One non-diet plan I love is the French Women Don't Get Fat idea. I have had good luck on it when I want to just maintain and do moderate exercise. I definitely will go back to those principles once I reach my goal weight.
Loved her book! As I've written elsewhere, I practiced IE for 20 years without knowing what it was. My children were small and food was simply not an issue for me. I was as thin as I could possibly be. I could completely relate to what she wrote in her book. Although I must admit that I never tried her leek soup.
I've heard about that French book! And a Japanese one too!
I haven't bought any of them, but between those and the fact you have the Mediterranean diet etc... But you never have "The U.S. Diet" or "The UK Diet"... The only distinction I could draw was that people in areas where they eat FOOD as opposed to chemically-enhanced-it-was-once-food, they seem to fare much better overall with weight. And as the "western" way of eating becomes more prevalent in these countries, so does obesity.
So yeah, I just ate a donut. But that's fine, I no longer want to LIVE off them. And I'm really fortunate I ended up working in a Spanish bar, because I get fed real food there! Result!
I was going somewhere with this... And it was in the direction of agreeing with you
Intuitive Eating is a non-diet which is actually a diet..
The major rules are to eat when hungry and stop when full or when satisfied.
This non-diet Diet is based on the undocumented (and erroneous) principle
that an obese person's body will tell one what, and how much to eat
in order to become and stay a normal weight.
Like most other diets, IE has failed to work for thousands of people,
and IE.. just like all other diet plans.. takes no responsibility for this,
but instead blames the people who are unable to incorporate it into their daily lives.
I agree that it's VERY easy to turn intuitive eating into what is known as the "stomach hunger diet". It's easy to feel like a failure if you eat when you aren't physically hungry, or if you happen to eat past satisfied or full.
I don't know that IE has failed to work for thousands of people, and I'm not sure about it being an "erroneous principle" that an obese person's body will tell them what or how much to eat for their particular needs.
For me, the farther I stay away from anything having to do with diets of any kind, the better I do.
If there has to be a label, I'd label myself, at this point, as a "non-dieter".
Humm...that's interesting - especially considering you are a member of the Donut Whispering group on FB.
Since you obviously don't favor IE - and that's exactly what that group supports - I have to wonder why you joined it in the first place?
I have been maintaining a large weight-loss for quite a long time,
and it has taken a great deal of work for me to personally do this.
The perspective that has been working for me is to view Dieting as an ongoing hobby.
Part of doing this is to read various books and websites,
and investigate and experiment with different dieting styles,
and then write about this at my personal, non-profit - ad-free, website, DietHobby.
I've written several detailed articles about Intuitive Eating
which can be easily found in the DietHobby website ARCHIVES.
This is what I'm doing too. I realized that even though over the years I've been on a ton of diets, the only thing that ever worked for me to lose a significant amount of weight was the "non diet", when I lost 50 pounds just by eating smaller portions, making healthier choices and moving more. The weight just fell of when I did that. So this is my plan this time around too.
Loved her book! As I've written elsewhere, I practiced IE for 20 years without knowing what it was. My children were small and food was simply not an issue for me. I was as thin as I could possibly be. I could completely relate to what she wrote in her book. Although I must admit that I never tried her leek soup.
Wasn't a fan of the leek soup but did like the her mimosa soup substitute. I usually will do that if I had a really bad food week where I cheated pretty much everyday and then I need a jump start. But thankfully, I haven't had to do that for over a year!
I have been maintaining a large weight-loss for quite a long time,
and it has taken a great deal of work for me to personally do this.
Congratulations on your success. It is rare.
I will say that I agree with you that IE can become a diet if one is not careful. I don't care for the Tribole/Resch book at all; too many rules and too much to think about. I also think that people who have serious eating disorders are not going to be able to practice any type of intuitive eating with any success. I think we can agree wholeheartedly that every person is individual and what works for one does not work for another.
That said, I think making a blanket statement about any WOE such as you did about IE (in your initial post) is disingenuous. I've written my own personal story several places elsewhere on this forum so I won't repeat it here. I'm a person who has no eating disorders per se - I have just had times in my life when I've eaten too much and moved too little. Period. I've never been significantly overweight in my life (never in the obese category on the BMI charts, just overweight) but when I did go on a diet I become a bit obsessive about food, something I just didn't think about for the 20 years of my adult life when I was thin. So some form of IE is best for me, as dieting (restricting) eventually leads to overeating for me. Maybe that's not true for you, but it IS true for many, many people.
