Intuitive Eating
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Many of us were raised in the "clean your plate club". How many of us were given the "starving children in China" speech? It has become ingrained in us that if it's on your plate you must eat it. It's difficult to overcome and involves a lot of guilt about "wasting" food. It can be overcome, its a habit like anything else. More power to you and I wish you luck!0
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MamaBirdBoss wrote: »My daughter (a "natural thin") in terms of her attitudes towards food, the cost of physical hunger was less than the cost of going to the effort of eating something she was less than enthusiastic about. To her, food is an inconvenience in life that you have to put up with, aside from the occasional treat. Even with unlimited access to treats, though, the excitement quickly wanes. In addition, my kids will never walk if they can run or skip. They'll choose the outdoor thing before the indoor. They even turn TV into a cardio event.
Yup- this was and to some extent is still me. As a child I'd rather play than eat. I was sewing today and annoyingly got ravenous about lunchtime- so I grabbed a couple of oatcakes-because i wanted to finish what i was doing rather than stop to eat. I grabbed something quick and finished my sewing - then forgot about eating until dinner time. I'm not always this way- but I can get engrossed in what I'm doing at times. Like the girl in the quote above, I also can't sit still whilst watching TV- I have to be moving/ fidgeting!
I tend to eat intuitively. This evening I left a couple of big pices of broccoli, a few slices of carrot and a few green beans on my plate (all logged) as to eat them would have made me uncomfortably full. If i'm peckish tonight, I'll eat them before I consider anything else. (maybe dip them in hummus?) I was brought up this way. If/ when I left food on my plate my Mum would leave the plate on the kitchen counter, covered. If I was hungry before bed I would finish what was left of my dinner, rather than have other snacks. If I was still hungry I'd have another snack- my Mum never made me go hungry.
So maybe try leaving something for later- you may want it, you might not. Either way is okay.0 -
MamaBirdBoss wrote: »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!
Yes it does. I have a friend who if she eats a big lunch, won't have dinner then. I did that a couple of times during calorie counting when I ran out of calories for dinner.0 -
I'm sure it could be intuitive, or natural, for some people, but if someone has to learn it then it isn't intuitive for that person.AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »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.
Back in the way, way back in the day, when summers meant leaving the house after breakfast and getting back when the streetlights came on and winters meant football, I couldn't eat enough. We're talking about ordering two complete meals at restaurants, 5+ gallons of milk a week, half gallons of ice cream, Jethro Bodine-esque bowls of cereal with multiple bananas, etc. -- all to my parents' financial chagrin -- and not gaining weight. I don't know how intuitive it was, I just knew I was hungry all the time.
I have to eat much differently now even with a 3600+ TDEE.
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47Jacqueline wrote: »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.
That's for sure. I don't want to gain the weight back. That's why I'm doing this slowly. Slow and steady wins the race. The book talks about the French and their relationship to food. Very interesting.
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I'm trying "intuitive eating" now. Mostly because I'm tired of logging my calories and I think my relationship with food has actually gotten more unhealthy since I started. Mostly because when I eat within my calories, a lot of times I'm eating just because I have calories left. Or I start obsessing over how little calories I have left. For the last 6 months or so I've found calorie counting to be stressful. Which is funny because I've been doing it for a long time with some success.
I'm on like day 5 of not logging. I'm proud that I haven't gone wild. I haven't gained any weight. Conversely, I haven't lost but it's only been 5 days. I just can't see myself logging my food forever and that was the path I was headed down. If I do stop losing, I will go back to counting because it works, but I'm hoping to just be more mindful of my habits.0 -
MamaBirdBoss wrote: »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!
It does, though I was not describing "the waist-checker and scale-checker and the person who tallies up cake calories". I meant to describe pretty much the opposite.0 -
Our intuition is seriously borked, right?
Nope. We can't to it any more than a lush can "intuitively" drink.0 -
I've maintained for over two years without keeping a diary or logging...
1 - you still have to maintain awareness of what you are eating, etc...
2 - i don't eat out very often...special occasions, holidays, pizza night with my boys every few weeks, etc...that's about it
3 - i eat very healthfully...i don't eat much in the way of what would generally be considered "junk" food.
