Customer Reviews

Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works

5 star:		(102)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is the first book I read on intuitive eating. It really made a lot of sense to me. I researched intuitive eating online, looking at the relevent studies. There's not much research, yet, but the research does support intuitive eating. Just knowing that diets fail 95% of the time, on average, tells the story right there.

I jumped right into this eating approach with both feet about a month ago. When I started this diet I was a restrictive eater/binge eater. I was about 10-15 pounds overweight. I weighed myself one to four times a day. I never kept any food in the house that might truly make me want to eat a lof of it. Then, when I was out and had access to food that I craved, I would binge heartily. I'm extremely knowledgeable about nutrition, and only allowed myself to keep whole grains, no trans-fats, etc. in the house.

I really thought that I had a very healthy approach toward food. Then, I started intuitive eating a month ago. At first, it was stadium franks, hot dogs, chocolate, cream horns, turnovers, and a lot of them. I weighed myself recently, and found that I had only gained 3 pounds after eating this way to my heart's content. I stopped when I felt satisfied, and only ate when I felt hungry.

Just recently, do I feel the need for sugar/fat tapering. I'm starting to crave strawberries and cooked cabbage. I'm down to 2 cream horns a day, instead of 5. I don't even care to eat most of the other sugary food I keep around. I have to throw it out. My pants are starting to feel like they're loosening back up slowly.

I can't believe it. I'm 33. I've obsessed about my eating, dieted and binged (sometimes on a daily basis) for the past 18 years, only to weigh more than ever.

Now, to be surrounded by the food I always craved and binged on, and to not even want it is amazing!!!!

I can't support this concept enough.

Trust you body!!!! It knows what it's doing!

I really have to disagree with Yvonne's comment "But obese people do not start being overweight due to dieting!" As a child I always enjoyed eating, but I was not overweight. In fact, I didn't think too much about food at all. I went on my first diet at age 15, with the goal of losing 5 lbs. After I lost 5 lbs by eating a lot of salad and little else, I could fit into all my jeans and a few people commented on how good I looked. I was hooked.....I lost another 5 lbs. and looked great (probably too thin, but I thought I looked great!), but the constant restricting and hunger made me start to obsess about food! I would end a 2 day fast by eating an entire bag of cookies....My first diet was the beginning of a 20 year cycle of fasting and compulsive eating that left me 75 lbs overweight. I've been in lots of Compulsive Eating support groups over the years and I've heard the same story. If you put a child in a room filled with candy and junk food and tell her to eat whatever she wants, the food will quickly lose much of it's appeal......or tell her not to eat one bite and see how important that food becomes....

This book addresses many of the issues behind compulsive eating, and with lots of work on my part, it made me sane again (and 60 lbs lighter).

Imagine never having to worry about what you eat. Imagine being one of "those" people who can eat whatever they want whenever they want and never gain a pound -- even lose weight! Don't you hate those people? What if you could be just like them? What if you knew their secret (that even they probably don't know)?

This book is the only "plan" you'll ever need to get off the dieting roller coaster and become a healthy eater. Skeptical? So was I. However, after a year of practicing Intuitive Eating, I am a COMPLETELY different person.

Be warned: it is not a quick fix. In fact, quick fixes are PRECISELY the reason we end up yo-yo dieting. Intuitive eating is not a diet at all. I know you've heard this before -- even from actual "diets" like Weight Watchers -- but, in fact, there is NO PLAN to intuitive eating. That's the whole point! You learn to eat what you want, what you need, and what feels good to your body. Your body already knows what's healthy for it and when you get rid of your emotional baggage about food, your shame, hidden eating, and all the other food behaviors you wish you could stop but feel enslaved to, you actually begin to enjoy food again!

Since I live in Southern California, I've had the privilege of consulting with Ms. Tribole (one of the authors) as a dietitian and nutritionist in my quest to overcome compulsive overeating. This book completely changed my life. I will be forever grateful to the authors.

I've read several comments that said that no one who reviewed this book mentioned that they had actually lost weight, and that therefore, this book is just giving overweight people permission to eat badly. So let me just clear that up right now. I read this book (an earlier edition) in 2000, and lost 40 pounds in the next 2 years. In the 4 years after that, I lost an additional 25. And...I've kept it off.

This book does give readers permission to eat what they want, but not to eat AS MUCH as they want. It teaches you to pay attention to your body, to your hunger and fullness signals, and to how certain foods make you feel. And once you've got that down, then it goes into nutrition.

My biggest problem was eating food just because it was there--and adding to that, the habit of ordering the largest size at restaurants. Once I learned to pay attention to what I was eating, and experimenting with smaller servings, the weight just dropped off. It may not work for everyone, but here is one woman who it did work for.

