Intuitive nutrition: essence, principles

Ways to lose weight have gone through a rapid transformation from hungry days to compulsory meals 6 times a day. The names also changed: the word “diet” was replaced by a psychologically more pleasant “nutrition system”. And now they are being replaced by “intuitive nutrition.” WDay investigated the issue together with specialist Anastasia Borisova, candidate for master of sports, creator of its own fitness platform.

What is intuitive eating? Experts most often mean by this concept an informed choice of products. That is, you learn to listen to your body, understand its true needs and trust yourself more. Behind intuitive eating is a big philosophy about self-love and freedom of choice, that the best diet is the absence of such, and a smart organism will ask for what it needs.

In Russia, people started talking about intuitive eating after Olga Goloshchapova’s book Goodbye, Diet! In it, the woman talked about her own experience and shared exercises that are designed to help you hear your body and recognize the so-called true hunger or false hunger. In other words, are you eating out of boredom or it is really time to replenish your energy reserves.

Olga had many followers who, under the hashtag # IP, undertook to carry a new trend in the social network. Having quickly caught the interest in the slogan “eat everything and lose weight”, the hashtag was picked up by bloggers. And now a good start suddenly turned into a newfangled diet. When losing weight happily began to eat everything, while gaining extra pounds, intuitive nutrition was discredited. Let’s still figure out what an IP is and what it is eaten with.

From what it all began

This concept originated in America, the famous doctor Stephen Hawkes, who had been struggling with extra pounds all his life, published his study back in 2005. Since then, intuitive eating has become a very popular topic in the United States.

But already at that time, the system had existed for more than 30 years – back in the 70s, Teima Weiler proposed a non-dietary approach. The system is tied to psychology: as soon as you forbade yourself something, you immediately wanted it most of all. And the plus that IP adherents replicated: you don’t need to limit yourself, but eat what you want, but do it rationally. Eating not out of boredom, for the company or for the sake of decency at a party. You need to be honest with yourself and know what you really need.

At this stage, extremes are possible. This choice should not be taken too seriously. The decision should not be weighed down to the smallest detail, because the time and effort to make it are also included in the cost of the issue, which must be minimized.

Such a rational system does not imply any rules, extremes, rejects attempts to eat ideally and calls not to suffer from prohibitions and restrictions.

The point of intuitive eating is that hunger is the only reasonable basis for eating. It is being replaced by social norms and stereotypes. When a person eats too much, he gets fat. This is logical. Eating without hunger is harmful to the body and figure. But it is just as harmful to endure the feeling of hunger. If you are really hungry, you need to eat. If you wait until the hunger becomes severe, overeating cannot be avoided. When you get to your meal, you eat more than you need.

The main rule is no rules

The fact of the matter is that the concept of intuitive eating does not divide food into good and bad. As long as there are forbidden foods, a person will be drawn to them.

Here the system is as follows – you can eat anything, subject to two conditions: you are hungry and your body requires this particular product. And this is where the template breaks. Lovers of diets are intimidated by this approach. This is absurd, they think, there is anything! Yes, and it’s scary to allow yourself forbidden foods after you have convinced yourself for many years that it is impossible. It seems to those who have sat on diets that they will eat some harmfulness. But research proves the opposite – the human body itself chooses what exactly it needs at the moment.

Children are a striking example of this. Watch them. They eat exactly as much as they need, and the desire to cram too much turns into a scandal. But when parents start to cram in food, then problems with excess weight, sugar levels and the general perception of food begin. The child’s body is clean and not spoiled by imposed food habits and chemicals, he chooses the food that suits him. Adults can do the same, but rebuilding will take time and patience. Once again – time and patience! Do not expect that after years of restrictions, you will immediately catch this wave. Time is the main test for newcomers. After all, everyone needs everything at once.

But if you are definitely determined to try it, then it is important that a variety of food is available. In general, people with eating disorders have a hard time knowing when they are truly hungry and noticing the very moment of fullness to stop eating. And leaving the table with a feeling of slight hunger is not about that.

How to learn to recognize the moment of saturation

To stop on time, you need to adjust the speed of your food. Take your time, do not be distracted by the TV or computer. Eat and understand what you eat.

There is an interesting pause technique. For example, you see that you have eaten enough, but you still do not feel full. So just put your food aside for a couple of minutes and do something else. It is necessary to move – this awakens a feeling of satiety. But you don’t have to slide into dietary control. Try to listen to the body, and not forcefully limit yourself. If you feel hungry, keep eating.

Practice this technique as often as possible, and gradually you will begin to feel the moment of saturation and anticipate it. Such strict but effective rules apply to the Japanese diet.

Basic principles

The very idea of ​​intuitive eating is to listen to yourself. You need to trust your body, satisfy its desires and allow yourself all sorts of pranks. And yes, you can eat at night if you are hungry. And if you want this piece of cake, you can eat it without any problems. The key point is if you really want to. But there are also some rules for intuitive eating. Here they are.

• Need to understand and accept hunger… There should be a golden mean in nutrition.

• Do not control power and don’t count calories… You need to understand the body on an intuitive level. If you feel the need for a piece of chocolate, go ahead.

• Make friends with food, which you have chosen for yourself during the day, she will surely reciprocate you. Think of the feeling after the end of the diet, when you pounced on forbidden foods and then condemned yourself with a sense of guilt and were upset that you could not resist. Forget about it, everything is possible!

• Eat with pleasure. For example, in eastern countries, people usually do not just eat to replenish their vital energy, they try to enjoy food. If you eat in a pleasant environment and you like what you have on your plate, you will get more energy and nothing will be deposited anywhere. You need to enjoy every bite, and not just clog your stomach, to stop the exhausting feeling of hunger.

• Don’t solve problems with food! This is not a story about a guy dumping me, I’m going to eat. Often it is during stress, experiences that unconscious overeating begins, which supposedly helps to cope with the blues. But this is psychology. After gluttony, self-flagellation begins about what has been eaten. This often turns into a habit that is difficult to get rid of. Solve problems not with food, but with action and lift your mood with other things: go to a workout, a walk, or a meeting with friends.

• Love, value and respect your body… Accept it as it is. It is beautiful now. Understand what it is, how you made it. Love your reflection in the mirror, please yourself, and start improving yourself in a healthy way. Play sports that are fun. Or don’t do it at all if you don’t love it.
• Вchoose good foodsthat will benefit and enjoy. If it’s chocolate, then it’s real chocolate, not its likeness; if it’s cheese, then it’s cheese, not a cheese product. Love yourself and give yourself the best you can afford.

Head of Health Promotion and Healthy Lifestyle Promotion at SIBUR

Each organism is unique, not because we are so magical, but because each person has his own set of enzymes, receptors and features of physiological processes. This is why what suits even your brother or mom may not always suit you.

2. The popularity of this method is now akin to the popularity of psychological theories like Labkovsky, because it says: “do only what you want.” Yes, great, but for a scheduled person with a family and social ambitions, it can be difficult to go beyond the outside world.

3. In fact, in most cases we are governed by hormones, people can violate the law, being unable to control themselves (maniacs). And for the feeling of hunger, separate hormones are responsible, by the way, such as grill and leptin. Strange, but most adherents of this lifestyle are very young girls. My generation, now in its thirties, up to 25 years old, could eat anything, stay awake, stress during exams, and this did not affect the external data in any way.