To wonder why people don’t seem to know about intuitive eating?

[sunshineonmywindow20]

I keep reading the plentiful diet/weight loss threads on Mumsnet - a range of approaches come up - low carb, fasting, calorie counting, WW, slimming world etc

But no one ever mentions intuitive eating, and I wonder why? I’ve been on numerous diets and for me it’s BY FAR the best way I’ve found to reconnect with my body, improve my relationship with food and -yes - lose weight.

I guess it isn’t always explicitly directed/marketed as a diet/weight loss tool, but for me that’s why it’s so good! It’s about enjoying food more (!) and moving towards your natural set weight, which might not be skinny, but for many people will mean they lose weight by eating in tune with their bodies (eating when hungry, eating slowly/mindfully, stopping when full).

But there are no banned foods, no rules beyond the above, it’s a happy process that encourages self acceptance and a healthy, life long change. Books wise there is a wide range - Susie Orbach, Paul McKenna, Beyond Chocolate, many more.

Diets are scientifically proven not to work long term and trap people into a cycle of misery... AIBU to recommend this to others looking to change their relationship with food? I promise I am not connected to it commercially or otherwise in any way

I mean, it’s just the default setting of humans, surely? Eat what you want when you want it?

I think that worked when we had to hunt and forage for all our meals, but now we can sit on the sofa, pick up a phone and have 2000+ calories of pizza delivered to our doors in seconds, or we can have an entire weeks worth of food delivered to the door and we don't even have to get out of bed to order it.

The difficulty is, I think, that our lifestyles have evolved massively in the last 100 years, but our biology hasn't. We didn't have microwaves, takeaways, drive-thrus or a real "coffee and cake" culture back then. You didn't have freezers full of quick, easy instant food that's ready in minutes.

Makes it very easy to just fancy whatever you want when it's available pretty much at the click of a finger.

Its hard to do intuitive eating when you have a family to feed. No one will be wanting dinner at the same time and if we wait till everyone is hungry then chances are then the ones hungry first would have got a snack so not as hungry by the time the meal was ready.

Easy when you are single though, I could eat what I wanted when I wanted and was slim.

OMG I just can’t.

Intuitive eating is just eating at your calorie maintenance level.

That is it.

If you eat roughly what you burn you will achieve a maintenance level of neither gaining or losing weight. It takes a little while to work out what this is - too many cals and you’ll put weight on. You may reach a “natural place” where your body is happy but you will gain weight beyond that if you are not at maintenance balance.

It’s ironic you’ve come on and talked about how ditching the diet is the way forward but all you are doing is balancing your calorific intake with energy burned.

By the way I have no issue with learning what your body naturally needs by “feel” rather than tracking your calories but no need to call it something other than calorific maintenance.

If you fancy a biscuit - just eat one, if you want a piece of chocolate cake - eat one slice - enjoy it, don't feel guilty.

No chance. If I fancy a biscuit the whole packet will go. Better not to open it in the first place ..... or buy it!

If you fancy a biscuit - just eat one, if you want a piece of chocolate cake - eat one slice - enjoy it, don't feel guilty.

Seriously, this is my problem. I don’t ever just fancy a biscuit. I fancy half a packet. Similarly, never just a piece of cake.

I think the problem with this is that food isn't 'real' anymore - it's packed full of sugar and other shit that makes you crave it. Which makes it difficult to listen to what our bodies tell us about hunger - all the signals are messed up.

MillyDilly - exactly - that is why intuitive eating is for those who are naturally slim and not really interested in food. Our relationship with food is far too complex for it to work for most of us.

@wentawaycameback

MillyDilly - exactly - that is why intuitive eating is for those who are naturally slim and not really interested in food. Our relationship with food is far too complex for it to work for most of us.

That’s me out on both counts then. 😂

Intuitive eating works for me for maintenance but not for weight loss, calorie deficit is the only thing that causes someone to lose weight and usually someone won't intuitively eat 500 calories under their tdee per day

How do you learn to eat healthily?

I can't hear my body at all, I'm not being flippant. I can't judge a portion size and couldn't tell you whether I'm hungry or not.

My body wants carbs, mc flurries and red wine. Not sure intuitive eating really works for many tbh

I have used IE successfully in the past (2006 and 2015) and lost around a stone and a half each time. I have tried it in the last couple of years since turning 50 and it does nothing! On the two previous occasions I lost weight at around 2, 400 and 2, 200 cals from my calculations. Using this as a guide, I thought that I could intuitively eat around 1, 900 to 2, 000 and, similarly lose weight. No such luck! At 52, due to age and meds, I have to ditch all sugar and white carbs and take cals down to 1, 650 or thereabouts to lose 1lb a week. The IE didn't work because if I fancied a biscuit, cake, wine, whatever, I would have it, leading to " empty calories" and hence more intake. IE also doesn't address binge eating, which I don't do as a rule. So, it CAN work, if you are young enough, IME, but post 50 did nothing for me.

I'm intrigued by IE. I did WW in the past and lost 3.5 stone but since then it's gone back on - I had a baby which didn't help I love the "you don't need to diet" insta accounts, but I find it really conflicting when I look in the mirror and think, yeah, I would like to lose weight and fit back into some of my old clothes. But do I go with the body positive "your body is fine as it is" angle or do I go with "yeah lose the bum tum" voice in my head? And is portion control or cutting out crap really that bad? I'm finding it confusing.

I know WW gets a bad rep but it did teach me to look at food completely differently. Also by paying attention to what I ate it taught me how my body would respond to certain things and actually I learnt for example that bread at lunch time wasn't the best option for me because I would feel the carb/sugar effect on me. I also learnt doing ww that it was ok to be hungry sometimes - think I was eating out of fear of being hungry before that. WW did help me address some of my psychological issues around food but then again I do love the "there is no such thing as a BAD food" thinking of IE.