4 - i eat primarily whole foods and/or minimally processed foods and meals prepared from such
5 - I eat a ton of veg
6 - most of my protein is lean sourced...i eat lots of chicken and fish and lean cuts of pork...i eat beef only 2-3 times monthly because I prefer fattier beef cuts.
7 - i eat at meal times (i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and planned snacks...i don't just mindlessly nibble on stuff
8 - most of my snacks consist of fruit and some nuts...
9 - I sit at a desk most of the day, so when I get home I make it a point to do stuff that requires me to move...i fix something that needs fixing...i cook...i do yard work, etc...i move. I used to watch a ton of t.v....now I watch maybe 3-4 hours per week at the most...and that's probably pushing it. On weekends, we make a point of being fairly active as a family...sometimes that means a bike ride to the zoo with the kids in tow (25 miles round trip) plus walking about the zoo...sometimes it's walking along the bosque and the banks of the rio grande...sometimes a family walk to the park to play, etc...we're ACTIVE
10 - Regular exercise...I get in about 8-10 hours of deliberate exercise per week most weeks...0 -
Sweets1954 wrote: »Many of us were raised in the "clean your plate club". How many of us were given the "starving children in China" speech? It has become ingrained in us that if it's on your plate you must eat it. It's difficult to overcome and involves a lot of guilt about "wasting" food. It can be overcome, its a habit like anything else. More power to you and I wish you luck!
Thanks. I was just thinking today, that after lunch if I ate nd apple and happen to feel full, what would I do with the apple. It would turn brown and unappetizing. I could put lemon on it, but then who wants to eat an apple so sour. I would have just had to waste it. Unthinkable.0 -
Sweets1954 wrote: »Many of us were raised in the "clean your plate club". How many of us were given the "starving children in China" speech? It has become ingrained in us that if it's on your plate you must eat it. It's difficult to overcome and involves a lot of guilt about "wasting" food. It can be overcome, its a habit like anything else. More power to you and I wish you luck!
I always clean my plate...my plates are properly portioned.0 -
Whitezombiegirl wrote: »MamaBirdBoss wrote: »My daughter (a "natural thin") in terms of her attitudes towards food, the cost of physical hunger was less than the cost of going to the effort of eating something she was less than enthusiastic about. To her, food is an inconvenience in life that you have to put up with, aside from the occasional treat. Even with unlimited access to treats, though, the excitement quickly wanes. In addition, my kids will never walk if they can run or skip. They'll choose the outdoor thing before the indoor. They even turn TV into a cardio event.
Yup- this was and to some extent is still me. As a child I'd rather play than eat. I was sewing today and annoyingly got ravenous about lunchtime- so I grabbed a couple of oatcakes-because i wanted to finish what i was doing rather than stop to eat. I grabbed something quick and finished my sewing - then forgot about eating until dinner time. I'm not always this way- but I can get engrossed in what I'm doing at times. Like the girl in the quote above, I also can't sit still whilst watching TV- I have to be moving/ fidgeting!
I tend to eat intuitively. This evening I left a couple of big pices of broccoli, a few slices of carrot and a few green beans on my plate (all logged) as to eat them would have made me uncomfortably full. If i'm peckish tonight, I'll eat them before I consider anything else. (maybe dip them in hummus?) I was brought up this way. If/ when I left food on my plate my Mum would leave the plate on the kitchen counter, covered. If I was hungry before bed I would finish what was left of my dinner, rather than have other snacks. If I was still hungry I'd have another snack- my Mum never made me go hungry.
So maybe try leaving something for later- you may want it, you might not. Either way is okay.
That's good idea. I could just eat the food later, and not have to worry about logging it again, if would be free food so to speak, since I already logged it.0 -
Intuitive eating is what I did when I was fat0
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enterdanger wrote: »I'm trying "intuitive eating" now. Mostly because I'm tired of logging my calories and I think my relationship with food has actually gotten more unhealthy since I started. Mostly because when I eat within my calories, a lot of times I'm eating just because I have calories left. Or I start obsessing over how little calories I have left. For the last 6 months or so I've found calorie counting to be stressful. Which is funny because I've been doing it for a long time with some success.
I'm on like day 5 of not logging. I'm proud that I haven't gone wild. I haven't gained any weight. Conversely, I haven't lost but it's only been 5 days. I just can't see myself logging my food forever and that was the path I was headed down. If I do stop losing, I will go back to counting because it works, but I'm hoping to just be more mindful of my habits.
