Thoughts on Intuitive Eating

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

Moderators: Soprano, automatedeating

Post Reply
Alexandria27
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2017 6:13 pm

Thoughts on Intuitive Eating

Post by Alexandria27 » Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:15 am

Curious to know what/how everyone feels about intuitive eating vs No S. All thoughts and opinions are appreciated...

Soprano
Posts: 1184
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:56 pm
Location: UK

Post by Soprano » Thu Jul 19, 2018 5:10 am

I've tried it but really struggled to lose weight and in fact my weight increased. However I think the years I spent reading about it and trying it have helped me with emotional and binge eating.

I just feel I need a little structure to my eating which nos gives me. I also found it difficult to recognise when I was really hungry.

Nos makes you sit with a hunger a little sometimes which I think is good for you.

My advice if you are considering the two and want to lose weight. Practice intuitive eating at the weekend fully and apply the principles of eating what you want to your three meals a day except for the sweet stuff in the week.

Jx
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

eschano
Posts: 2642
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:20 pm

Post by eschano » Thu Jul 19, 2018 5:55 am

That’s great advice! For me intuitive eating only works after years on NoS even the habits are basically unconscious already. Otherwise and at this stage in my life the intuition would be to eat as much sugar as I can get as I am compensating for lack of sleep.
eschano - Vanilla rocks!

July 2012- January 2016
Started again January 2021

User avatar
lpearlmom
Posts: 4812
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:59 am
Location: Arizona

Post by lpearlmom » Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:40 am

I gained 75 lbs on intuitive eating but it did help me overcome binge eating and fear of eating certain foods. Was it worth it? Idk.

You can eat intuitively on your plate though. Listen to your body about what kinds of foods it might like and notice when your full even if you choose to finish everything on your plate (which is fine).
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

ladybird30
Posts: 1118
Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 10:41 pm

Post by ladybird30 » Thu Jul 19, 2018 9:59 pm

Without the structure of No S I found IE too hard. If I wanted to eat 2 hours after a meal, was I really hungry? Too much mental struggle there. However, I do try to make sure I am good and hungry before a meal, and that I don't overeat (a work in progress). So the structure of No S comes first.

I am not sure how IE is supposed to work in the context of 24/7 availability of high reward highly processed food. I much prefer to not have such food readily available in my personal space, unless they are part S day treats.

(edited once)
Three meals a day - not too little not too much, but just right

colourmehappy
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2016 1:16 pm

Post by colourmehappy » Thu Jul 26, 2018 8:47 am

I think the two compliment each other really well, as other have said.

IE helped me recover from rigid disordered eating vs binging, but it left me thinking about food too much - am I hungry? How hungry? How full? Blah blah.

I now practice IE within NOS and this includes - sometimes - eating a small snack before I go to bed if I think hunger is going to effect my sleep. It means that I haven't lost weight on NOS but I have maintained and am really comfortable and happy with my relationship to food.

I'm full IE on the wknd and try eating little and often just to compare the two. Genuinely prefer the three meal structure.

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 7:20 am

I do not use individuals' habits to guide my eating. The IE pushers say, as far as I remember, to use one's own hunger to guide eating and not to be waylaid by trying to time your eating with others'. What a self-involved system that is! Their reasoning that the only reason people eat compulsively is that they've dieted can't be true, as there have been overeaters since societies cultivated food. Or that if you give yourself permission to eat anything, you will gravitate towards the right amount and items. This flies in the face of how hunger actually works for the majority of individuals when modern manufactured foods are figured into the equation. This is why thin people are a minority in this world of excess. They are anomalies! It is very hard to create anomalies. I would bet that there is just about as much failure of IE-ers as other diets. Ok, maybe a bit lower, but even a 10% success rate would be generous. I doubt there is any really good research on it, and certainly not for five years. Less than that and who knows what "works?"

The reason I committed to No S was because it matched pretty closely slim cultures' eating practices which kept most of the population slim. I guarantee none of those cultures depends on the individuals' eating right at the moment they are hungry and choosing the majority of the meal right when it's meal time. They have relatively set meal times and contents. They have certain items and amounts they eat at meals. A plate of nachos is not a meal.

I could go on and probably will another time, but it's midnight and I just lost a lot of text.
Last edited by oolala53 on Mon Nov 12, 2018 2:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

ladybird30
Posts: 1118
Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 10:41 pm

Post by ladybird30 » Fri Aug 03, 2018 4:26 am

Contemporary portraits show that the British upper classes were becoming overweight by middle age by the 18th century. They had free access to food and no financial restrictions - was the idea of dieting even invented then?

The lesson I draw from this is that without cultural or financial or availability restrictions on food, we have to impose our own.

I still like to be hungry when I eat though - I just don't enjoy eating my usual plain food otherwise.
Three meals a day - not too little not too much, but just right

leafy_greens
Posts: 426
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:18 pm

Post by leafy_greens » Tue Nov 06, 2018 7:25 pm

IE doesn't work for me. The rule is "eat when you're hungry." But "hunger" is so subjective that this means I eat all the time. It made me more obsessed about food than ever.
"No S IS hard... It just turns out that everything else is harder." -oolala53

ladybird30
Posts: 1118
Joined: Sun May 07, 2017 10:41 pm

Post by ladybird30 » Wed Nov 07, 2018 1:28 am

I prefer don't eat unless you are hungry, but in any case don't eat more than 3 times per day. Structure rules over trying to figure out whether I am hungry or not.
Three meals a day - not too little not too much, but just right

User avatar
Over43
Posts: 1850
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:15 pm
Location: The Mountains

Post by Over43 » Tue Nov 13, 2018 2:24 pm

Joe Weider used to state that bodybuilders train "intuitively". Arthur Jones basically stated, and I paraphrase: What the #@!$.
Bacon is the gateway meat. - Anthony Bourdain
You pale in comparison to Fox Mulder. - The Smoking Man

I made myself be hungry, then I would get hungrier. - Frank Zane Mr. Olympia '77, '78, '79

Post Reply