Instinctive eating

[jrock00123]

Who here follows a more or less instinctive eating schedule? I've seen a few threads that mention this concept and it looks like Phil Hernon advocates this philosophy.

The concept seems simple enough, but there must be some guidelines. For example, in a recent thread Phil says eat when hungry, but that doesn't mean eat anything you want. His example is that he is always hungry for banana cream pie.

My understanding Is as follows:

1. Set an estimated macronutrients ratio (e.g. 40/40/20)
2. Eat when hungry, but try to have each meal fall within your designated macro breakdown.
3. Eat until full, but not beyond
4. Make "good" food choices the majority of the time

I like to hear from those that do this. Do you have any guidelines? Does it really work better than a fixed meal plan.

I have been eating from meticulously designed meal plans for years now. Of course these plans change regularly depending on the goal at hand, but once set adherence is pretty strict (1 or 2 cheat meals or week).

I'm seriously considering giving the instinctive eating method a shot, but would first like to hear the pros and cons from those who have done it.

 

[little slice]

used to do this..


make way more progress with fixed diet tho

 

[NGL34]

curious to know this as well as I feel those that claim to eat like this also throw in LBA's, whey or peptide proteins b/w meals and around training which doesn't make it so instinctive after all.

 

[heavyhitter]

Stupid. I had no appetite. I'd still be 175 if I did that

 

[thehazzle]

I pretty much eat like this eating when hungry. When bulking eat easy to digest foods so you're generally always hungry. When dieting eat foods that fill you up n lots of fibre so you're not as hungry. Morning fasted cardio works well to increase hunger too.

For example when bulking I can easily eat 1000cals in one bowl of granola. When dieting if I switch to 2 slices toast, few eggs and a shake it barely breaks 500 cals.

 

[Jizzmo]

wouldnt work at all for me when im cutting

and wouldnt work when im bulking because after 2 weeks my appetite usually strongly decreases unless im on appetite enhancing stuff (peptides, tren)

 

[sluggy]

The thing is your body doesn't want to be ... 250... 300lbs. So how can you listen to your body insticts when it's doing everything it can to keep you a normal size?

Plus there's no way the majority of people have an appetite this good with all the chemical warfare they're taking.

 

[jrock00123]

There doesn't seem to be much love for this approach. My concern is that it would limit gains during a lean bulk and hinder fat loss during a cut. This type of eating may work very well for the typical person, as long as they truly follow the guidelines. I'm not sure for a bb'er however.

Hopefully Phil will see this thread and enlighten us.

 

[Jizzmo]

that would probably for very well for anyone not taking any medication or anything else that influences appetite.

however todays world is full of temptations and superabundance.
NOBODY eats according to hunger anymore.
majority of people is eating after appetite. thats why so many people are fat or obese. if you walk past a bakery or fast food joint every 20 meters food is constantly on your mind... if people would just eat according to REAL HUNGER very little would be fat i guess.

 

[jrock00123]

that would probably for very well for anyone not taking any medication or anything else that influences appetite.

however todays world is full of temptations and superabundance.
NOBODY eats according to hunger anymore.
majority of people is eating after appetite. thats why so many people are fat or obese. if you walk past a bakery or fast food joint every 20 meters food is constantly on your mind... if people would just eat according to REAL HUNGER very little would be fat i guess.

This is why the guidelines in the original post are important. The idea is to let hunger dictate quantity -- not food choice. You must still eat according to your specific macronutrient ratio and select mostly "clean" food.

For example, let's say you're shooting for 40/40/20 and it's breakfast. Maybe you have a bowl of oats with whey and a little coconut oil. If you are still hungry you add some canadian bacon and a banana. This is just an example.

We know our bodies better than the average person. If we truly listen maybe we can use the information it tells us more efficiently.

Then again, I'm far from convinced. I was hoping to see more opinions in favor, but so far most agree this is not the best approach.

 

[nothuman]

I can say from experience eating when hungry is not for me. I have always had an abnormally large appetite and eating when hungry would mean I would literally be eating all day long, without any breaks. I'd be morbidly obese. It seems to work for many other people though.

 

[flexdurden]

I only did this during cruises (however not during Fortitude training intensive cruises, these are different). During a DC cruise I would let my body dictate my meals. I feel as if doing this during a cruise allowed my GI system to kind of recharge and give it a break instead of consuming food more frequently than hunger tended to dictate. I do feel it helped my digestion and appetite going back into the blast because my GI system wasn't working so hard.

I feel during a cutting phase you need to be more strict with timing of nutrients, quantities and food choices so as to ensure that you get enough and at the right times to retain muscle and are able to make adjustments to ensure continued progress.

When adding size, for many people this would result in underfeeding (not all, but I feel a good portion)

 

[ryanbCXG]

I wish. My appetite doesn't end. I'd end up at 400lbs. Honestly I've never felt full in my life. It sucks. I use veggies to help but that barely scratches the surface and I use volume to help so things that aren't calorie dense