I've read a lot of posts about IE in this community, and the vast majority were highly critical while also completely misunderstanding what it is about. IE has helped me, someone who has been obese since 14 (now 30) and struggled with overeating all my life. I wanted to talk a bit about it in case this can help someone else out. I highly recommend Abbey Sharp on YouTube who is a registered dietician with a philosophy rooted in IE. This video in particular really goes over the whole philosophy and the science behind it. I found it totally eye-opening when I started this process.
1. Intuitive Eating is not a weight loss tool.
IE is a way to fix your relationship with food. It is about learning how to eat in a way that creates fullness and satiety while also practicing moderation. This is not just feel good "trust your instincts" rhetoric, it is rooted in the science of cravings, satiety hormones, and the brain-gut connection. Weight loss may or may not result from IE, but it is a separate thing. If weight loss is your ultimate goal, fixing your relationship with food first can help you to lose weight and maintain it for life.
2. Intuitive Eating is not about eating whatever you want, whenever you want to.
Most dieticians that put people on an IE-based plan do not jump straight to having the person trust their hunger/fullness cues. If you have a bad relationship with food, these cues will not be functioning correctly. This process usually begins with focusing on structuring your eating, practicing mindful eating, and focusing on balancing your meals to promote fullness and satiety. Moderation is always necessary when choosing foods, however moderation does not need to be the same as restriction. More on this later.
When people talk about IE in conjunction with "eating whatever you want," they are referring to the fact that IE promotes the idea of not restricting the types of foods you eat, but rather focusing on high fiber, high protein, high healthy-fat balanced meals and snacks which will fill you up and satisfy you. There is also an emphasis on eating what you like to eat, not just always eating low calorie versions of food that are emotionally (and physically) unsatisfying, or forcing yourself to eat salads when you don't want to.
3. Sometimes eating more means eating less.
This is what really sold me on intuitive eating. I was suuper skeptical going in. I thought exactly what everyone on this sub thinks - "if I eat what I want without thinking about calories, I'll overeat!" One of the key elements of IE is eating fullness/satiety promoting meals. This means having protein, healthy fats, and fiber in everything you eat, even snacks.
This is what happened for me. My first breakfast I toasted a whole english muffin (far more bread than I would normally eat), and put mashed avocado on it, which was the equivalent to half an entire avocado (wayyyy too many calories), then a fried egg on top of each (cooked in real butter, omg). I also put a handful of raspberries on the plate for added fiber. I looked at this breakfast and thought, "this is a crazy amount of calories and it won't even be enough food." Guess what? I barely finished one half of the English muffin. The meal was so filling I couldn't eat it all. This experience would be repeated at every meal I made for the next few weeks, until I just started naturally making smaller portions because I knew I wouldn't finish them. Furthermore, I stay full when eating this way. I don't find myself wandering for a snack because I am still completely full from my last meal.
4. Intuitive Eating can make you crave unhealthy foods less.
Cravings come from the brain. Why does the brain crave things we shouldn't eat? I think the generally accepted reason on this sub is because "that's just what our monkey brains evolved to do." Except there are plenty of people that don't crave junk food. What gives? IE examines the fact that the brain sends us cravings because our eating patterns are causing it to. Abbey says in her video, "psychological scarcity mindset can often have the same outcome as physical scarcity." If your brain believes there's not enough food (because you're restricting), it's going to send you all the signals to eat whatever you can especially the high-calorie foods so that you don't starve.
Giving yourself balanced, satisfying meals every day actually gets your brain to calm down and stop (to some degree) craving food you don't need. This is probably the thing I was most skeptical about going in, but I can honestly say within a week, IE reduced my craving for sweets by about 75%, and I am a lifelong sugar addict. I still have emotional cravings at times, but I find them a lot easier to manage.
5. Part of Intuitive Eating is dealing with emotional eating problems first.
People rarely talk about this on this sub, which is a shame because I think it's a huge problem for our society right now. There are psychological/emotional reasons people overeat, and if you don't fix those problems, you will have difficulty fixing your relationship to food.
6. Intuitive Eating takes real effort, and it is easy to fall of the wagon.
Fixing your relationship with food is not easy. It takes actual effort to prepare balanced meals, to structure your eating, and to be mindful while eating. It is super easy to just tune out while eating and then overeat because you're not paying attention. Similarly, it's easy to get tired and just say "fuck it I'll have a bowl of plain pasta" and then find yourself hungry an hour later and eating something else. IE is sometimes treated like the easy way out, but it requires just as much effort and concentration as calorie logging or other methods.
7. There's nothing wrong with calorie-counting, and it can be used in conjunction with Intuitive Eating.
I would suggest everyone try without calorie counting first, but once you've started to fix your relationship with food, you can use calorie counting as a tool for moderation. It's when calorie counting becomes a tool for restricting that you may have problems. Moderation means eating what you like, but in appropriate amounts. Restricting means altogether avoiding or micromanaging food intake from an anxiety-based mindset.
8. Intuitive is not for everyone, but it may be for you if...
- You are someone who constantly tries to eat healthy, and manages to for days or weeks, only to "fall of the wagon" and eat the junk food you've been craving.
- If you are a yo-yo or fad dieter.
- You have foods that you restrict/disallow for fear they are too many calories or "too unhealthy." Any food can be eaten in moderation and within a balanced diet. Craving Captain Crunch? Have a bowl with protein heavy milk, protein powder, high fiber fruits, and some nuts for healthy fats. Boom. Balanced meal.
- You think about food constantly. After practicing IE for a while, I ate breakfast, sat down to work and didn't think about food once for 6 hours, and only thought of it then because I felt physical hunger. I ate lunch, went back to work and again didn't think about food until the dinner hunger pangs hit. I went a whole day without really thinking about food. That's the first time that has happened in 15 years.
- Thinking about food and weight loss causes you a lot of stress, anxiety, and guilt/shame. This is a sign of a broken relationship with food, which IE can help with.
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