Don't Diet: Just Eat Intuitively

For me, intuitive eating is a an excellent measure of how much to eat, but some thought still needs to be put into what to eat.
Since our tastes change depending on how we eat, for someone already eating a balanced diet (whether heavily scrutinised, measured and counted down to the last calorie or dictated by mum's serving sizes, or in any way not intuitive) switching to the intuitive method, they will probably continue okay, but for someone eating poorly, they will not.
The idea that 'intuition' can tell us exactly what to eat is not sound, since people cannot desire things they can't remember the taste of. ie Our body can't 'signal' spinach if we only eat cake.

This is based on my personal experiences with food, going from a high-fat diet to a moderate-fat one, and the changes in desires that I experienced. (although I believe there is also quite a bit of scientific evidence of the adaptive nature of our palettes)

I like the idea of being an intuitive eater, but definitely see that years of programming has led me far from that path. I think the most intriguing part of the post was, "The nature of modern processed foods makes it very difficult for the body to determine when we've had enough." I've found that the less processed the foods are that I eat, the easier it is for me to determine when I'm satiated and not stuffed. I find I can eat high quality, non-diet foods in moderation- and know when to stop- alot easier than highly processed junk. I definitely agree that one of the keys to healthy eating is "not to eat for emotional, environmental or social reasons"- at least not UNCONSCIOUSLY. I think this is where I most part ways the intuitive approach- I think especially for a lot of of already overweight people, becoming conscious of the food we eat and WHY is key to healthy eating. I think part of what I see left out here is eating for pleasure- food is not just fuel, but it is pleasurable. Learning that a couple of bites of a high quality cheese is much more fufilling, and joyful, than more of less quality fat-free processed yuck, has been key for me.

The idea of intuitive eating is a really good one, because honestly, no real person has time to count calories down to the exact number or grams of fat or fiber (beyond a rough estimate).
The problem is, stressed out people in America barely have time to sit down and read a book, let alone listen to their bodies. Intuitive eating requires that a person be in tune with their body, which a lot of us are not.

I was going to say something similar to Nicole's comments. Intuitive eating is great--if you're leading a relatively calm and structured life, with a set schedule and enough downtime. Unfortunately the 24/7 drive of American society, working more, and endless distractions pouring from the media outlets make it hard to find the down time we need to be in tune with our thoughts and bodies.

I think this is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.

Generally, those of us who are fat didn't start out that way, and didn't stop eating intuitively and start dieting until we found ourselves with a weight problem.

So the sample of intuitive eaters in the study may well be eating intuitively because they didn't get fat, rather than not getting fat because of intuitive eating.

I totally agree with tulip and Christi Nielsen. Definitely I am the hour glass figure, although my hips are a little bigger than my bust. It's pretty hard for me to find clothes that fit because of the same reason mentioned above.

That's why I prefer custom tailored clothes and especially coats and skirts.

I've tried intuitive eating, and it works if you can sit down and think "What do I want to eat/ what do I need to eat?"
However, most days I have class for 2-3 hours and work for 5-6 hours, so it's all I can do to grab a yogurt to bring to work!
We need to calm down as a nation before intuitive eating will help much.

It sounds like a swell idea in theory... but I DO eat for emotional reasons. And i'm sure many others do as well. So the real key is to find out how to stop doing that. Until the emotional eating is in check; unstructured eating and listening to one's body signals will be extremelly difficult.

I have noticed from being a new grandparent that babies eat this way. When they are done they shut their mouth and won't take any more. Maybe we are born with this instinct and gradually get taught otherwise. The parents thought my grand daughter needed a piece of her first birthday cake. This was her first offering of such a thing. She made a face and threw it on the floor.

I found intuitive eating to be something that is possible only after a period of stabilization. I had to detoxify from simple carbohydrates and lower my fasting insulin level enough to get beyond the cravings for sugar and other high glycemic index carbohydrates. Until this happened I felt way too hungry all the time.

For me high glycemic carbohydrates do not send a satiety signal until it is too late. I could eat a thousand calories or more in ten minutes and not feel full if they were from cake or ice cream. This may sound odd but I also realized that it is a normal part of the human condition to feel hungry from time to time during the day. My previous way of eating never allowed my to feel this. I was also 70 pounds over weight.

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I have to agree with most of these comments. Soda and soft drinks are a perfect example. How easy is it to gulp down a huge amount of sugar/energy/calories from these sources?

Changing a habit like this is something that is learnt, it is not intuition. On the other hand, proteins and low-GI carbs are far easier to instinctively decide "I've had enough". Then of course there is fibrous foods, that just take a long time to eat...

I agree with Prufrax. This study proves nothing. The fact that these people are intuitive eaters may have nothing to do with their weight. They are genetically programmed to be at the weight they are. If someone who is genetically programmed to be at a higher weight started eating this way, they would gain until they reached their "natural" weight. This might be quite heavy and considered to be unhealthy. This study was a total waste of time and money.

