Combining "intuitive eating" with MFP?

I've done it before. I've tracked some days not others, some meals, some food items, protein only (just main sources). I've also used MFP as a food diary and logged food without using a scale. Right now I am in a deficit but not entering anything, sometimes I do search items from fast food places just out of curiosity before I order. It all works for me to help me reach my goals.

I do IE when I am on vacation and/or eating out, and also when I get fed up with the weighing and logging and I need to take a break. It has worked for me.

In maintenance for over 9 years gave a good idea about portion control and what works for me or not. I am not an emotional or binge eater and I have never been obese or overweight; I just needed to lose few lbs and get a better idea about my eating choices.

However, it seems that it doesn't work for the OP or for other people posting in this thread. So it is time for @ thatATLgirl to reconsider. But it doesn't' mean that both approaches can't be used successfully by others (like as @psychod787, @sardelsa, @ axsxmxa) on occasions.

I’m kind of confused about saying the two aren’t compatible. I’m not an expert on either, but feel like I practice both.

For the most part I eat to my calorie goal, but there are days that I’m just not hungry...I don’t force myself to eat until I make my minimum. Then there are days where I am ravenous I eat until I’m satiated. These two extremes are rarely in the same week. I track the calories on all of my days. I haven’t chucked out the potato chips in favor for an all kale diet.

I eat mostly nutritionallly sound food, but nothing that is going to get me on the cover “super foods weekly”.

To me, both IE and calorie counting are probably the two most compatible schools of thought as long as there is a healthy and balanced approach to both.

sijomial wrote: »

psychod787 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

I think calorie counting is great training/education to enhance and improve the chances of successful mindful eating - but intuitive eating and calorie counting, sorry I just don't see the overlap.

At 5'5" and 204lbs I think calorie counting is far more likely to be helpful compared to intuitive eating. Maybe park that as a future ambition when/if you get to a healthy weight?

I can see it's been helpful to understand your non-hunger/non-actual need drivers to eat but I'd just see that as educational too and not a likely path to successful weight loss.

ok sir, here is my story. 400lbs..... decided one day to cut out the "junk", I personally hate that word now, but thats how I viewed things then. Ditched the Chips, Soda, Bread, Cookies,ect...... except on rare occasions. Potatoes, Rice, Whole grain Pasta, leaner meets, vegetables, fruit. Quit going out as much once every 2 weeks vs 3-4 times a week. Started walking a little. I ate to hunger and satiety. I didn't count a dang thing. Lost 75lbs in a year. Didn't start calorie counting until 325lbs. Actually massively underrate because I refused to go over my calories. Thpugh, was not really ever hungry until I dropped below 200lbs. I didn't know a dang thing about nutrition. No idea that Leucine might have effects on the set range, or the role of fiber, or the role of monounsaturated fats effects. I "think" the father on ventures outside of the affluent diet... IE Energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra processed. The more someone can eat intuitively. JMHO

@psychod787

Sorry but not quite seeing the point you are making?
Are there some missing words in the sentence "The more someone can eat intuitively."?

I got nothing....

sijomial wrote: »

psychod787 wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

I think calorie counting is great training/education to enhance and improve the chances of successful mindful eating - but intuitive eating and calorie counting, sorry I just don't see the overlap.

At 5'5" and 204lbs I think calorie counting is far more likely to be helpful compared to intuitive eating. Maybe park that as a future ambition when/if you get to a healthy weight?

I can see it's been helpful to understand your non-hunger/non-actual need drivers to eat but I'd just see that as educational too and not a likely path to successful weight loss.

ok sir, here is my story. 400lbs..... decided one day to cut out the "junk", I personally hate that word now, but thats how I viewed things then. Ditched the Chips, Soda, Bread, Cookies,ect...... except on rare occasions. Potatoes, Rice, Whole grain Pasta, leaner meets, vegetables, fruit. Quit going out as much once every 2 weeks vs 3-4 times a week. Started walking a little. I ate to hunger and satiety. I didn't count a dang thing. Lost 75lbs in a year. Didn't start calorie counting until 325lbs. Actually massively underrate because I refused to go over my calories. Thpugh, was not really ever hungry until I dropped below 200lbs. I didn't know a dang thing about nutrition. No idea that Leucine might have effects on the set range, or the role of fiber, or the role of monounsaturated fats effects. I "think" the father on ventures outside of the affluent diet... IE Energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra processed. The more someone can eat intuitively. JMHO

@psychod787

Sorry but not quite seeing the point you are making?
Are there some missing words in the sentence "The more someone can eat intuitively."?

