin stayed/stays thin. They nip weight gain in the bud quickly.
I'd bet there are actually very few people who are thin and never think about calories.
WHEN I'm athletic, I don't have to consciously worry about it. There are reasons I don't eat just cake, sure. But I actually did maintain within about 3-4lbs--low of 121lbs in workout gear, high of 125--without wasting any energy or willpower. Of course, I DO make a lot of good decisions ahead of time, in the grocery store. But it's not a fight or a battle, if that makes sense. I just run in my grooves of habit. Only if I start getting into a habit that doesn't work long-term (I got REALLY low fat mass for a while because I was working out SO much, so I started having a small bag of goldfish crackers or a tube of cookie dough YES I KNOW every week to snack on to get stable again, but when my PT and fencing dropped, I didn't change those habits at first!) that I would bump out of my groove and have to regroup.
My husband is much more like what you describe. And I'm that way when I'm NOT working out a lot. :P I like how I look and feel when I workout more, so I'm trying to get back a 7-10-hour-a-week habit!
I didn't mean to suggest it was a fight or battle for those that stay thin. The exact opposite actually. I meant that it's pretty intuitive. It's not that they like cake or any food any less than heavier people. They simply choose not to overeat because they don't want to be fat. They aren't accidentally thin. There may well be people out there who never give calories or food amounts a thought and stay thin. But, I've never met one.
Compared to those who truly struggle with their relationship with food, it appears unconscious and effortless, and it largely is for some people. I think most are as you describe--when I'm not athletic, that's me, the waist-checker and scale-checker and the person who tallies up cake calories. When I was working out a lot, I would choose not to buy a cake. But if someone had a birthday in the office, I'd have a BIG OL PIECE. lol. It really was as much as I wanted. And then I wouldn't eat my lunch that day because I wouldn't be hungry. When I wasn't working out a lot, I'd cut myself a modest sliver and wish I could have more. I hope that makes sense!0 -
It took me a year to lose 28lb. It didn't bother me because I was tired of yo yo dieting. Your plan for the next 20lb sounds reasonable to me for just the reason you state.
I've been maintaining for over 2 years. I have a five pound range and only weigh myself, at most, every other week, the same as when I was losing weight. During the year after reaching maintenance, I lost 2 more sizes at the same weight goal. This past year, I lost an inch off my thighs and gained a half inch in my upper arms.
Our bodies change within whatever genetic basis we have and fitness levels we aspire to.
I count calories and log most days. I don't log on days I'm super busy, super active, out of town, or just plain cranky. It's not something I have a lot of emotional energy invested in any more - rather a habit/routine as a part of my daily life.
Maybe "naturally thin" people don't consciously count calories, but they, and I, pay attention to what they eat, whether they are hungry or not, whether they want something or not. In many ways I try to emulate the French, who eat what they want, say no when they don't want something and don't avoid foods because of some external value judgment.
Whether or not you count calories in maintenance is a decision you will make for yourself. Over 90% of people who reach a weight loss goal, gain it back within 2 to 5 years. The key isn't counting or not, it's changing the way you relate to food.0
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