Home Cooks: Does intuitive eating work for you?
Zodikosis
Posts: 149 Member
This post is targeted to people who cook most or all of their meals at home, mostly from scratch.
I've heard it said before that eating mostly homecooked meals correlates somewhat strongly with maintaining a healthier weight.
At first I was a little skeptical -- I cook almost all my meals at home, from base ingredients (yeah, sometimes they're canned or frozen depending on the time of year, but my point is that I don't usually cook boxed or prepackaged meals where you mostly just heat-n-eat), and I know that you definitely can make very rich meals at home if you load up on the butter, oil, dairy, and high-fat meats. Desserts made at home are still usually just as calorie-dense as desserts I could buy elsewhere. Most of the meals I make aren't explicitly healthy...they're not particularly unhealthy either, but I'm not making a point of excluding bacon altogether and loading up on kale, if you get what I mean.
However, as I gradually enter maintenance, I've noticed that, as long as most of my meals are still cooked and eaten at home, I don't really need to watch what I eat that much. I still log it because I'm obsessed with data anyway and think it's interesting and would like to have some information to work with if I regress, but I don't measure or weigh any of my food anymore (eyeball method 95% of the time), and I don't really ever tell myself no on what I can eat and (within reason) on how much I can eat (I suppose they call this intuitive eating around here). I tell myself that if I want a pie, I have to make the pie myself, from scratch. But once I make that pie, I can have as big of a slice as I want, with ice cream (I'm probably full at this point anyway, so it's not like I'm gonna have a slice the size of half the pie anyway). It's been almost 6 months of this and I haven't gained any unwanted weight, in fact I unexpectedly dropped a few pounds about a month ago.
I had a conversation with my mom awhile ago about if the people she knew growing up in her home country ever had to consciously maintain their weight, especially as they got older. She said no, no one she knew thought about those kinds of things -- being a healthy weight was the default, you didn't really need to try to be at a healthy weight and it was unusual to be overweight. Very few people exercised for the purpose of losing or maintaining weight. Of course, she also pointed out that when she was growing up, if you didn't like what was on the dinner table that night, well that was just too bad -- there were no snacks in the house, no convenience stores open, often not even enough food in the fridge to prepare yourself another meal, as they shopped for dinner ingredients daily. The junk food available at the store wasn't terribly high quality and the selection was limited -- maybe one or two types of chocolate bar available, and it was waxy, sometimes half-melted.
So, I wanted to ask you folks that mostly cook all your own food at home -- do you find that as you enter maintenance, it's pretty easy to just rely on intuitive eating? If not, why do you think it's not?
I've seen people mention before that intuitive eating just doesn't work for some people, but I do wonder if it's because their diets rely on a lot of prepackaged, ready-to-eat convenience food and restaurant/takeaway meals. Almost half of my friends don't cook and eat every meal out of the house, so I wonder if maybe that's why they have a hard time "feeling out" how much to eat and when to stop eating.
I've heard it said before that eating mostly homecooked meals correlates somewhat strongly with maintaining a healthier weight.
At first I was a little skeptical -- I cook almost all my meals at home, from base ingredients (yeah, sometimes they're canned or frozen depending on the time of year, but my point is that I don't usually cook boxed or prepackaged meals where you mostly just heat-n-eat), and I know that you definitely can make very rich meals at home if you load up on the butter, oil, dairy, and high-fat meats. Desserts made at home are still usually just as calorie-dense as desserts I could buy elsewhere. Most of the meals I make aren't explicitly healthy...they're not particularly unhealthy either, but I'm not making a point of excluding bacon altogether and loading up on kale, if you get what I mean.
However, as I gradually enter maintenance, I've noticed that, as long as most of my meals are still cooked and eaten at home, I don't really need to watch what I eat that much. I still log it because I'm obsessed with data anyway and think it's interesting and would like to have some information to work with if I regress, but I don't measure or weigh any of my food anymore (eyeball method 95% of the time), and I don't really ever tell myself no on what I can eat and (within reason) on how much I can eat (I suppose they call this intuitive eating around here). I tell myself that if I want a pie, I have to make the pie myself, from scratch. But once I make that pie, I can have as big of a slice as I want, with ice cream (I'm probably full at this point anyway, so it's not like I'm gonna have a slice the size of half the pie anyway). It's been almost 6 months of this and I haven't gained any unwanted weight, in fact I unexpectedly dropped a few pounds about a month ago.