Sometimes maybe just shaking things up in whatever way makes sense to you is enough to get out of a diet rut and pay attention to what you're eating - IE might work for some, Slimming World someone else, etc

I can't really get my head around the concept of intuitive eating in man. Pretty much all animals are hardwired to eat as much available food as possible at the time it is available. We would all be sat on the floor in Sainsbos with our faces plastered in chocolate surely?

If you stored bags of feed in a sheep field they would break into them and eat the lot and die of acidosis.

Our bodies were designed for survival when there was slim pickings and when there might be nothing to eat for a good few days here and there. We can also get nourishment out of very fibrous low calory food. If we fast we are blessed with a surge of mental clarity and mechanisms to protect our lean tissue so we can go out and catch a turkey or dig up some roots enough to survive until the next time.

I don't really see us as having 'intuition' about food other than being able to tell if milk is off or if we fancy something salty or sweet. We are a fairly unsophisticated organism designed to eat whatever is close to hand and if there isn't anything, to go looking for it. On a basic level this is why so many of us are overweight. Food is plentiful and in massive quantity. It is all very calory dense too and we are hard wired to ram it in our maw as fast and as in as great quantity as we can lest we don't get to eat for a week afterwards. Fat stores being vital to survival. No one pigs out on raw sweet potato or mung bean shoots.

Right now my intuition craving tells me to eat six red nose cakes and a pint of builders tea. My intelligent brain looks at my fat belly and tells me to have just the tea and skim milk.

I might not get the concept though or I have battled with my weight so long that that part of my brain hasn't worked for decades.

I suspect people that have success with IE actually have had good 'hygeine' regarding consumption of food instilled into their manners from an early age and it is this that is kicking in.

What you're describing is how slim people eat, and it's what we all aspire to. Modern lifestyle and economic factors make this impossible for some though.

Also how long have you been doing it? Have you lost weight with it? If so come back in a few years and tell me you're the same weight then I'll be impressed.

IE is surely about getting better tuned into what your body is saying NOT a diet for weight loss In and if itself. One of the reasons for disordered eating is NOT listening to your body. And surely the idea of saying you cannot do this if you have a family is rubbish - ok timing of meals might need to flex, but portions etc can be flexible. Boom and bust dieting cycles lead to more disordered eating, more ignoring your body’s signals about when you are full/ hungry/ upset etc.

@BAAAH usually, if you are not sure you are hungry or not, you’re not

Eat nothing after a meal (no snacks) for 4-6 hours, most people would then start to “feel” their stomach rumbling/hunger/need to eat

Constant snacking dulls this feeling

I also think snacking is a killer. I read recently, (but it was a US based study, so not sure it's exactly the same here), about some data where they worked out that snacking accounted for all of the average person's surplus calorie consumption. Meal sizes have not, (except supersize fast food meals and their ilk), on average, grown in calories, or not grown by much. I don't know how true it is, as I read all the time on here how portion control is the key. But actually, having cut out snacks, I've started to find it easier not to overeat at meal times. The pp who said that snacking dulls your ability to know when you are genuinely hungry, I think has a point.

I'm a grazer, it works very well for me. I only eat when hungry rather than get anxious that I have to eat a lot at meal times to avoid being hungry before next fixed meal time.

I imagine it varies from person to person. But, for me, snacking is not good.

I'm giving this a go at the moment. I haven't read any literature yet, but I'm fed up of the revolving door of diets and getting obsessive with weight loss. I'm eating when I'm hungry (as in tummy rumbling at least stwge) and stopping when no longer hungry . I'm eating mainly home cooked nutritious food but if I want chocolate etc I'm telling myself I can have it. Incidentally I've not really fancied chocolate. I did have dominos last night as been fancying it for a week, and I plan to have leftovers tonight. If I dpnt fancy it though I'm going to allow myself to bin it and to make chicken and cous cous or whatever instead. Its not a waste, eating If I dont want to is a waste. I'm just trying to stop the association between good or bad food because it's so unhealthy. When I weigh myself or calorie count I get really obsessive. If I do diets I end up starving the day of weigh in and taking laxatives on the day in an effort to win slimmer of the week. It's a binge and starving myself cycle and I'm trying to break it. For breakfast I have a smoothie and for once I dodnt weigh anything or faff about syns and sugars so that felt good. Also I'm not just letting myself 3at dominos whenever! I really fancied it Tuesday but had the ingredients for a chilli in already so I made that and told myself if I still wanted it on friday then I was allowed and this seemed to work well.

I tried it, but I'm fat and I stayed fat. Yo yo dieting, I may regain the weight but at least I'm slim for some of the time
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I’m also giving IE a go. I've spent the past 35 years trying to control my weight through different diets - and am now heavier than ever. Diets do work for me initially but the weight and old habits always seem to creep back - and all the research shows that diets eventually fail for most people.🤷‍♀️

@Madein1995 I'm sorry to read your problems with food. It reminds me of a bad time I had on a crash diet. It took me about 2 years to convince my body to get the message that I wasn't living through a famine. My weight went up drastically then yoyoed for a long while. Things did stabilise but with it I've had to accept my natural weight (I'm bang on healthy average). My advice is to give up COMPLETELY diets, calorie counting and throw away the bathroom scales. Be free.

I can't really get my head around the concept of intuitive eating in man. Pretty much all animals are hardwired to eat as much available food as possible at the time it is available.

So are you telling me that, for example, breastfed babies generally drink their mothers dry every single time? Drink until they explode? Or do they perhaps stop drinking when they have had enough?