Intuitive Eating
IsabeausRose
Posts: 129 Member
I was wondering what people’s thoughts were on this whether they think it’s good or bad. Listening to your body’s own hunger and fullness cues and by doing so let your body settle to a weight that it finds it functions healthiest at.
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Replies
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I could not do this because my body would never tell me to stop eating. I honestly believe I became over weight by eating whenever I was hungry, I also ate whatever I wanted which probably did not help. It may be worth a shot for you, but I found the only way for me was measuring and tracking what I ate. If I gave my body what it wanted all the time I would over eat and my diet would be horribly void of nutritious foods.8
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If that approach leads you into eating a varied and balanced diet, which makes you achieve and maintain a healthy weight, it's good. If it's mindlessly overeating, it's bad.6
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The one and only time I heard of this. Was when I had a very picky toddler who really never seemed to want to eat meals on a schedule. And her Pediatrician stated that if parents would let children eat on their own schedule opposed to forced meal times. There would be more healthy children with less eating issues. But because of society values we have assigned eating times think breakfast, lunch, dinner. That we normally eat at. So often children are given food then, and then food when they ask for it. When they are actually hungry, and so the cycle starts. Of the snacking, overeating and so on. Not for everyone, but for many.
I think there it is a low percentage of people who follow this, and do it well. But if you are one, go for it.3 -
IsabeausRose wrote: »I was wondering what people’s thoughts were on this whether they think it’s good or bad. Listening to your body’s own hunger and fullness cues and by doing so let your body settle to a weight that it finds it functions healthiest at.
That's basically what I was doing for most of my life, and my weight was slowly drifting up. It's when I was about to cross over into the overweight range that I stopped going by how I felt and started tracking. I suspect many people become an unhealthy weight in part because their hunger signals are broken.
I think philosophically, intuitive eating is kind of like the Holy Grail. It's a goal, but I don't think it's realistic for everyone (I'm not even sure it's realistic for most). Back in the olden days, predators, food scarcity, weather, not to mention the high activity level required to stay alive kept us from being able to overeat. I'm not sure our bodies were ever able to "tell" us how much to eat and how much to weigh.
There are certainly lessons to be learned as far as monitoring how you feel and learning the differences between real hunger, cravings, snackiness, boredom, proper portions, etc while tracking your food. But I think at the least, you need to know what a good weight for you is, and react based on your weight with cutting back or eating more. A lot of folks do control their eating quite well that way. Just my two cents
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If you are on mfp because you want to lose weight, you probably aren't very good at eating intuitively. I think you can absolutely learn to track everything you eat and maybe get to a point where you do it well enough in your head that you don't have to log. I am less convinced that you can learn to eat intuitively after failing to properly do it for years. It is the brass ring we would all like to grab; lose the weight and keep it off without all the effort of tracking and weighing often. It usually doesn't work.12
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Up until the past month, this never would've worked in my life--that's why I got fat. After a few years of tracking what I'm eating, measuring and weighing everything, and taking care of myself fitness wise, I've begun intuitive eating. It's working for me now, so far, and is way less stressful and time consuming. I still measure much of my foods, but haven't tracked it all for about a month. If it stops working, I'll do something differently.3
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I think it's a good mindfulness practice, but can be a slippery slope if you don't already have good habits solidly in place. I have a lifetime of un-intuitive (i.e. emotional) eating, and working against that to eat intuitively felt like harder work and made me more anxious than just tracking.10
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I personally cannot intuitively eat. If I was trying to maintain my weight I might be fine with it, but with losing it’s too hard and too easy to over eat.1
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It works for some not others. Some people can learn after time logging, others can't. Some are somewhere in between, where they might stop logging but come back to it when needed. You have to find what works for you.4
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I don't see anything bad with intuitive eating, it shows that you have a good relationship with food and better habits now.14
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I don't think eating an appropriate amount comes "intuitively" for most people. I believe it's our natural instinct to over-eat, since back before modern day, people (and animals) did not know when they would be able to have another meal. I think maintaining a healthy weight takes conscious effort for most people, especially in this day and age where the majority of people are extremely sedentary and aren't "hunting and gathering" anymore to survive. It is possible to maintain a healthy weight without counting calories of course, and I think learning portion sizes and how to eat a varied, nutritious diet, as well as staying active, all play a role in that, but those are habits you must learn. For me, this all takes effort and doesn't come from my intuition.4
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Ty all. I know I can always come here for sound advice and information. I am realizing that there is a difference between what I “need” and what I “want”. That we as humans may actually be programmed to overeat to prepare for possible famine. That may have been why I’ve put on 17 pounds. I think that MFP nudges us toward healthy eating and gives us guidelines of what we actually need to maintain a healthy weight. I do eat healthy, whole grains and lots of fruit and veggies and lean protein, dairy and dairy alternatives. With the occasional treat because that’s what makes it live able.I’ll be watching my macros and calories again.2
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It *can* work, but probably not for everyone.1
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Personally doesn't work for me because I wildly underestimate how much I am actually eating.0
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meagan8376 wrote: »I don't see anything bad with intuitive eating, it shows that you have a good relationship with food and better habits now.
When you state an opinion you should make it obvious. I don't think there is any good reason to aspire to eat intuitively. Calories are easy to track these days so why resist it and risk becoming one of the large percentage of people who gain weight or regain weight?
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I think the rub here is that eating when your body wants to eat is great but most of the time our heads get involved and tell us to eat all the things we shouldn't. So if we ate when our body wanted to and stuck to healthier more nutrious food this might work out well 😄0
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I'm intuitive about a lot of things, but I cannot trust my body to tell me when it is hungry, for real. Being hungry means that you would eat anything, but most of the time, my emotions are talking, not my body.1
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meagan8376 wrote: »I don't see anything bad with intuitive eating, it shows that you have a good relationship with food and better habits now.
When you state an opinion you should make it obvious. I don't think there is any good reason to aspire to eat intuitively. Calories are easy to track these days so why resist it and risk becoming one of the large percentage of people who gain weight or regain weight?
Feeling superior isn't a good enough reason for you?
To answer the original question, intuitive eating doesn't work for me. After losing 65 pounds and regaining 40 'intuitively' I'm ok with logging, at least loosely, for the for foreseeable future.3 -
meagan8376 wrote: »I don't see anything bad with intuitive eating, it shows that you have a good relationship with food and better habits now.
When you state an opinion you should make it obvious. I don't think there is any good reason to aspire to eat intuitively. Calories are easy to track these days so why resist it and risk becoming one of the large percentage of people who gain weight or regain weight?
I agree. If a person feels that tracking isn't a good fit for them, and is able to manage their weight by other means, that's what they should do. But it doesn't signal a better relationship with food over a person who tracks, or sticks to a specific diet, or manages their calories any other way. I could probably maintain my weight eating intuitively, but I would be in a constant state of anxiety over the potential for back-sliding into regaining the weight I lost. I spend a few minutes a day tracking, and have no anxiety about it. I don't demonize any food or stress over nutrition (I can check on my goals any time), and have a perfectly healthy relationship with food. I consider having learned to monitor my calories my best habit.4 -
meagan8376 wrote: »I don't see anything bad with intuitive eating, it shows that you have a good relationship with food and better habits now.
My mom struggles to stay out of Underweight with intuitive eating.0
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