Obviously not the original author, but I think the last sentence was supposed to be one sentence, not two. So maybe a typo rather than an incomplete thought? Maybe it is meant to be "... the farther one ventures outside of the affluent diet...IE energy dense, hyper palatable, maybe ultra-processed, the more one can eat intuitively."
Just my guess at what previous poster meant!

sijomial wrote: »

PrismaticPhoenix wrote: »

I'm not sure that I understand what people are talking about in regards to intuitive eating.

I'm logging my food, but for me, a vital part of what I'm doing is ensuring that I'm still enjoying eating. I want to make sure that I'm eating when I'm hungry and that I'm eating foods that I like. Logging my food is a way of gathering information for me: I don't want to be eating food that I don't understand (hidden sodium, hidden calories, wonky nutrient profile, etc). Logging my food has been such a gift because it has enabled me to figure out how to eat foods that make me full, taste good, and work better for me as opposed to eating foods that I don't know what they do to me and I quickly become hungry again and don't taste any better than foods that would work better for me.

It does seem people are using the phrase "intuitive eating" in completely different and indeed contradictory ways.

To me what you describe is a million miles away from intuitive eating using a dictionary definition of intuitive as "based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning; instinctive".

You are consciously thinking about your food choices and making those choices based on different criteria, to me that's mindful eating not instinctive eating. Thinking not feeling.

Fair enough.......

thatATLgirl wrote: »

Hi guys- after two years of weight gain, I am back.

I have been working with an “intuitive eating" coach for a few months and have gotten to the bottom of some of the “why” behind my emotional eating.
Some of the things I've learned:
1. My love for particular foods, like tortilla chips, goes back to childhood.
2. Loneliness and acute stress are triggers for me for emotional eating.
3. If I stop exercising, I feel like crap, and want to eat more.
4. My thinking is very black-and-white... I don't have to be perfect all the time.
5. Stopping automatic negative thoughts like "my stomach is UGLY" and changing that thought to "this is a HUMAN stomach."

However, I’ve gained 15lb since starting that program, and I've hit my so-called rock bottom. At 31, I'm now 5'5" and about 204lb.

So... I want to use MFP and combine it with the principles of IE. The IE folks would tell me I’m going against IE by doing calorie counting. But anyone else had success doing both?

I don't like the term intuitive eating, but try to practice mindful eating, which I think it often similar to what others call intuitive eating. It worked well with MFP (I typically don't log much at maintenance).

I definitely focused on WHY I overate and emotional eating triggers. I definitely find that exercise helps, and I very much had that issue with black and white thinking and getting place it was key for me when losing, and being nicer to myself in general. So those all seem similar to what you are doing.

For me, I found that I tended to overeat when eating mindlessly (which for me mostly happened not at meals), and when emotional eating (often stress related or self-comfort generally). So the first thing for me was to decide to eat only at meals (I tend to have pretty nutrient dense meals and home cook them anyway).

Then I started logging what I ate and figured out easy ways to cut cals by reducing added fats, and portions of side starches. At first my eye and stomach weren't in line, but I trusted the food would be sufficient (or just added more veg) and found that it was. Understanding how much would satisfy me and lower cal ways to bulk it up if I wanted more bulk helped, and after I stopped logging I found I could still do the same by being mindful. In fact, very soon after starting MFP, I found I was easily hitting my goals daily without having to adjust much -- I understood what amounts would give me reasonable cals and be satisfying.

The other thing I did was if I wanted to eat between meals I reminded myself that I was going to be eating before too long anyway and was not actually hungry, and journaled about what was going on that made me want to eat (or sometimes just planned a meal that would be delicious based on what I wanted, and then ate that -- it was as satisfying as eating in the moment would have been).

I also started with weekly goals in addition to my calorie goals (eat veg at all meals or homecook all lunches or some such) and would note in my journal about successes and struggles daily, treating it as a learning experience and not a failure or something that meant everything was ruined if I failed to meet an exercise goal or overate one day or whatnot.

Anyway, just some ideas, obviously different approaches will work for different people.

This is an interesting topic. For what it's worth - I follow the basic principles of eating intuitively and I also weight, measure, log and track everything I consume up to my daily calorie target. I follow a vegan diet so pretty much everything I consume is nutritionally dense and that pretty much eliminates any cravings or hunger I might have following a regular calorie counting/restrictive diet. I guess I don't know why someone can't do both. Now that you're armed with the reasons behind your eating habits and have worked to change the mental aspects, can't you also include the calorie counting/weight loss aspects?