Quote:
The perspective that has been working for me is to view Dieting as an ongoing hobby.
Part of doing this is to read various books and websites,
and investigate and experiment with different dieting styles,
and then write about this at my personal website.
I've written several detailed articles about Intuitive Eating
which can be easily found in the website ARCHIVES.
So first of all, I went to your website archives, and I did find a few articles about IE. The ones I found were just copies of another person's articles with a few of your comments thrown in at the top. And they were all negative toward IE.
Which begs the question, and I'll ask it again (since you didn't answer it initially) - why would you join a FB group that is made up solely of people practicing IE? You are obviously opposed to it. Which is fine. Different things work for different people. You are entitled to your opinion, and I don't have a problem with you expressing it here.
I am just completely puzzled as to why you would join the DW FB group. It's not an all-encompassing forum such as this one which is designed to explore a lot of different methods of losing weight. It is strictly a support group for people practicing one particular form of eating, and it is designed for that alone.
I do remember you posting one of your videos there, and I remember thinking - "humm, this doesn't have a thing to do with what we discuss there" but whatever. I just ignored it. But now that you've come on here to make statements about IE that are clearly negative I have to question your motivation about being in that group. Just seems very odd to me.
I agree that it's VERY easy to turn intuitive eating into what is known as the "stomach hunger diet". It's easy to feel like a failure if you eat when you aren't physically hungry, or if you happen to eat past satisfied or full.
I don't know that IE has failed to work for thousands of people, and I'm not sure about it being an "erroneous principle" that an obese person's body will tell them what or how much to eat for their particular needs.
For me, the farther I stay away from anything having to do with diets of any kind, the better I do.
If there has to be a label, I'd label myself, at this point, as a "non-dieter".
I completely agree, Becky. The same is true for me.
I try not to buy anything that has the word "food" on the label. If they have to tell you it's food, it's not really food.
Very true! The label doth protest too much.
SouthernMaven, that's interesting what you say about the book... I never read any books, except the overfed head which is online for free, and I read that once. Perhaps it's possible I'm equating IE with just taking some general ideas I have about IE that I found on the Internet, with being a non-diet? I started with the eat when you're hungry, stop when you're no longer hungry thing, equated certain foods with feeling better or worse, and lo and behold started losing weight. I'm confident I can say I'm both IE and on a non-diet, because I just took the principles of IE and ran with them, and now I just seem to do what I want without a plan, and it still works.
Perhaps it really is just a matter of perspective. Excessive sugar makes me feel like cr*p. I used to eat it anyway when it was "banned" out of... principle? Now I know I can have it whenever I like, I don't eat it nearly as much. It's gone from being a rebellious act to a conscious decision. And it's fixed my binge eating. I guess I just don't like being told what to do
Perhaps it really is just a matter of perspective. Excessive sugar makes me feel like cr*p. I used to eat it anyway when it was "banned" out of... principle? Now I know I can have it whenever I like, I don't eat it nearly as much. It's gone from being a rebellious act to a conscious decision. And it's fixed my binge eating. I guess I just don't like being told what to do
This is true for me, too. I'm not banning any particular foods, I'm not weighing and measuring, and I'm not counting anything. I don't eat when I'm not hungry, and I know that when I am hungry it's not appropriate to have burgers, fries, and a large soda three times a day, every day. Plus, if I did, I know I wouldn't feel very good afterwards.
I am more conscience of what I put in my mouth, but I'm not obsessing over it.
SouthernMaven, that's interesting what you say about the book... I never read any books, except the overfed head which is online for free, and I read that once. Perhaps it's possible I'm equating IE with just taking some general ideas I have about IE that I found on the Internet, with being a non-diet?
Shiv, let me tell you - I've read a fair amount about the subject, but The Overfed Head is the best book on the subject I've read. Frankly most of the stuff I've read gets way too complicated and introspective. It's really just plain old common sense when you get right down to it.
