Intuitive Eating: “Will I Gain Weight?”

Yes? Maybe? I am not sure? Unfortunately, there isn’t a clear-cut answer to this question. You might gain weight. You might lose weight. Or your weight might stay the same.

You’re definitely not alone in your fear. I had the exact same question when I went through recovery for my eating disorder. Quite frankly, I was hesitant to let go of dieting all-together. The last thing I wanted was to gain weight—every dieter’s nightmare!

It was terrifying! But, it was 1000% worth it!

You see, intuitive eating is a process of relying on your internal hunger and satiation cues to know when and how much to eat. It involves unconditional permission to eat when you are hungry. And, it involves no food rules, and no calorie counting.

Yes, you read that correctly… Unconditional permission to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. I know what you’re thinking, “so you’re telling me I can eat fries and burgers all day every day if I want to?! How the heck is that healthy?!”

But, that’s not what intuitive eating is…

According to authors Evelyne Tribole and Elyse Resch, “intuitive eating is a compassionate, self-care eating framework that treats all bodies with dignity and respect. Intuitive Eaters march to their inner and hunger signals and eat whatever they choose in a satisfying way, without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma. The Intuitive Eater is the unaffected eater.”

Tribole and Resch, go on to explain that if you give yourself permission to eat all foods, and get rid of the rules, your body will naturally crave fruits and veggies, as well as a hamburger and fries. That out-of-control feeling you experience, or the fear that you will lose all control, is diet culture talking. That’s the consequence of engaging in chronic dieting—you don’t trust yourself anymore. You don’t trust your body to guide you.

When you’ve been dieting your whole life, making this shift can be scary—I totally hear you!

But, let’s put things into perspective…

You’ve been dieting for years on end and nothing has changed… Dieting obviously isn’t working, so, what all do you have to lose (no pun intended lol)? The constant yo-yo dieting cycle seems to be exhausting and you’re gaining weight as a consequence. So, why not give intuitive eating a shot?

Hear me out… Let’s switch roles for a minute. Put yourself in your “body’s shoes.” If someone were to restrict your food intake and consistently deny your hunger, and then all of a sudden decided to let you take the reins, would you be quick to trust? My guess is no, you wouldn’t be.

So, when taking that into consideration, are you that surprised that the minute you stop dieting and give yourself permission to eat all foods, your body wants anything and everything in sight? No, probably not.

And is it that surprising that when you go from constant restriction to food freedom, you gain weight?

Again, probably not.

When you lay it all out and take the time to reflect, it makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? Maybe just not so much when you’re in it… Dieting is so normalized that a large percentage of the population is on a diet without thinking through the repercussions. Unfortunately, dieting can easily consume your every day. Quite often, we don’t even realize the damage we are doing to both our physical and mental health.

Your body doesn’t trust you—and rightfully so. How does your body know you aren’t going to put it into starvation mode again tomorrow?

Well, it doesn’t.

So, your body does the only thing it can do… It takes the necessary precautions and holds onto more fat and burns calories at a slower rate in preparation for a potential period of starvation.

Our bodies are smart. Whether we want to admit it or not, our bodies know best.

Have you ever seen a baby eat before? Have you noticed that when they’re hungry, they will let their caregiver know by crying, or making some kind of sound? And then when they are full and have had enough, they push away their mother’s breast or a spoon and stop eating completely?

That’s because we were ALL born with the innate ability to know when we are hungry and when we’ve had enough. Once you enter the dieting world, those cues get buried. They are silenced by the restrictive diets we engage in. Therefore, that’s why part of intuitive eating consists of letting go of diet culture and re-learning those cues.

Once you allow your body to engage in more normal and intuitive eating patterns, it begins to trust you again. Consequently, your body will find a happy set point. So, you may gain weight in the beginning and then naturally lose some as you hit your set point. Or, you might gain weight and then stay at that weight because that’s where your body comfortably sits. And for some, depending on many factors, they may go right back to the weight they started at. It really all depends on how your body responds and where it feels it can optimally function at.

That isn’t up for you to decide.

Learning to intuitively eat after years and years of dieting, isn’t easy, but it isn’t impossible. Trust me, I am living, breathing proof!

As an intuitive eater, I live a much happier life. I feel more fulfilled. I have all this brain space to focus on the things that really matter—and not my food intake.

So, if you’re hesitant to start intuitively eating, ask yourself, “Am I genuinely happy while dieting? Does it make me feel fulfilled? Does it improve or worsen my mental health? Is my calorie intake more important than my relationships with others? Is my time spent on a treadmill more important than living my life and experiencing it fully?”

If the answer to the majority of those questions is a “no,” I invite you to reflect and give intuitive eating a shot—you won’t regret it!