I had a conversation with my mom awhile ago about if the people she knew growing up in her home country ever had to consciously maintain their weight, especially as they got older. She said no, no one she knew thought about those kinds of things -- being a healthy weight was the default, you didn't really need to try to be at a healthy weight and it was unusual to be overweight. Very few people exercised for the purpose of losing or maintaining weight. Of course, she also pointed out that when she was growing up, if you didn't like what was on the dinner table that night, well that was just too bad -- there were no snacks in the house, no convenience stores open, often not even enough food in the fridge to prepare yourself another meal, as they shopped for dinner ingredients daily. The junk food available at the store wasn't terribly high quality and the selection was limited -- maybe one or two types of chocolate bar available, and it was waxy, sometimes half-melted.
So, I wanted to ask you folks that mostly cook all your own food at home -- do you find that as you enter maintenance, it's pretty easy to just rely on intuitive eating? If not, why do you think it's not?
I've seen people mention before that intuitive eating just doesn't work for some people, but I do wonder if it's because their diets rely on a lot of prepackaged, ready-to-eat convenience food and restaurant/takeaway meals. Almost half of my friends don't cook and eat every meal out of the house, so I wonder if maybe that's why they have a hard time "feeling out" how much to eat and when to stop eating.
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I cook most of my meals from scratch, including most desserts and some cake/pie; I don't stock up on treats and snacks and sweet foods (sometimes I will try and see if I can manage to keep larger amounts around, but I haven't yet), and I'd say it's relatively effortless to maintain weight (approching four years now). I do weigh/count most items, I plan/log my meals, I do have to tell myself no sometimes, I do get upset I "can't" eat this and that sometimes, but the next day I've forgotten all about it - so overall, pretty easy. I think I'm well nourished, and I have an idea that the accomplishment factor from making something myself, and the exercises of "having to" make do with what I have, as well as the "connection" with the food, are good things. I live in Norway and that's my ancestry too, for reference.5
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I have been maintaining since fall of 2015 (I can't believe it's been that long!). I eat out 1-3 times a week and cook everything else myself, usually from scratch. I cook because I like the challenge and novelty of it and so I'm typically trying a lot of new things. Because of this, I think intuitive eating wouldn't work as well for me as it would for someone who has a smaller "stable" of recipes.
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eating intuitively doesn't work for me. doing that is how i ended up back here17
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For me, I cook at home 5 days a week. If it was intuitive, I'm like Mbaker above, I'd be obese again. Planning works much better for us. We plan the week in advance. We strive to be plant based mostly. My wife is more of a meat eater than I am so we find a balance - one chicken, one fish and one egg or cheese meal once a week. The rest is Vegan. I honestly think I could go Vegan but she wouldn't. Especially going into Winter, we both crave dense, high calorie meals. Having recipes like Vegan Winter Bowls I can plan helps greatly. I think if I went to the grocery daily, not weekly, we'd give into old habits and start making really high calorie craving types of foods again.
Since I've lost 60/70 lbs (I've been in maintenance six years now this month), I get so cold in the Winter. All that fat kept me warm before. Cold goes right through me now. Intuitively, it was 45 degrees this AM and my body says "eat". If it's the wrong stuff, I'll be in trouble quickly.5 -
I have restaurant food maybe twice a month and that's usually pizza that we eat at home and I weight out. I have never enjoyed going out to eat. Everything else is made by me. Regardless, intuitive eating doesn't work for me. I love the food I cook and it's quite easy for me to over eat it even knowing what a serving size should be. Planning and setting limits works best for me.
Your mom's experience mirrors a lot of our lives and that of our parents from pre-internet and limited tv days; especially those of us in rural areas with no quick access to food stores. We didn't worry about foods or portions and didn't do much, if any, in the way of intentional exercise. But we were much more active and having a higher NEAT makes a significant difference.9 -
My main problem comes from mindlessly snacking and grazing in between meals, I think. When it comes to building my plate for dinner or lunch, unless it's some special meal like at a really good steakhouse or something, I don't have issues with eating too much. I like to be comfortably full but not totally stuffed. As long as I limit my snacks I can maintain my weight without counting calories.1
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If I cooked from scratch, it wouldn't prevent me from making my portions too big. When I eat home cooking I usually want about 2.5 helpings. That and snacks are still allowed in my house, so cook all the meals I want, if the snacks are there, they're probably going to be in my belly at some point.