Good for you. I would be the same way, if I had calories left I would just eat whether I was hungry or no.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »MamaBirdBoss wrote: »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!
It does, though I was not describing "the waist-checker and scale-checker and the person who tallies up cake calories". I meant to describe pretty much the opposite.
Got it!
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AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »Sweets1954 wrote: »Many of us were raised in the "clean your plate club". How many of us were given the "starving children in China" speech? It has become ingrained in us that if it's on your plate you must eat it. It's difficult to overcome and involves a lot of guilt about "wasting" food. It can be overcome, its a habit like anything else. More power to you and I wish you luck!
Thanks. I was just thinking today, that after lunch if I ate nd apple and happen to feel full, what would I do with the apple. It would turn brown and unappetizing. I could put lemon on it, but then who wants to eat an apple so sour. I would have just had to waste it. Unthinkable.
Cut slices and put it in a baggie for later. 0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I've maintained for over two years without keeping a diary or logging...
1 - you still have to maintain awareness of what you are eating, etc...
2 - i don't eat out very often...special occasions, holidays, pizza night with my boys every few weeks, etc...that's about it
3 - i eat very healthfully...i don't eat much in the way of what would generally be considered "junk" food.
4 - i eat primarily whole foods and/or minimally processed foods and meals prepared from such
5 - I eat a ton of veg
6 - most of my protein is lean sourced...i eat lots of chicken and fish and lean cuts of pork...i eat beef only 2-3 times monthly because I prefer fattier beef cuts.
7 - i eat at meal times (i.e. breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and planned snacks...i don't just mindlessly nibble on stuff
8 - most of my snacks consist of fruit and some nuts...
9 - I sit at a desk most of the day, so when I get home I make it a point to do stuff that requires me to move...i fix something that needs fixing...i cook...i do yard work, etc...i move. I used to watch a ton of t.v....now I watch maybe 3-4 hours per week at the most...and that's probably pushing it. On weekends, we make a point of being fairly active as a family...sometimes that means a bike ride to the zoo with the kids in tow (25 miles round trip) plus walking about the zoo...sometimes it's walking along the bosque and the banks of the rio grande...sometimes a family walk to the park to play, etc...we're ACTIVE
10 - Regular exercise...I get in about 8-10 hours of deliberate exercise per week most weeks...
That's great. We started eating more vegetables now too.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »Sweets1954 wrote: »Many of us were raised in the "clean your plate club". How many of us were given the "starving children in China" speech? It has become ingrained in us that if it's on your plate you must eat it. It's difficult to overcome and involves a lot of guilt about "wasting" food. It can be overcome, its a habit like anything else. More power to you and I wish you luck!
I always clean my plate...my plates are properly portioned.
That's the part I have to learn is to properly portion my food. I don't know if I have that down yet.0 -
MamaBirdBoss wrote: »AnnaBellQ14 wrote: »Sweets1954 wrote: »Many of us were raised in the "clean your plate club". How many of us were given the "starving children in China" speech? It has become ingrained in us that if it's on your plate you must eat it. It's difficult to overcome and involves a lot of guilt about "wasting" food. It can be overcome, its a habit like anything else. More power to you and I wish you luck!
Thanks. I was just thinking today, that after lunch if I ate nd apple and happen to feel full, what would I do with the apple. It would turn brown and unappetizing. I could put lemon on it, but then who wants to eat an apple so sour. I would have just had to waste it. Unthinkable.
Cut slices and put it in a baggie for later.
Good idea.0 -
I am trying to reverse type 2 diabetes by limiting my carbs and sugars. I limit my carbs to 60 a day, and since I eat lo-carb, so goes the sugar. I have done this for 2 weeks so far (I think). As it was when I tried Atkins for a while, My appetite is all but gone. I really don't want to kill my metabolism, but right now, I would find it REALLY EASY to do some fasting. It is 2:37 PM where I live and I am about to eat lunch, being my first meal since 9PM last night. I work out 3x a week with a trainer and 30 min of cardio after each session. I walk on other days as well. If fasting kills ones metabolism, why do so many people do it? Just curious...0
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