I think our society's focal point on food un-programs us to be intuitive eaters very early. Most people associate food with happiness, so they assume that children do too. In fact, many babies may just be tired or crabby or need to be changed...but parents try to feed them instead. After a while, kids think they're hungry when they may just be bored or stressed or tired. Not to mention that a lot of parents use food as a motivator/reward for kids, which helps foster unhealthy eating habits early.

I've lost weight after each of my first 2 pregnancies with great success using this method (without really knowing I used this method).

I lost 45 pounds and 50 pounds respectively. I didn't exercise, but was breastfeeding and burning 500 calories per day doing so.

It took about 7 months the first time and 5-6 months the second time to lose the extra weight.

I ate when I was hungry; I only ate as much as it took to make me feel slightly full; I ate a well balanced meal 3 times a day with very little snacking in between.

If I wanted to snack, I would eat only half of what the serving size was if the food was decadent like cookies or ice cream. Otherwise, I'd snack on a piece of fruit.

It isn't something you do without thinking. I was always conscious of what I was eating and CHOOSING to eat something healthy instead of junk.

It takes determination to eat this way, but it does work if you stick with this way of eating.

I think this is how people should eat rather than following a prescribed way.

By the way, I worked full time during my pregnancies and afterwards as well. My life was plenty busy, so there's no excuse for not eating well. It's just as easy to pop a grape in your mouth as it is to pop a chicken nugget from McD's.

Sounds a lot like the religious diet book someone gave me, called the weigh down diet. I agree with others, who said that if you ate by intuition, you wouldn't be fat in the first place. I'm and emotional eater, and I couldn't bring forth the discipline to re-train myself.

I opted for an "eat better than I used to and walking daily" combination.

Intuitive eating is something that will take a learning. It is sensible but I dont know if I can learn it. I have been trying to learn to eat when hungry and stop when satisfied. That is an undertaking, believe me. But I think I am getting somewhere. I have yoyo dieted for so long and I really believe that I have messed up my system with so many diets that DONT WORK. So it may take a while but I am willing to get my body working right and learn to eat when hungry and not eat when full or satified. We have so much to learn in this part of the world. As soon as we go on a diet, the main focus is food, the food we can't have. Therefore it creates a desire to have that forbidden food. What a tangeled web we weave. So I am trying to get off the merry-go-round and eat when hungry only. The only thing is, I wait for the hunger and it never seems to come. Does anyone else have this situ.?

I can tell you from experience this works. You do not have to never have been fat to do this and you CAN get cravings for food you don't remember the taste of. You can do it with a busy, stressful life. And you can do it without constantly thinking of what is the 'right' thing to eat - without thinking about food much at all.

This is how everyone starts out eating. Some of us get derailed very early in life - particularly those whose parents 'scheduled' feedings. Others had other factors and reasons. Naturally thin people continued to eat intuitively - those who gained weight (aside from rare instances) did not. But it can be 'relearned'.

I started 'watching what I ate' and excercising like mad as a teenager. Over the next 20 years I ate low cal/low fat and steadily gained. I decided I'd had enough of dieting and decided to ate what I felt like. For a few weeks I craved 'junk' much of the time as a result of the years of deprivation.

In a short time though, my body had had enough of the 'forbidden' fruit and suddenly I found myself craving healthier foods - like meat, fruit and vegetables. Even foods I am not sure I've ever eaten. Junk food had no appeal. Without even trying at all, I stress that - no thinking about making 'good choices' - I just wanted the better food. The better the food I ate, the more I wanted to continue eating that way. Now I can walk past junk food and nt have to try to ignore it - I am totally uninterested.

I lost 25 pounds in less than three months and kept it off without effort for a decade. I did not count anything, miss meals, exercise (unless I wanted to), I ate anything I wanted, anytime. I never had to worry about going out, or about overeating on holidays. Nothing. All the while continuing to work, raise my family, deal with sometimes extreme stresses, traveling to many foreign countries and going through some major challenges. Like everyone, as I aged, my metabolism slowed, but my body asked for less food so it hasn't caused a weight gain.

Anyone can do it. many people have. it is both harder and easier than you think. But it is one of hte most freeing and kindest things you can do to yourself. It is difficult at first - as any new skill (or forgotten skill) is. Study a two year old..study a naturally thin person. It gets easier every day - and when you're there finally, you'll feel so free. You'll wish this for everyone.