Let's face it, in this day and age it IS virtually impossible to eat 100% intuitively--we all have times when we eat for reasons other than hunger--many of us have jobs where we have set meal times, we are guests at other people's houses, etc. But even if you are able to learn to eat intuitively 50% of the time, it is an improvement.

So it goes without saying that I highly recommend this book. It's not conventional diet wisdom, but if that was what worked, we wouldn't have a multi-billion dollar weight loss industry, would we?

I read Intuitive Eating when it first came out & I tried it and failed. I had tried Geneen Roth's stuff also. I went back to Weight Watchers, Volumetrics etc, etc. Every time I'd go on a diet, I'd fall off & gain even more weight. I'd go back & forth from dieting to not dieting. Finally, I decided I'd had enough. I was looking on Amazon & saw that Intuitive Eating had come out in a CD format. I got it and I've not looked back. I am losing weight, although slowly. The best thing is I am not obsessing about food. While driving down the road last night after celebrating someone's birthday I felt ELATED! I realized how happy I felt that I ate the dinner, being concious of how full I was getting, and discovered that I didn't want any dessert-I only wanted to taste it. I ate two bites & took it home to my husband. I DID NOT FEEL DEPRIVED! Sometimes I will still want to eat past fullness, but I do it CONCIOUSLY. Now I know it is a PROCESS. I will still be working on how much is enough & dealing with Last Supper Syndrome, on occassion. I know my weight will come off eventually. I have lost 6 lbs the two weeks I've been on this. I am not going to weigh all the time like I used to because that causes problems. I am checking how loose my clothes are. I think these authors have explained it better than anyone else. It is DO-ABLE with their help. Even if you have tried this before, try again. I think I had to come to terms with the reality that diets really DID NOT WORK & really embrace that belief before it really clicked for me. I feel so much better and so free. Don't just read it-DO IT! It is an experiental learning process. Being Curious rather than critical is so much more helpful.I highly recommend the book & the CD & I love the women who wrote this stuff!

It is amazing how in the United States we have such an unhealthy relationship with the pleasures of eating. Either we are overstuffing ourselves with unreasonable restaraunt portions, or we are on a strict diet with a long list of "good" and "bad" foods. This wonderful book guides us into returning to our own natural instinct to eat when we are hungry and stop when we feel comfortably full or satiated. It is not about a diet "plan", there are no good foods, or bad .It is about getting in touch with what our bodies are telling us to eat and when. It is about regaining the pleasure and enjoyment of eating without guilt and punishment. It is about letting go of the diet mentality that has overtaken this country. This book has helped me realize the guilt and overindulgence I have experienced from the world of dieting. It is helping me to respect my body and do what's right for me.

I've read quite a few diet books, and in the past ten years I never was at my desired weight. But now I am actually at the weight where I want to be (155), and partly it's because of this great book. I've also made some other changes, but this book was a big help. It's all simple stuff that you have probably heard somewhere before. But the authors have collected what I think is the key to getting to a healthy weight and being happy with it. (And that's what it is about for me: health and acceptance.) Simple example: Eat what you like in moderation. On previous diets, I tried to cut out chocolate, which I love. Now I eat lots of chocolate, probably a little bit too much if a certified dietician looked at my diet. But it's a good tradeoff for me. I am satisfied, and it's easy for me to stay at my current weight. Another example: accept and love your body. Health and self-acceptance should be the goals, not some billboard picture of a different body type.

As I said, it's simple stuff. But I haven't found it anywhere in such a good package, and it worked for me. As opposed to calorie counting, forbidden foods, and making your life miserable.

I'm only on chapter 5 and I can only say that I have been totally amazed and uplifted at what I have read!

I decided to make 2004 the "year of me". I'm overweight and just didn't have time for me. So I started 2004 with the goal that I was going on a journey of self-awareness and discovery. I started with massages and therapy. I decided to stop beating myself up over my body image, to start paying attention to me and to try and unravel why I eat. I have found I am much happier and contented-- then a friend (overcoming bulemia) recommended this book for me.

I was ready for this book. I don't know if this book will be helpful if you are in a bad spot still because I think some people will interpret the "eat what you want" as permission to go all out on a regular basis. In the foreward the authors mention this book is best used in conjunction with therapy and perhaps antidepressants. You need to be open-minded enough to WANT to figure out why you eat what you do. Let's face it... we didn't get to be 50++ pounds overweight because we like to feel so miserable. This is a journey and you have to be ready for the discovery, the challenge, the rewards, the set backs and then finally the end destination.

