The Shangri-La of weight loss

I have been thinking about this quite a bit lately and I would love to hear all of your opinions on this topic.  I have noticed that after I have a few hungry days, they are often followed by a few non-hungry days.  Laura made the same comment to me on Cindy's daily maintenance thread.  She told me that her normally skinny daughter also eats this way.  I know that a few of us who are able to maintain by just eating intuitively and not limiting calories or carbs are able to eat this way as well.  Do you find that you can trust your body to regulate the caloric intake?  I am really wondering if this is real for many of us or if it's just a mirage I will always hope and strive for, only to find that my body can't do this.  I don't want to relinquish control but on the other hand this would be the promised land of weight loss.  What do you guys think?

My body might could do it...IF head hunger was out of the equation...so for me...its not likely

For me, not likely. Journaling keeps me accountable.

 Honestly, I journaled for the first 6 months very strictly and got 70g protein and 60oz of water. After the 6 months, I freed myself from that, and have been going on instinct, only eating what I wanted, stopping when feeling full, and trying to choose protein at meals over anything else (ocassionally having protein shakes when I felt I was lacking). I have never had a gain or stall...so I'm not going to change anything until/unless I hit a stall. Hopefully, this thing has been a miricle cure for me. I also got diagnosed with PCOS and am on medication for that, so it could also be why my metabolism is more like a "normal" person's now. Whatever the reason, I'm very happy.

Anytime I give in to the head hunger and eat too much junky stuff, the next day I just don't have head hunger at all.  I actually forget to eat if I've overeaten the previous day.  This always happens to me if I eaten too many calories.  I know I have days when I eat say 1800/2000 or more then it's as if my body says "no more".  And it may take me 2 days to process all the extra, then I can go back to my regularly scheduled program.  Happens every time.

Laura

P.S. my daughter is 5'8 and 118/120...I love to hate her, lol. : )

I could never trust anything because I get out of hand in a very short time and it's hard to get back
to what I know I should be doing.  Now that I have, I hope I don't stray again because
it's so easy for me to think I can eat anything I want and the sleeve won't let me gain weight .
I know better!

Oh trust me. I do get where you're coming from.  It's just that for me, when I stray, my body doesn't like it and seems to put an immediate stop to it on its own.  So if I have a bad day, I just can't keep doing it and doing it.  I get bloated and miserable till all the crap gets out of my system and I have no desire to do it again for a good long while.  Even over the holidays, I just couldn't do it.  There were times at parties where I had no desire for any of the food there.  I may have had 2 bad eating days from Thanksgiving through New Years.  And I can't do it one meal after another either.  If I've had a slice of pizza at a meal, I automatically want salad only for dinner.  Unhealthy food constipates me terribly and I feel horrible and full for way to long and I end up not getting the required amounts of fluids or protein in because I stay so darn full.

I'm sort of in the middle on this one...I haven't journalled or "officially" counted calories or carbs since early on (like 4 months), but I have always, always, always made the effort to go for protein first, veggies second. In the first couple of years, this strategy worked great because I got full so fast, but it's a bit more problematic now. (To clarify: I still get full very quickly--the capacity hasn't changed much, but I can certainly eat more frequently).

We had people over for dinner tonight. My David grilled steaks and endive and fennel which I had tossed in olive oil and salt and pepper. I also made some new potatoes, roasted in garlic, spices and olive oil. For dessert, I made a berry gratin topped with full fat Hagen Daz ice cream. Over a couple of hours, I ate steak (maybe 2 oz.), some veggies, about 1/4 of a small new potato, and a small serving of dessert. And I had a gin and (diet) tonic. Knowing my body, I think this will be okay. Not for everyday--when it's just us, I focus more on the protein, never serve potatoes or rice or pasta and thankfully, my husband is fine with that. And, while I often have a small sweet treat, I don't keep ice cream or cookies around.

I too am striving for the mythic intuitive eating. I try to imagine myself as my mother, who was 5' 7". She always made a point of mentioning that her highest weight was 140 pounds--on the day I was born. She ate full fat everything. I don't think a day went by when she didn't have dessert--a couple of Hershey's Kisses or coffee candies or pound cake. But they were teeny portions. And her meals were TINY--I remember looking at them growing up and thinking, "That's ONE bite of meat, maybe two. She must have had a naturally small stomach, because she truly didn't work at her weight at all and always said she'd be really happy if they would make a pill she could take instead of eating (maybe her ghrelin production was abnormally low??). My sister has always been thin, too...She eats a lot of junk (think "The Skittles Diet"). But I will say, that on the rare occasion when the scale has gone up 10 pounds, she is immediately into MAJOR panic mode, stops fooling around and gets the weight off. No hiding her head in the sand at all, so she's found a range that works for her.

I am still working on this one. I don't know ONE naturally skinny person (N.S.P.) apart from my mother who has never had to work on their weight a little. But I don't know any N.S.P. who has to work as hard on it as I do either...So, no conclusions on this one. A work in progress...

Good question, Elina!

L.

 

"I am still working on this one. I don't know ONE naturally skinny person (N.S.P.) apart from my mother who has never had to work on their weight a little. But I don't know any N.S.P. who has to work as hard on it as I do either...So, no conclusions on this one. A work in progress..."



Now that you bring it up.......For years we heard our NSP friends say..... "I need to lose 10lbs. my clothes are fitting to tight"

I would always think......awwww.... poor little ****I don't feel a bit sorry for you !!!!!

Now I think I'm gonna be that poor little **** !!!

frisco

Yes, my daughter is one of those "lucky ones" I guess.  She recently started tracking her food on one of those on line sites just for ****s and giggles.  What we've found out since she's been doing it is that she naturally eats between 1000 and 1500 cals per day.  Every once in a while she has a splurge (especially when I buy her favorite Nacho Cheese Doritos) and eats a bunch of junk, then she somehow just doesn't want it anymore for days on end.  And her calories go right back to her normal range.  I think that A. she had a tiny stomach and B.  she doesn't have a lot of ghrelin.  And she stays full for very long periods of time...lucky girl.  She's not a foodie!

Laura