I made a comment and someone mentioned Intuitive Eating. I checked it out, how perceptive of that person to see that in my comment. Yes, I am more of that kind of a person and have that type of personality that is why I am a stickler for Behavior Modification. No you won't find it in reading a book yet. Although, if one is in tune to their inner self, it all comes naturally in due time. As far as nutrition is concerned it also comes in by osmosis. We had it in school, our parents dabbled with no-nos, it is on all of the lables, who hasn't had a vitamin in their lives, the media won't let us forget we need to be thinner, advertisements on health, restaurant menues hopping the band wagon, and what overweight person doesn't have at least one diet book in their house that talks about nutrition? The key is to eat on a scale level between 0-to-10. Zero is not hungry, 1 is slightly hungry, 10 is stuffed. Eat before you hit the four and go to 5. Five is satisfied but not full. Push away from the table or have the plate removed. The longer exposed to seeing and smelling the food will prompt you to level six. Dessert is level 7, have a shared one, or your own once in awhile. Be aware of level 8 it is a no going back to just being comfortable with the food you consumed. Level 9 is just one more bite and then 10 is too full to move and to open up your clothing that got tight. Not inviting at all when your hunger cues are overlooked by shoveling in the food. Yada yada, I seem to have a problem with stopping, even with my talking.

I've been eating intuitively for the past 3 months. Yes, it does take self-examination (and maybe therapy) to understand why you stuff yourself instead of stopping when you're full. But I've gotten to that point and I'm slowly losing weight. I do what Shannon was describing...because I don't know what a "normal" serving is, I experiment with taking half of what my eyes want, and go from there. If I take about 20 minutes to decide if I'm full, then I never get that horrible stuffed feeling. And I can tell you that I enjoy my food MUCH more now than I used to--because I don't feel guilty about anything that I'm eating!! I keep foods that I know I like, and those include fruits & veggies, around me all the time so that, when I'm hungry, I can seek out what I want.

All those who have responded negatively to this way of eating are still stuck in the "gotta be on a diet" rut, and need to realize that DIETS ARE JUST NOT WORKING FOR US AS A SOCIETY. No matter how much work it takes, or what time it takes away from other activities, it is worth trying to get back to how we ate as children, when we were more in touch with our bodies, and before we started going on the multitude of diets that we have.

Read about intutive eating and get to know what it's all about before saying "oh no, couldn't do that!" The blurb above just touches on the surface of what it's all about.

I went on my first "diet" as a teenager because I wanted to be skinny like a model. I was already eating like a horse, but was thin.. I thought, "Hey, I'm slim and eat a lot! Imagine how slim I'd be if I went on a diet!" But this doesn't work .. sure, I got freakisly skinny but gained it all back and more. I didn't even need to go on a diet in the first place! I just wanted to look like Kate Moss or whoever. Because I gained it all back I was frustrated so tried the diet again and again. Well, I'm recovering from a starvation diet. I said enough of this .. I'm just going to eat what I want and when I want. Now, I'm still slim (under 100 pounds) but gaining (lean muscle mass mostly or so I hope lifting weights and excercising at the gym) .. but if I had never dieted I would have a much healthier relationship with food. So I'm trying to learn how to eat intuitively.

Just watch children. They eat all their favourite foods and of course healthy foods their parents force them to.. but most of all are slim. Of course they're really active, but I guess we all should be more active like them. They only want to eat when they're starved and will stop when full. It's parents who force them to finish what's on their plate. I know mine did. As for the fat kids, I'm sure it's from parents with bad eating habits or from being depressed and bored. Or maybe being inactive.

Heya Cee - totally relate to where you're coming from, m'dear. Have been Anorexic the past five years, with compulsive exercise thrown in for good measure *ho hum.* Started out as a diet to lose puppyfat (that I was already losing anyway) for my Year11 Prom...went mad with it, and the exercise, and found myself in hospital 3x after that. Now, 3 years after my last admission, I'm still just over 90lbs and have been on my own self-made weight-gain diet since then. I exercise rigidly - I can't bear the thought of not gaining lean muscle mass, coz all I gained while in hospital was fat mostly, from the crap they fed us and all the sitting around.

Problem is, now my body's gotten so used to a bulky diet, I seriously feel it if I miss even one snack. Don't know if that's also down to being underweight too, but honestly - I just never seem satisfied. Food fills my thoughts everyday, and this makes me feel so damn greedy, I can't describe it. I'll be eating one meal, planning how to burn some of it off after with exercise (tho I'll try and kid myself into thinking the training's ALL about gaining muscle mass, but I know damn fine alot of it is for cal-burning.) Then I'll be thinking about what next I can eat on my meal-plan! I wish to God I'd never gotten into weighing food out/counting cals (picked up in inpatient, ironically enough.) It's so pedantic, and boring, and restrictive. I'd love to go back to being the skinny kid who ate whatever she wanted, when she felt like it, and stopped when she was full. Everything was so much more natural then, and freer - God, we never know how good we have it til it's gone, do we?

