I did two articles recently that covered intuitive eating and the side effects of weight loss. I received a lot of email and many links to blogs or forum posts discussing (and at times dissecting) the article I wrote. For the sake of clarity, I am going to make a few more points (and in some cases highlight the points I already made) about these topics. If you have any further questions on the topic feel free to state them below. In the end, please keep in mind that this is an opinion blog and intuitive eating isn’t exactly filling the pages of science daily. It is very hard to isolate matters of the mind and heart, especially with so many variables at play. Why one person chooses the solace of food (and how) is completely different from another. Keep that in mind.
Symptoms List Have Variety For A Reason
When I listed out the list of possible side effects to weight loss you should understand how side effects work. You don’t have to have all of them. Perhaps this comes from being overloaded by the Webmd symptoms check, but in order to have a problem you don’t have to have all the symptoms listed. I also stated that the symptoms can and usually will change. That being said, sometimes the lack of side effects can be a side effect all on its own.
Metabolic Adaptation Role On Intuition
As you diet down you are going to alter the course of how you feel. How you feel in week-one of a diet isn’t going to be how you feel in weeks 2, 3, 4 and so on. In a recent topics download, I discussed in detail the role of metabolic adaption in your dieting down and how overtime you can start to experience the reverse effects. You can move from being hungry to never feeling hungry. You can shift from being tired to extremely anxious. You can move from being short tempered to severely depressed. As I stated before, when the body moves into a deficit it will adjust in a myriad of ways to adapt or downgrade in the situation.
Overachievers Are A Completely Different Ballgame
Compulsive overachievers aren’t going to react the same as the obese. Anecdotal arguments from people who have never been largely overweight and are classic undereaters/overtrainers only stand to complicate the issue. You have your own set of metabolic disturbance and hormonal issues going on. This is going to pronounce different feelings and emotions that you need to get in turn with. This is not a book, these are articles. The point of these articles is to alert you to the fact that simply “eating when you hungry” and retraining how you look at food is more complicated than books with pictures of holding hands on them. What works for someone who is obese is not going to work for someone who pushes to hard and fearful of a 1lb scale increase after eating food. The side effects need to fit the situation, and thus your reactions.
If It Takes Work, So Be It
Relaxing is a funny topic to discuss. Relaxing is different things to different people. Not everyone has a surfboard/stoner attitude to relaxation, nor should they. Research shows stress is released in a variety of ways and some of the best ways is in movement and occupation of the mind. If you sit in a office all day, your relaxing may be best in a field doing choirs instead of sitting at a pool. Sometimes not being lazy and taking time to track food, workouts, and where you are heading is relaxation. People should not feel guilty or crazy for such activities. Remember it is how something makes you feel, not what people think of you that matters. If intuitive isn’t for you, then enjoy your measuring and progress checks. It’s better than spending to much time whining on message boards about not having the time to watch your diet, but man isn’t the new season of Dexter amazing (seen the new trailer yet?).
In the end, we make time for what is important to us. Whatever it will be, it will be. Stop watching so much OCD project and freaking out because you make charts. If you want to wade your way through dieting, great. If not, enjoy your pie charts and just remember only when you become unhappy is when anything matters.
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Good follow up Leigh. I think we all get caught up in seeing what we want to so we don’t have to talk ourselves out of things.
This really pulled everything together for me. I have to be honest I was a little skeptical and confused by intuitive eating in the past but this really explains it and the point of it. Thanks.
Leigh I know this isn’t completely related but I was looking at what would be the best research to check out for cognitive therapy and am hitting a wall. I noticed lately you mention it here and on the forums. Any direction would be good.
I hate it when you are so logical.
I liked these posts a lot.
Also, I am only on season 3 of Dexter and if it only gets better, I don’t know what I am going to do.
Awesome follow up. Another way of putting “just remember when YOU become unhappy is when anything matters” is that when something is not working for you (because you’re not getting tangible or intangible (i.e. happiness) results, then it’s time to change what you’re doing.