If I lived alone and was willing to have only homecooked meals and snacks, I'd probably be thin because my laziness would outweigh my hunger a lot of times. But I have a family, so that's never going to happen.9 -
I grew up in a culture where home cooking is the norm and eating out is a rare exception. I still managed to get morbidly obese. We still cook the vast majority of our meals at home, plus make cheese, can stuff, make tomato sauce in season etc etc. So, in my case, where the cooking happens doesn't make too much of a difference. I really wish it did. I have probably eaten 10 tons or more of vegetables in my lifetime. Nope, still obese.9
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(Snipped from the OP)I've seen people mention before that intuitive eating just doesn't work for some people, but I do wonder if it's because their diets rely on a lot of prepackaged, ready-to-eat convenience food and restaurant/takeaway meals. Almost half of my friends don't cook and eat every meal out of the house, so I wonder if maybe that's why they have a hard time "feeling out" how much to eat and when to stop eating.
What is it about pre-packaged or takeaway food that you think would interrupt hunger/satiety cues? Portion sizes for many pre-packaged frozen dinners are reasonable (I often eat them for lunch), and I'm just as capable of putting down my fork in a restaurant as at home. If anything, homemade food tastes better and is available in more quantities (cooking for a family) than takeout. If I have a takeout burger, when it's gone, it's gone. There are no seconds.11 -
The prepackaged frozen meals are fine in terms of portion sizes. Actually most of them are too small for me. But I would say most restaurants have too big of portion sizes, and oftentimes they add so much butter, cheese, oil, whatever that makes them so much higher calorie that if I try to eat a reasonable amount of calories, I'm either still hungry at the end of my meal or I'm hungry like an hour later.6
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Shopping, planning, weighing and measuring the food "you" cook, is the only way you can really know what you are consuming. If you are Keto or on any kind of an advanced food protocol, one meal out can mess up a whole week of gain. If you are eating for any kind of performance or measured result, intuitive eating isn't going to work. Especially if you are over 40!
Routines work, and if you have been at this for a while, you are probably able to prepare a better meal than you can buy. kami3006 ... but you are right about the pizza, its calls once a month must be answered!11 -
The prepackaged frozen meals are fine in terms of portion sizes. Actually most of them are too small for me. But I would say most restaurants have too big of portion sizes, and oftentimes they add so much butter, cheese, oil, whatever that makes them so much higher calorie that if I try to eat a reasonable amount of calories, I'm either still hungry at the end of my meal or I'm hungry like an hour later.
It's a pretty well known fact that restaurant portions (at least in the US) are oversized. I suppose if someone had a propensity to eat everything put in front of them no matter what, that would be a bad thing. But so could being at home where you could still load your plate up and go back for seconds on top.5 -
My fastest ever weight gain was while at home eating delicious home cooked food according to my hunger signals, gained 30lbs in 3 months. (There were other factors at play.)
Mindful eating works for me but not intuitive eating as that level is higher than my needs and always has been irrespective of the proportion of food prepared at home or outside the home, eating good home cooked food means I want to eat more not less.
Be careful of looking to the past without taking all factors into account not just availability of food (my parents grew up during wartime rationing) but also much higher activity levels.