Anyone who has ever dieted, and especially those who lived in eating-disordered households (not just talking about the biggies of anorexia and bulemia...) will see, as I did, their disfunctional dieting attitudes spread out in black and white. I saw myself in the first 22 pages, and just seeing it all there written out.. it is just so obvious how rooted my horrible dieting "logic" (or lack thereof) is in me.

Have you ever said you were going to have a farewell to food just before your diet? Have you ever made up little rules with yourself like "don't eat past 6" or "you can't eat what you didn't buy"? I did and it all seems so sick now.

The book does an excellent job at showing how to get rid of these NEGATIVE emotions and feelings about food. Food shouldn't be the major part of your day. Life should be the major part of your day.

As I mentioned, I'm only in chapter 5 and already I feel so positive, so empowered and finally-- FINALLY-- I am starting to feel like I can rid myself of this obsessive, complicated, negative diet logic.

Thank you for this book!!!

I have been battling bulimia on and off for about 15 years. I have read many books and have been through many therapist, but this book just MADE SENSE!!! As I read this book it brought back so many memories of how your mind gets so warped when you diet. I would always tell myself that on Monday I was starting a diet and not eating anything but veggies, fruit, etc.... Then, come Thursday I would start my bingeing and eat until Sunday until I felt like I was going to explode, while taking laxatives and over-exercising literally in between bites. I will NEVER diet again. This book tells you how dieting DOES NOT WORK!!!!! We have seen to many friends and family members join dieting programs and end up larger after they go off the diet. This book tells you to EAT IN MODERATION whatever you want....you honestly DO NOT eat nowhere near as much when you tell yourself you can have ANYTHING you want. I LOVED this book and reccomend it to anyone who has ever dieted and failed, has suffered from and eating disorder, or just plain overeats!

In the past, I never really cared about my diet. I ate what I want, and when I wanted. I never really gained or lost a lot of weight, but suddenly one day, I decided to get a gym membership to begin getting back in shape. I did well. I paid attention to my diet, and my exercise. Never before in my life had I been able to swim a mile, or run a mile for that matter. I felt better than ever. I lost quite a lot of weight, bought new sets of clothes, and life was good, or so I thought.

Little did I know, my world suddenly came down. I was hit with a major eating disorder. I was never into any particular diet. My rule was simple: eat natural food that you can think of in the wild, and any processed food is bad for you. I thought this concept was a very healthy concept. I wrote down all my calories per day in a journal, and at any point and time I had a craving, I would suppress it by exercise, drinking water, or punishing myself by eating fruits or veggies instead. However, about 7 months of this, I suddenly came into constant concern with food. One day, I spent nearly 1 and a half hour at a super market picking things up, reading the calories and fat contents, putting it back, picking it up wishing I could eat it, then not being able to eat it. Never before in my life, I had weird cravings: I wanted fried food (I never really liked fried food even before I started a diet), I wanted pop-tarts (again, I never really eaten pop-tarts before my diet), I wanted things like oeros, cupcakes, and many other things. I wondered to myself why did I want these things. I started to not enjoy myself with things I loved to do, exercise became a chore and I wasn't enjoying it because I figured I wasn't burning enough calories, and I started to go on binges. I would eat a whole box of "bad" things, and when I blew it, I figured, "Oh well, might as well eat everything else I can't eat, and tomorrow, I will restart." This started happening for about 3-4 weeks, when I started researching it deeply. I thought at first it was a major depression, so I read over depressions. I thought it was an eating disorder, and I read it over and I had some of the symptoms, but it didn't quite feel like a major eating disorder yet, as it's been only several weeks. Then, I asked around forums, and other places, when I realized it was because of my diet. I was too preoccupied with my diet, and therefore, it was my enemy. This book was recommended to me by a forum member. The first things I did were throw out my calories counter book, and I started reading this book. After reading halfway through and thinking over the concepts, I felt better about myself. I went out and bought all my "bad" food, and to my amazement, I didn't eat the whole box. I just ate one or two, and I didn't think about it all day long. I started enjoying my exercises, and I didn't constantly worry about calories, or fat grams. I just ate a bit here and there, and enjoyed it.

I'm still reading over the book, and I'm finding it superb. It seems like the book is mainly geared towards women (I'm a guy), but I think this book can help anyone. I say if you have a eating disorder, or if you've been dieting and now you want to maintain but you're constantly worried about food or cravings, or if you just dieted and failed over and over again, I recommend this book.

Hopefully I can keep the weight off, and I'm wishing that my relationship with food can be restored. Just less than a week of following this book put my mind at ease.