Re: Dexter. Just saw the trailer. Ohhh, man!
Hi Leigh, I’ve really enjoyed this series. Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to intuitively eat your way to fat loss. I impose a restriction in the form of leangains IF if I’m not overeating to gain muscle and this really limits the amount of food I can consume in a day. Once again, kudos to you for acquainting me with Martin’s work!
I actually sent a question to the fitcast mailbag a few weeks ago but it didn’t get read out. I’d like to get your opinion on it, if you didn’t mind!
Original email:
“Hi guys,
I’ve recently come across John Barban’s blog and his Adonis Lifestyle podcasts. He advocates that excess calories is not required to build muscle (BMR is sufficient) and it would only contribute to adding fat. However, I know that people like Vince Delmonte and Jay Ferruggia talk constantly about eating a huge surplus to gain lean muscle quickly. Hell, Taylor Lautner said he had to eat every 2h! There really is so much conflicting information out there! I’m hoping to gain as much muscle as possible and minimize fat gain in the next 12 weeks to get rid of my skinny fat look and achieve the Lautner physique. What are your opinions on this calorie conundrum? Do I have to eat in caloric surplus and, if so, how much more calories should I eat above maintenance? Are there any other guidelines that you could give me to help me achieve my goal?
I’m currently on stronglifts 5×5 (the beginners programme) and starting out quite light. I’m thinking of adding some complexes and sprints at the end of the sessions to maintain my conditioning and leanness. I’m eating at a rate of bodyweight x 20.”
Thanks a lot! Sorry if it was long…
Counting calories and making sure to get enough macro- and micro nutrients is probably the most straightforward manner to lose weight. But I still see some problems with that approach. You’ll end up comparing apples to oranges, or more accurately tomatoes to table sugar. Both have calories, but the calories from tomatoes are partially undigestible, because of the fiber in it. Different foods have different rates of digestibility, different thermogenic effects and different impact on metabolism. But in the big picture, this wouldn’t be significant, since tomatoes are very low on calories anyway. Especially when you are cutting around 700 or 1000 kcal, this wouldn’t effect the results of the diet very much. Just saying that you can never really be accurate with counting calories, but you can come close enough to get the results you want from the diet.
I have been a member of the forum for a while and I can clearly see from all the before and after pictures posted and from the succes stories that counting calories as accurate as possible and getting enough macros works, period. Provided that the right target for calories has been selected.
Personally, I start getting into an “all or nothing” mindset when I count calories. I also don’t get much variety in my diet, because I get complacent when I know the calories of one meal. My meals turn out to taste like crap when I am preparing them with macro nutrients and calories in mind. I’ll eat them anyway, sometimes a second or third time, because I counted and prepared everything. I end up wasting a lot of time on meals trying to make them tasty with calories in mind. Then there’s a lot of food that I like to eat where it’s difficult to figure out calories. Like many Indian foods, like panir and dahl. Calorie counting is way more convenient when you eat a lot of prepackaged supermarket food. Not that it is impossible though.
I would only use counting calories as a tool to build awareness of how much I am eating. If I had to do it on a daily basis, multiple times per day, I am going to stress out big time. That’s just my experience. I would never criticize anyone for picking the calorie counting method, if they can handle it succesfully, more power to them.
Any diet has some form of restriction and has pros and cons. In the end you have to find something that suits your own lifestyle and suck up the hardships of it. I don’t like the word intuitive dieting, because “what the hell does that mean?” Running after an icecream truck, like in the picture of this blogpost, that’s intuitive. Anything can be called intuitive. I would rather call it an holisthic or integrated form of dieting. Also words that could mean anything, by the way.
When you diet more intuitive, you still need a clear goal in mind of what you are trying to achieve. With the goal of fat loss in mind, you can manipulate certain aspects of your lifestyle, like training and nutrition. I don’t think you always need to know exactly how much in measurable results are associated with every single action you take towards a certain goal. Just as long as you have some understanding of why you are doing something and you have the awareness to see how it is working for you.