This factor "if you didn't like what was on the dinner table that night, well that was just too bad" worked the other way when I was growing up - you were expected to clear your plate. We had some epic battles of will over vegetables!7 -
I'm similar to you in that I cook almost all our meals. I was born in Europe & my family came here where I was little. They made literally everything from scratch including having a pig slaughtered & making different kinds of sausage every year, making pasta, etc. I've been maintaining since last November but I do usually weigh & log my food. Even though after 2 years + I know about how much everything I eat weighs, I'm a bit ocd plus It's a way to keep me accountable. I'm afraid I'll start eating larger portions if I don't weigh, but I've been thinking of trying it for a week1
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I've always cooked most of my meals from scratch, even while gaining weight. And by scratch I mean that I grind my own beef and turkey from bulk purchased from a farmer, I raise my own chickens, I make my own yogurt from fresh milk, make my own pasta and bread, and I grow as much of my own produce as possible. All that yummy food just makes me want to eat more.9
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"Intuitive eating" sounds like "learned eating habits that have become embedded over time". If those habits are helpful, then I guess intuitive eating can work however you choose to prepare and eat your food. If they're not, then maybe they won't.9
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I've always been a normal BMI, my mom cooked every meal from scratch including extravanagnt breakfasts for us kids every morning. I was so lucky to have a mom who is such an amazing cook! When I moved out on my own with my fiancé I adopted his bad habits of eating out every meal, it was pizza and fried chicken and no fruits or veggies every day. I put on 20 pounds, still not "overweight" but the heaviest I had ever been in my life. Once we got married I started cooking every day for us, we still get a small pizza every Friday and I have no issue just eating a slice or two at most and after a long run on the weekend we sometimes go out to a breakfast buffet. I lost all my weight by eating intuitively, I log loosely but I have never used a food scale. I judged my portions by how I used to eat when my mom served me food. My parents also always made us sit down for dinner together every single night, we never ate in front of the TV. My husband grew up only eating in front of the tv lol, so we compromise in our own household and sometimes do both (I still prefer the table!). I love cooking and making my moms and grandmas old recipes, restaurant food just often doesn't compare...4
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(Snipped from the OP)I've seen people mention before that intuitive eating just doesn't work for some people, but I do wonder if it's because their diets rely on a lot of prepackaged, ready-to-eat convenience food and restaurant/takeaway meals. Almost half of my friends don't cook and eat every meal out of the house, so I wonder if maybe that's why they have a hard time "feeling out" how much to eat and when to stop eating.
What is it about pre-packaged or takeaway food that you think would interrupt hunger/satiety cues? Portion sizes for many pre-packaged frozen dinners are reasonable (I often eat them for lunch), and I'm just as capable of putting down my fork in a restaurant as at home. If anything, homemade food tastes better and is available in more quantities (cooking for a family) than takeout. If I have a takeout burger, when it's gone, it's gone. There are no seconds.
I’m not sure WHAT it is about them but I’ve noticed a fair number of them are much higher in calories than their homemade equivalent and I’m not sure why. If you go to a gas station and get a chicken sandwich or a burger it’s like 770 calories and it doesn’t taste very good either. I can make a similar sized burger at home for much less than that and it tastes better. I don’t know where they’re putting the extra calories because it’s sure not in taste.
That being said, nowadays there’s such a variety of prepackaged food that it’s not necessarily a given that it’s worse for you or higher in calories, but I think more than anything it’s the work of it that can make a difference. Like I said, I have a rule for myself — if I want pie, I have to make it from scratch. This means that I need to really want that pie to get it, because there’s more input than just ripping open a packaged snack pie. It’s time, it’s effort, and it’s maybe a trip to the store. If I want cinnamon buns, okay, but there’s no popping open a can, baking for 20 minutes and there’s my cinnamon buns. It’s at least 90 minutes and a bit of work to get them, so frequently I’ll just go “I don’t want them enough to work for it, maybe this weekend”. If I want pizza, there’s more to it than just picking up a phone. I think it makes a difference for me, personally. Harder to give in to fleeting impulses.
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Congratulations on reaching your goal. You are where I'm working to be. I'm losing a lot of weight with calorie deficits and changing my eating behaviors. Mindful eating is helping me modify behaviors. We use platejoy.com to plan wonderful interesting meals from scratch. By the time I'm at goal weight I'll have been at this for at least 18 months and just start eating a bit more for maintenance, not change my improved habits. I'm learning proper portion size, the value of planning, and even how to order at restaurants and keep control. In maintenance, I plan to weigh weekly and commit to logging when I get 5 lb over. Good job reaching your goal and good luck with simply maintaining.0
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I don't think it correlates if we home cook then we eat intuitively but I do feel it cuts the calorie intake considerably - we can keep the ingredients low cal/low fat easily and limit the portion size.
The majority of my meals are home cooked, I don't even choose low fat versions of ingredients all the time yet my average dinner is no more than 600 cals, average lunches are 450.
I reckon if I was eat to out more maintaining my weight might not be so effortless as it feels now - plus I think of all the money I'm saving by not eating out!
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