The question on every woman’s lips who’s ever struggled with body image (and body composition) is “can intuitive eating help me lose weight?” The answer is not as straight forward as we’d wish it to be. As a nutritionist, a weight loss mentor, and a holistic health advocate—I’ve spoken about about this topic quite a lot! (Like in this blog post. Or this one.) And I’m still speaking to it!
I’m still actively explaining how I think about intuitive eating and weight loss because I’m still learning about it!
The most recent lesson I learned about how intuitive eating impacts body composition happened while I was pregnant.
Pregnancy forced me to truly eat intuitively and it healed my body in so many ways.
I couldn’t eat whatever I thought I *should* eat and so I ate only what I could: EXACTLY what MY BODY wanted.
You can watch me talk all about it in this video.
What happened when I ate truly intuitively is truly incredible.
I ate bread and cake and pasta with wild abandon—at the behest of my Ideal Body Nature who was growing a baby and got extremely demanding— it resulted in me gaining just under 25lbs during pregnancy and losing just over 20lbs by 4 weeks postpartum without trying…
This isn’t to compare or set standards or pregnancy weight gain or any kind of weight loss (especially postpartum). In fact, measurements of weight do little to illustrate the full story anyhow; I’ve likely lost muscle and therefore have more than 5lbs extra squish than I had before pregnancy (in fact I am pretty squishy in places I was not squishy in before).
I’m sharing this to illustrate the healing my TRULY (pregnancy-induced) intuitive eating journey brought to my body.
My body did exactly what it needed to do, in the healthiest way possible, without me intervening… BUT that’s only one side of the Best Body coin:
HEALing is as necessary to Ideal Body Composition as GROWing & STRENGTHENing—and that requires STRATEGY.
It’s wonderful to eat intuitively, and after HEALing your relationship with food and your body you will live in a pretty darn decent form. That’s because health and wellbeing are NATURAL. This is a VERY necessary PIECE of the Best Body puzzle.
Intuitive Eating Facilitates:
- Healing Metabolism
- Regulating Hunger & Satiety (appetite & fullness)
- Building Trust with Yourself
- Knowing your Authentic Hunger
- Happy Hormonal Balance
- Less Binge Eating
- Less Food Craving
- Feeling more Satisfied in General
- Ending Food/Appetite Shame
It’s plain to see why this is an integral piece of the Best Body puzzle, and why some people lose weight eating intuitively, but it doesn’t explain why so many others DON’T lose weight when they switch to intuitive eating (because, indeed, many people GAIN weight eating intuitively)!
Intuitive Eating can Help heal your Body, and if you’ve been Restricting—this can mean Weight GAIN
Intuitive Eating (and movement, or lack thereof!) HEALed my body enough to do what it needed to do (grow a healthy baby) in good health and super decent form. And it can help heal many other facets of your health & body, that can sometimes lead to gaining weight in the process. That’s why it’s so important to move on to the GROW & STRENGTHEN stages.
If you want to be healthy, intuitive eating is a great way to get back in touch with your Ideal Body Nature. If you want to live in your Best Body, you’ll have to go farther than that.
Ideal Body Composition takes more than intuition—it takes a FORMULA… it takes a STRATEGY.
Just like becoming the best version of you is not going to happen just following the path of least resistance — going to the beach whenever you want, skipping out on work, or not facing a difficult conversation with a loved one — you have to apply conscious cultivation to your life, and body, to make it exceptional.
Ideal Body Composition takes education. A FORMULA others have figured out before you. And a STRATEGY that you can apply to your life.
That’s where what I call Ideal Body Nature NUTRITION comes in… Intuitive Eating is the first step. IBN Nutrition is the FORMULAIC and STRATEGIC second and last step.
I’m still physically HEALing from pregnancy and childbirth, but I’m now ready to move on into GROWth and then STRENGTHening my Ideal Body. So gentle IBN Nutrition is now the focus and foundation of my Ideal Body Composition journey.
There is a time to go with the flow and a time to start charting your own course. Parenthood has thrust me into the driving seat. And I’m ready. Are you?
You can learn more about EMPOWERING yourself into your Best Body and get a free course here. (It’s only on for a limited time so if this link doesn’t work, you’ve missed out! Sorry!)