Hi, I just began this intiuitive eating thing. At first it seemed so easy. But as I continue, it seems hard to eat intuitively. Especially all the people around me (friends, husbad, mom) tell me to go to a new DIET and not to eat anything. I just try to explain them, there is intuitive eating but it's not working. I gained 50 pounds in two years and I just want to get rid of them. I cannot recognize myself in my old pictures. I am kind of stressed right know about losing weight. DO you think I can lose 50 pounds in 8 months?
Anyway, heidi, you'll be my inspiration. I will begin intuitive eating again. You and other positive experinces friends wrote here will give me a new courage. I will eat whatever I want whenever I want but only if I'm really hungry and i'll try to stop before I am full. Actually, this seems parallel to my religion. I am a Muslim and Prophet Muhammed advised people to eat 1/3 of their stomach, then drink water for other 1/3. The last 1/3 will stay empty.
As last thing, I need your advice. I have the book (intuitive eating) and I began to read it. Is there any other resources or anything else to help me through this process?
Thank you so much for sharing your strories and giving me courage to go on to do intuitive eating.

I have never thoght that my way of eating has a name. 6 years ago I just doing it, being to frustrated by not losing weight starving. I have lost weight until a point where my body just decided it is its balance point. I have kept my weight with small variations over time. For me it was peace of mind.

If you listen to your body you will learn interesting stuff. For me for example is always a glucidic breakfast and I always feel like eating meat when I start my period.

However, I am skeptic about the success of this method provided as a "recipie". I think it has to come from inside, you have to discover yourself in a way. This is a long and painfull path. The pills and magic diets will always look better in the eyes of most.

I did intuitive eating when i was binging after my first diet when i was 15. i gained 25 pounds in a month after stopping exercising and continuing to binge. When i read the book i lost 20 pounds in 2 months but i was still 20 pounds overweight. i thought intuitive eating meant eat what you crave, when you crave it until you were full. That's not intuitive eating. So i lost weight despite the fact that i was doing it wrong, but not all the weight.

So, years later i started taking medication for depression and eating the way i usually did i gained 45 pounds.

Over the years i realized the way i was supposed to do intuitive eating and have lost 60 pounds on the same dose of medication. What i learned is that you have to eat when hungry and stop when you are satisfied but NOT FULL. No one on any diet, even the healthiest, raw food, all salad diet should eat till their full. You may get away with it for a while like i did but when old age hits and your metabolism slows or you start medication like i did you'll pay for it.

I find that the scale from 1 to 10 doesn't work for me. I have a way to do it that i think is easier. I eat when i'm uncontrollably hungry and i monitor myself when i eat so i stop when i'm controllably hungry. Note that both ways i'm "hungry". Hunger is not something to be scared of. If you overeat you'll STILL always be hungry- that's why a lot of people gain weight and can't stop eating. When you undereat you'll still be hungry. So undereating is obviously better. Uncontrollable hunger is when you think about eating and you feel you MUST eat or you'll go crazy. Controllable hungry means that you think about food but you don't have to eat, you can ignore food and do other stuff with your time. It's just a different way of doing the scale, where you start eating at a 3-4 and stop at a 7-8. I hope this helps some people. Email me at yunasolon@yahoo.com if you have any questions. When i finish losing all my weight i'll create a site with everything- and i've learned a lot- about how to lose weight easily. I have a lot of tips that you can't find on the internet.

I've been working on Intuitive Eating (IE) since 2005, and had great success with it in the first 6 months (I dropped 25 of my excess 30 pounds!). But, yes -- it's something that you have to practice over time before you get it "right". And, that's not to say that you'll ever be PERFECT with it. But, so long as you're doing better than you were before -- so long as you're making progress -- that's still a good thing!

I agree with whoever said that it's something we're born knowing how to do ...babies are "Intuitive" eaters. They eat when they're empty, and stop eating when they've had just enough to "refuel".

I also agree with those who say you CAN do IE despite a busy lifestyle. I've done it, so I know!

But, when you stop paying attention, and stop making strides toward "listening", the weight does come back. This is what happened to me. I put back on all of the weight I'd lost. But, I'm still plugging away at it.

As far as other resources on this go, here's a few to try:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IntuitiveEating_support
http://aweightlifted.blogs.com
http://www.lindamoran.net
http://www.intuitiveeating.org
http://www.healthieroutcomes.com

MizB

One more link... This one is an article on the "A Weight Lifted" blog, that talks about how IE is something that you have to LEARN over time -- like golfing: you can't just hit a hole-in-one after picking up a club...you have to practice. ;o)

I'm finding all of your comments quite inspirational actually. I've only just subscribed to this feed and I didn't realise until now how much it helps to find others in the same situation. I think this Intuitive Eating takes an awful lot of will power and might work ultimately, but in the short time could lead to an awful lot of excessive 'trying to see how strong one can be' by deciding one's body is calling out for cheese or chocolate - two of the things that I have trouble controlling.