Taking a break from counting, intuitive eating?

This is actually something I got really curious about for a while and looked into some research on it. it's really fascinating, and it definitely can do well, but there are a lot of 'if you do it right' addendum, you know? So, what I know.

1. In animals that have been tested - and I'm going to presume us, too - the body does seem to make connections between foods and what the body needs. You crave the markers of calorie dense foods when you are low in calories, for example (sweet and fatty/high carb foods are usually higher in calories, so we'll crave these things). We will tend to crave certain foods associated with certain nutrients, too. I experienced this myself when I was craving this one food like woah, and found out later it was very high in the one nutrient I was missing in my diet.

But here's the problem: our bodies have to be ABLE to distinguish what we need from what foods we eat. There was an interesting study years and years ago with very small toddlers who were given foods to eat. One group got foods mixed together - like breads, pasta dishes with veggies, that sort of thing. One group got single ingredients - apples, oatmeal, etc...

The group that had one ingredient foods pretty quickly started eating a nutritionally complete diet for the week (but not every day, interestingly - they would tend to binge on a few things for a day or two, and then binge on another set of things the next day or so, etc...). But the one that had the foods mixed did not - they tended toward the most fatty or sweet items.

It was speculated that whatever cues the body uses to figure out what food gives us what nutrients (flavors, scents, whatever), it can get confused when you have a lot of foods with similar tastes and scents that are giving us completely different nutrients. so it was also speculated that if we want to let our bodies 'tell' us what we need to eat, then eating more single ingredients and less mixed foods might be of use. So maybe more things mixed into salads or other dishes where the individual flavors and smells might be more prominent, perhaps?

2. Your body typically doesn't want to lose weight. So when you start to eat too few calories, most bodies will make you more hungry so you'll start to eat enough calories to maintain your current weight, whatever it is. Not every body does this, but most do. So if you eat 'instinctively,' it can be helpful to remember that your body instinctively is made to NOT lose calories, because that typically means famine and/or starvation, and the body reacts in order to survive and not starve to death, you know? So feeling a little hungry is a good thing, if you are losing weight, you know?

3. An interesting study on food and sight - people seemed programmed to eat more food if there is more food in front of them. This seems common in many animals, and would make sense when you think about how often animals are storing 'extra' food in their bodies, rather than having some way of storing it elsewhere. So putting less food on the table and on the plate can help our minds pay attention to how hungry we are rather than how much food we 'need' to eat because it's there. So we will be more likely to stop at a good amount rather than overeat. :-)

I lost fifty pounds when I quit dieting and started intuitive eating. I was eating simply terrifyingly large amounts of food. The stark irrationality of that experience still breaks my brain. All those years I spent listening to whatever the latest diet expert said rather than to the cues of my own body - decades of doing what I was supposed to do to lose weight and never succeeding turned all on its ear by doing the thing that sounds wrong "eat what you want, as much as you want, whenever you want" by the trick of "paying attention to the signals you get from your body, using them to define 'what you want'".

I didn't count/log for around 4 years, I gained and lost weight many times during that time( on purpose).
I came back to this site with the goal of getting leaner than I've been the past 4 years, I still log only 60% of the time.

Counting is not necessary for maintenance. Only stepping on the scale once a week or so and making changes based on those results works. But you need good self control, I would say better self control than if you count.

I stopped logging about 9 months ago. I rarely weigh myself either. I go by how I look. I've gained a few pounds, but still look about the same. If I wanted to cut the fluff however, I would go back to logging. I will also occasionally log a day here or there just to make sure I'm still doing ok. I keep a mental tally of my protein.

I ended up just getting lazy about logging for about 2 months but tried to eat reasonably. I regained a few pounds but as soon as i started tracking again it feel back off in a week so I'm assuming it was water/glycerin so i feel like i wss able to reasonably maintain my weight.

jla2425 wrote: »

Have you ever tried taking a break from counting and logging every detail and weighing out all your food? Now i am just trying because i was getting to thoughtful about my eating. I was always thinking of what im going to eat and stressing out. Now i just eat healthy and I only weigh out the meat and cheese. Other things i eat portion sizes but i do snack here and there. Im not logging but so far its been good and i eat more comfortably. Will see how i weigh in on monday. Has anyone else had better results eating intuitive vs counting?

Yup. And I gained weight. Intuitive eating does not work for me. I know that I will always have to log food/count calories in order to stay at a healthy weight, and I am fine with that.

Spartan_Gingi wrote: »

I admire the idea, but "intuitive" eating is what got me 70 lbs overweight in the first place.....

I see this answer all the time but I have trouble believing it. Intuitive eating does not mean eating everything you want.

I haven't logged anything in over four years. I spent about 9 months logging and learning...from there, it's been pretty easy. I've more or less maintained for over four years without logging. I always put on a little fluff over the winter with decreased activity, but I always take it off in the spring and do so without logging.