Goodbye diets! Intuitive eating is here with a more compassionate approach to ourselves, our bodies, and our enjoyment of food. We spoke with two nutritionists who are experts in mindful eating and they gave us these really useful tips to eat healthy every day, and without restrictive diets!
Intuitive eating: eat better without dieting
Do not cling and do not diet!
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The most important thing before changing your diet is to be clear about why and where your desire comes from. “It’s not to lose weight but to be healthy,” the nutritionist told us Carla Paola Acevesintuitive eating expert—. Being thin is not synonymous with being healthy.; so the goal should not be to change your body composition (i.e. lose weight) because that is out of your control. The important thing is to improve your relationship with food and be healthy.”
There are several clinical studies that show that more than 60 percent of our body composition depends on genetic and inborn factors that are out of our control, according to the Dr. Lety Mendoza, surgeon specialized in clinical nutrition and mood states. So, even if you manage to lose weight for a while, the body will always seek to return to its natural weight and composition. Because, weight loss diets do not work in the long term and only leave us with a lot of frustration and stress.
To this we must add that the body changes at each stage of life, according to Dr. Aceves. “Many people in full adulthood want to go back to weighing what they weighed in high school; but apart from the fact that it cannot be done because the body changes at each stage of life, there is no need to do it. Changes are good and resisting change is resisting moving forward. The best thing is to accept ourselves, be more compassionate with ourselves and understand that the success of a healthy diet is not how much the scale indicates or what the BMI (Body Mass Index) is, but how healthy we are “-
Think about your emotional health, it is the most important thing in intuitive eating! Furthermore, dieting to lose weight causes us to enter into an obsessive train of thought about our weight and image, which inevitably leads to stress and even other health problems such as depression and obesity.
Love yourself and respect your body. Its the first.
Don’t eat with guilt!
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If you have heard that “eating with guilt makes you fat”, believe it. It’s true! The reason is this:
Guilt causes stress, and stress causes fat to be stored in the body. “Yes there is stress, cortisol rises. If cortisol rises, fat is stored”, says Dr. Mendoza. This is explained with one of the most basic reactions of the human body: survival. “When we feel stress –physical or emotional–, the body enters a state of survival or a state of ‘fight or flight’; so when detecting a possible danger (which causes stress), the body reacts by releasing cortisol and storing energy, since it thinks it will need it to fight or flee. That energy is stored in the form of fat.
Eating with guilt causes a very high impact of physical and emotional stress. In addition, often feeling guilty for eating something that “we shouldn’t” can lead to overeating and even cause other more serious eating disorders, such as bulimia. So, eat everything and enjoy it! Just take care of the amount and balance of nutrients.
Eat everything, do not restrict yourself
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Although there are plenty of restrictive diets, such as the ketogenic diet (aka “keto”) that completely – or almost – eliminates carbohydrate intake; meta-analyses of various studies on various restrictive diets have shown time and time again that it is best to eat all the macronutrients in a varied and balanced way. “It is not natural for you to take macronutrients from your body, let alone carbohydrates! says Dr. Aceves. Carbohydrates are the main source of energy and eliminating them can cause a significant imbalance. Yes, you will lose weight in a short time, but in the medium and long term, you will regain that lost weight or you may even gain more. Also, there is no way to be healthy without consuming all the macronutrients.”
It also does not mean that you do not eliminate from your diet certain foods that you do not like or do not like. Intuitive eating is about paying attention to everything you eat and discovering what suits you and what doesn’t and molding your habits to your needs.
Pay attention to your cravings
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“If something craves you, eat it! —Dra. Mendoza advises us—. Sometimes cravings are the expression of the need for certain nutrients at that specific moment; for example: if you are craving something salty, maybe you need sodium”. What is important, she says, is to do it mindfully and ask yourself where the craving is coming from before you eat. Also, “when a craving is omitted, the probability that, after a while, we will crave it again and, in addition, each time we will crave more (before I only wanted one scoop of ice cream and now I want two) is extremely high because the feeling of anxiety about wanting to eat something specific accumulates, in such a way that after the restriction comes the overeating (I already restricted myself, now not only I’m going to eat an ice cream but an ice cream and a cake and some potatoes)”.
Intuitive Eating Is Also About Sleeping Well
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“If you don’t sleep well, the next day you become more susceptible to wanting to eat carbohydrates to have energy —explains Dr. Aceves—; In addition, not sleeping well alters the metabolism, changes the functions of the body and it is very likely that you get stressed due to the lack of rest, which causes you to eat more”.
Eat slowly
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“There are clinical studies that show that eating slowly, spaced out for more than 20 minutes, gives the brain the opportunity to send hunger and satiety signals,” says Dr. Mendoza. It’s very simple: if you eat slowly, you better manage the portions your body requires and do not go too far”.
In addition, Dr. Mendoza, following the intuitive eating guide, recommends “not eating distracted, always being present. Don’t watch cell phone or TV, enjoy your food, the smell, the taste. Chew calmly, be aware of the sensations that eating gives you, that brings you back to the present and helps you enjoy more.”
Apply intermittent exercise
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Before thinking about intermittent fasting, consider starting with intermittent exercise. “Many people spend 10 hours sitting a day and an hour in the gym and they think it’s enough, but it’s not,” explains Dr. Paola. The best thing is to move constantly, that speeds up the metabolism.
The advice is: take breaks every hour for ten minutes. Stand up, walk, climb stairs, move. “That makes the energy move properly. In addition, exercise helps reduce stress, improve your mood and helps reduce the risk of developing diseases because it causes epigenetic changes; that is to say that things move around the DNA. They are not changes in the constitution but rather changes around that make the predispositions to suffer from certain diseases come on or not”.
Be patient!
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Everyone has a different path and rhythm. “Don’t compare yourself or feel bad because someone else advances faster than you or loses weight before you do,” says Dr. Aceves. The important thing is to heal your relationship with food and that takes time, because you have to find the reasons for your eating habits and change them at the root. Each person has their own process, find yours”.
Be careful what you consume on the internet!
“Instagram, TikTok, and social media can be super damaging if you only see perfect bodies that you consciously or unknowingly compare yourself to,” says Dr. Aceves. Accept the diversity of bodies, sizes, colors! This is the moment to break with the fact that we must all have the same constitution. Try not to judge others because that is judging you”.
Don’t listen to everything you read
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The Internet is full of diets and advice without medical or scientific support. R.Remember that each body is a world and each one has different needs and processes. The best thing is that you always have the support of a health professional.