I've definitely moved toward the non-diet mentality. I try really hard not to be distracted when I eat, and that helps, but I'm not quite as obsessive about it as I was when I first started intuitive eating. And I certainly don't try to put a number on my hunger/fullness signals. That to me is going right back to diet mentality. So I disagree with that aspect of IE.
Quote:
I started with the eat when you're hungry, stop when you're no longer hungry thing, equated certain foods with feeling better or worse, and lo and behold started losing weight. I'm confident I can say I'm both IE and on a non-diet, because I just took the principles of IE and ran with them, and now I just seem to do what I want without a plan, and it still works.
This is so true! I think you really have hit upon the real secret to non-dieting. Bottom line - the less we think about food and just use it for fuel, the better off we'll all be.
Quote:
Perhaps it really is just a matter of perspective. Excessive sugar makes me feel like cr*p. I used to eat it anyway when it was "banned" out of... principle? Now I know I can have it whenever I like, I don't eat it nearly as much. It's gone from being a rebellious act to a conscious decision. And it's fixed my binge eating. I guess I just don't like being told what to do
Woah! I haven't visited this thread in a few days Haha!
Sorry guys, I'm gonna stick on here. Just the thought of saying I'm doing IE puts me diet-mode even if you guys say it isn't a diet. Last week was great! I've been finding out things about myself, trying to find exercises that I enjoy. I went biking Saturday and found that I enjoy it very much! I've done it for 3 days in a row now, really pushing myself when I go, trying to get faster every day. I've also made a switch from regular peanut butter to natural peanut butter and I've started eating almonds & Kashi granola bars (naturaly ingredients). I gained .2 when I weighed in on Monday but that's ok. I haven't done much last week to expect anything. Just taking things slow. I've actually found a goal for myself. My birthday is Nov. 2, 2 days after Halloween so we normally do a Halloween party to celebrate. Well, this year, I bought my costume and it's short dress so I need to tone my legs (hence why I think biking is EXCELLENT! Haha!). Gives me the motivation I need. I keep thinking of it when I don't want to exercise right away. I just get up and go! Oh! I'm also getting a puppy at the end of the month so that'll be another motivation to get moving.
So first of all, I went to your website archives, and I did find a few articles about IE. The ones I found were just copies of another person's articles with a few of your comments thrown in at the top. And they were all negative toward IE.
Which begs the question, and I'll ask it again (since you didn't answer it initially) - why would you join a FB group that is made up solely of people practicing IE? I am just completely puzzled as to why you would join the DW FB group. It's not an all-encompassing forum such as this one which is designed to explore a lot of different methods of losing weight. It is strictly a support group for people practicing one particular form of eating, and it is designed for that alone.
Thank you. I answered your question previously, but here's an additional, more detailed, follow-up answer for you.
In my previous answer to you, I told you that my personal maintenance involves me using the perspective of dieting as a hobby. I use my personal website, DietHobby, like a scrapbook. I've written and posted more than 600 articles there, including my own reviews of various diets; my own opinions about the different aspects of dieting; and my opinions about diet related articles that I find interesting, or helpful, especially those I find informative about an issue I'm investigating. I've also made more than 300 personal videos for that site, and in addition I post some of the interesting or helpful videos that others have made which fit various dieting subjects that I write about.
As part of my maintenance .... (dieting hobby) .... I research, investigate, and experiment with many different Diets, i.e. which are often re-labeled as "way-of-eating", "lifestyle", "non-diet" etc. I buy and read many different diet books, and I join various online dieting groups while investigating and experimenting with that particular diet. Watching others as they experiment with a diet is usually quite informative. I work to make any post by me within any such group supportive of that group's basic principles as I perceive them. The Facebook group that you mention is one of those many groups, and I joined it when I purchased the book it promotes.
My personal opinion, which I state again and again is:
.....,My use of the word "Diet" involves it's basic definition, which means that ANYTHING which involves eating is a Diet, including "non-diets". There are many different types of diets which are termed "non-diets". "Intuitive Eating" diets have basic principles in common, however, every diet fitting into the "non-diet" category is NOT based on the basic "Intuitive Eating" principles.
.....I believe that it is NOT a one-size-fits-all world, and that although EVERY diet does NOT work for EVERYONE, EVERY diet works for SOMEONE.
Last edited by Bright Angel; 06-04-2013 at 10:18 AM.
