Intuitive Eating: How to Start
Thinking about intuitive eating and how to start? Find out how to retrain your brain, listen to your body & eat ALL foods accordingly without counting calories!
This post is the 2nd article in our guide to intuitive eating. You can find more information in this guide by visiting these links:
Photo by Wasa Crispbread on Unsplash
How do I transition from calories to intuitive eating?
As you’ve probably noticed, when you’ve been tracking calories for awhile, you’ve got all these numbers in your head so let’s first acknowledge that this will take some time! The first step in transitioning from tracking calories to eating more intuitively is to understand that calories really don’t tell us that much useful information about how much to eat.
Yes, I said it. You first must help your brain let go of this notion that tracking them in the first place is “helpful.” So perhaps consider the main reasons you’re tracking them…
Is it that you heard that is the healthy thing to do? There’s actually research that says otherwise. Let’s think about this. A calorie is assigned to a food based on how much energy it provides the body…but what about the intricacies of your specific body?
Each body is going to use calories differently, and the body actually has far more control in this manner. For example, research shows that when you lower your intake of calories, hormones within your body adjust to use that energy more slowly (aka, slowing your metabolism).
We need to listen to our bodies and eat accordingly, not apply a random caloric amount that we heard was right for our body despite all other information coming from the body.
Is it that you don’t trust yourself to eat without calories?
Do you think you’ll just “go off the rails if you stop counting calories?” It’s a valid fear but the truth is that fear around eating and tracking calories usually leads people to more binging or more preoccupation with food rather than less. These “tracking” behaviors often lead to “binge/crave” behaviors too. So stepping away from calories actually can serve you well in the long run! You’re stepping out of what I call the “restrict-binge/crave or control” cycle. When you’re restricting and counting calories, the body responds by doing one or both of the following– binging or thinking/planning way more around food.
So we need to let go of calorie counting as important, and then we need to set ourself up for success by doing the following:
Not reading food labels anymore
Feel free to turn the labels away from you when stocking the snack cupboard!
If you see a food label, remind yourself “this label doesn’t tell me anything about my body’s needs.”
Turn off, cover up, or disregard calorie trackers during exercise
Stop choosing meals and snacks and drinks based off calorie amounts
Will I lose weight if I intuitively eat?
You might not like this answer. Maybe. Maybe not. This is up to your body. My clients probably tire of hearing me say this, but your body’s weight is going to do what it is going to do when you are eating and moving in a way that feels authentic and sustainable to you. I’ve seen weight do all of the following with intuitive eating:
Lose weight
Gain weight
Stay the same.
Intuitive eating includes giving your body the chance to regulate it’s own weight, which is so largely based on your specific genetics and metabolism. What I can say is that when you are intuitively eating, your bodies metabolism has the best chance of regulating accordingly. But a regulated metabolism doesn’t always mean weight loss. Bodies are too smart for that to be up to us.
How do I stop dieting and intuitively eat?
First, you must go out on a limb and trust that your body might actually know what to do with food. What does this look like step wise?
Put away your scale, stop tracking macros and calories, and goodbye to your tracking devices (I’m talking to you MyFitness “pal” and food scales)
Establish permission to eat in order to disengage the restrict-binge cycle
This looks like beginning to allow yourself foods that have been previously “off limits.” This could be bringing cookies into your house and including some with lunch or as a snack. Or it could be grabbing that muffin you’ve been eyeing from the cafe you always get your coffees from.
Stop skipping meals and include all fuel groups: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and a fruit or veggie. (Yes, it’s fine if it’s a fruit and not a veggie).
Stop exercising to change your body shape or weight. Start responding to what your body needs or wants.
Instead think to yourself: “What do I enjoy?” “What might feel good right now?” “If I gave myself an equal choice and didn’t shame myself at all - would I choose a walk/run or a nap right now?”
How long does it take to get used to intuitive eating?
How long have you been dieting, restricting, or counting calories for? For some of us it’s been almost our entire lives, for others it might be only a couple years or months. In general (obviously there are MANY differences and nuances here), the longer you’ve been thinking and acting in line with the diet mentality, the longer it will take to find your new normal. The best advice I can give is not to judge yourself or rush yourself.
Resources:
Romano, K. A., Swanbrow Becker, M. A., Colgary, C. D., & Magnuson, A. (2018). Helpful or harmful? The comparative value of self-weighing and calorie counting versus intuitive eating on the eating disorder symptomology of college students. Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 23(6), 841–848. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0562-6
Fildes, A., Charlton, J., Rudisill, C., Littlejohns, P., Prevost, A. T., & Gulliford, M. C. (2015). Probability of an Obese Person Attaining Normal Body Weight: Cohort Study Using Electronic Health Records. American journal of public health, 105(9), e54–e59. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302773
Hall K. D. (2022). Energy compensation and metabolic adaptation: "The Biggest Loser" study reinterpreted. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 30(1), 11–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23308
Fothergill, E., Guo, J., Howard, L., Kerns, J. C., Knuth, N. D., Brychta, R., Chen, K. Y., Skarulis, M. C., Walter, M., Walter, P. J., & Hall, K. D. (2016). Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after "The Biggest Loser" competition. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 24(8), 1612–1619. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.21538
