Eating to be EATING or Listen to your body?

So many different ways to look at this...

Common sense would lead you to believe it is as simple as listening to your body...but for many people, doing that led them to the problem for which they're now seeking a solution.

My opinion is that *eventually*, as a long-term goal, you want to be in a position where you can listen to your body because it is giving you good information...but in the short-term, you may have to practice eating just because the numbers tell you to.

As an n=1, when I went from 185ish (7/2011) to 152 (12/2011), I ate what the numbers told me whether I was hungry or not...and it worked for me. I often had to have a bedtime snack to hit the target. I also routinely adjusted the target numbers either up or down based on how quickly I was losing the weight and how I felt (usually around 1,800 - 2,200 cal/day). (Now that I'm trying to add some weight (so far, up to 162ish as of today), I still eat to the numbers, but I treat the daily amount as a *minimum*, not necessarily a goal...and that goal is currently 2,800 - 3,000 cal/day).

I am reasonably certain that I could maintain my current weight based on what I have learned on this almost-year-long journey, because I generally am never *really* hungry anyhow...(which I attribute entirely to eating strictly paleo...because I believe it is grains and packaged food that drives unnatural cravings...and people equate "cravings" with "hunger".) So I believe I can not effectively listen to my body for eating cues.

(Anyhow, completely unrelated to your question, but advice I'm going to give anyhow...at the end of the day, I say, if what you're doing is working for you (in favorable progress and in physical and mental health), then keep doing it. If it stops working for a while and you think you need a different approach, then I strongly recommend looking into paleo/primal/bulletproof as a possible solution. In my opinion, it is not only the most effective, but is also the easiest to follow, both from a simplicity of the program and from an ease-of-sticking-to-it perspective.)

EDIT: to add some daily cal numbers.

I'm stuck on this too. I have a BMF and I haven't been losing that well at the deficit I usually have which is usually over 1200. But to get this deficit lower I'll be eating just for the sake of getting my calories up. A few weeks ago my trainer said she thought I wasn't eating enough, now she's been on MFP for a few weeks and she knows I use this site (I'm not sure she reads the forums though) and now she's telling me to try to eat less. Maybe like 1600 a day with my workouts. I'm not sure I want to try eating less again, when I've been trying to decrease my deficit. She's saying she is barely hitting 1200 on what she's eating. Do I listen to her or my gut? I may wait 'til TOM is gone and get back on the scale to see if my increase helped.

I find myself asking the same thing sometimes... my personal opinion is to look at it as a weekly balance not necessarily a daily balance... obviously it makes sense that if you shoot to be balanced daily then you will most likely be balanced weekly. Just like you aren't supposed to weigh yourself daily i think that you shouldn't obsess over your eating for one day.... I wouldn't think that if you have one bad day you will put on a million pounds and vice versa... not very helpful but just my two cents Good Luck!

And I disagree with the advice not to weigh daily. (Yeah, I seem to disagree with so much of the conventional wisdom.) Only by weighing daily will you learn just how much the scale can (and will) fluctuate daily. When you weigh yourself weekly, that variation is still potentially in there. I've had daily changes of over five pounds. If I was really worried about my weight and had a +/- five pound variation, even on a weekly weighing, it could incorrectly lead me to believe whatever I was doing that week was working/not working.

I think the most important lesson in the trend of scale weight is to not let any one daily number/change influence your approach, your attitude, or your emotional well-being. Now an entire week of numbers going the wrong way...then maybe it's time to reconsider. =P

I admit to listening to my body. I wont force myself to eat just to make up calories.

Now that I've thought about it a little more, I do remember "forcing" myself to eat to the numbers when I transitioned from losing to gaining...just like I had to "force" myself when I started down the losing path. Both were necessary because they were a change from the habit I was in. After a few weeks of "forcing" it, I established the new habit such that it no longer took the same amount of effort. Any time I adjust the target, I have to be more conscientious of my eating to hit the new target, otherwise, I tend to eat to the old target.

It's that old story of it taking 21 days to establish a new habit...it applies to eating habits as well (at least for me).

I don't think you should force yourself to eat unless:

You lack energy to perform daily tasks;

You have a serious fear of malnutrition (and no, skipping a meal or a snack every now and then will not cause that);

By not eating you're setting yourself up for a later onset of hunger that could cause overeating.


(I'm obviously addressing people who do not have eating disorders.)

I agree there can be variations whenever you weigh... honestly I think weight should be the last thing that people go by... measure it on measurement, appearance, and how clothes fit. It all depends what you are trying to achieve I guess.

I'm stuck on this too. I have a BMF and I haven't been losing that well at the deficit I usually have which is usually over 1200. But to get this deficit lower I'll be eating just for the sake of getting my calories up. A few weeks ago my trainer said she thought I wasn't eating enough, now she's been on MFP for a few weeks and she knows I use this site (I'm not sure she reads the forums though) and now she's telling me to try to eat less. Maybe like 1600 a day with my workouts. I'm not sure I want to try eating less again, when I've been trying to decrease my deficit. She's saying she is barely hitting 1200 on what she's eating. Do I listen to her or my gut? I may wait 'til TOM is gone and get back on the scale to see if my increase helped.

RUN! RUN FROM THIS TRAINER!!!!! OMG! That deficit is way too high and you will absolutely plateau and kill your metabolism. Trust your gut. You want around a 500 calorie deficit. No more! When you're close to your goal then 250. :-)

I just listen to my body..when i'm hungry, I eat. If not,then I don't. If that means not hitting my calorie goal, so be it.

Can I say both? I will certainly eat if I don't feel physically hungry in order to get enough calories in the day. Some days I'm so busy or focused that physical hunger has a harder time registering. However most days I eat every time I feel physical hunger (every 3-4 hours giver or take). I have a fairly high calorie goal and I almost never go over.

The real key for me has been learning to listen to my body and properly identify real hunger as opposed to random urges or boredom.