One of the suggestions that most intuitive eating and non-diet coaches makes is to not count calories when it comes to making peace with food. I also agree with this too especially if you are coming from a restrictive yo-yo dieting mindset.
But I have to say, when first coming off the on again, off again diet cycle, calorie counting can be helpful when figuring out your hunger and fullness cues.
If you find yourself bingeing at night there could be a strong possibility that you are not eating enough during the day, or eating more than usual at your next meal. That’s a given. But this takes time and patience as you did not get here overnight.
When I stopped dieting and embraced the Intuitive Eating journey, I made it a point to make sure I eat throughout the day, breakfast,lunch dinner, and a snack in between. From time to time I still felt hungry, so what gives?
It finally dawned on me, I am eating 3-4 meals a day, but NOT enough food for each meal.
So I took it upon myself and got curious-I counted my calories on an average meal. I surprised myself when I was finding that I was only eating around 200, 300 calories per meal.
This is definitely not enough, because you also have to remember all the moving you are doing through the day, I walk a lot as I live in a big city and then there are the workouts I do in between. So then the daily calorie total is even less.
Yikes! No wonder I was always hungry. I was not eating enough!
This could be why you are always hungry too, and it may be time to get curious also how many calories you are really eating.
I think this use of calories is not a bad thing, as you are not using it to restrict food/calories but trying to make sure you get enough of them.
Then overtime, with enough practice, you will get a better sense of how much food you really need to help get through your day. So give that a try and tell me if this will work for you. I would love to hear your feedback! You can email me at deanna@deannakozarov.com
Deanna Kozarov LLC 