“Any time you truly listen to hunger and fullness, you lose weight.” -Geneen Roth
I didn’t know it at the time, but that quote practically summarizes intuitive eating in one sentence.
If it resonates with you, then you’ll love what intuitive eating is about.
What Is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating is about listening to your body to inform what and when to eat.
Yes, you can eat late at night. Yes, you can eat chocolate. And yes, you will lose weight… Say what?
While intuitive eating isn’t intended for weight loss, it can be a lovely by-product when you do it courageously. I’ll show you how next.
Just know that your body already knows how to achieve its natural weight.
Intuitive eating just puts you back in touch with that inner wisdom.
How Do You Eat Intuitively?
The best way to eat intuitively is to let go of any “food rules” you may have in your head and practice listening to your body.
Don’t eat by the clock and don’t try to eat any certain macro-nutrients in any particular volume (*cough* no low-carb / low-fat / high-protein nonsense *cough*).
Just eat exactly what appeals to you when you’re hungry, and stop when you’re full.
Chronic dieters may have trouble knowing what their body wants, though. This disconnect often comes from the mental wiring that occurs after dieting – when we listened to the mind instead of the body.
But even chronic dieters can succeed with intuitive eating! It just takes time to get back in touch with your body.
Eating whatever appeals to you, however, can bring up fear about gaining weight….
Will Intuitive Eating Make You Gain Weight?
In my opinion, the best way to eat intuitively without gaining weight is to follow the psycho-spiritual eating guidelines (my anti-dieting approach to weight loss):
- Eat exactly what appeals to you when you’re hungry
- Stop when you’re full
- Feel your feelings when you want to eat when you’re not hungry
That last step is the biggie.
From my experience, the only reason we overeat is to buffer an uncomfortable feeling that we don’t want to feel.
By learning how to develop emotional tolerance instead of overeating, you will lose weight — and enjoy the foods you enjoy along the way!
My favorite tool for developing emotional tolerance and stopping binge eating is called the Stop, Drop, and Feel method.
I made a video that walks you through it here:
Weight Loss through Intuitive Eating
The goal of intuitive eating isn’t weight loss. Weight loss is just the byproduct of learning how to be normal around food again.
Giving up dieting for intuitive eating can be terrifying to most people.
To help ease the anxiety, I recommend reading up on what happens when you stop dieting so that you can be mentally prepared.
Yes, it’s scary — but it can also be the most courageous unraveling.
I’ll be here if you need me any step along the way.