Eating intuitively to gain weight

Today I got asked aboout whether I followed a meal plan whilst I was eating proper recovery amounts and gaining weight or if I just ate intuitively. I thought that this was a great question so I thought I would write a post on the topic :)

While eating intuitively is something I am now working toward, I honestly dont know if it eating intuitively whilst you are trying to gain weight is a good idea or not. Perosonally, I know that I woud not have eaten enough in recovery to gain weight if I had not folowed a meal plan. I guess this is becausse when you are gaining weight, you actually need to eat an excess amount of food than what your body is necessarily telling you that you need at the time.

Perhaps the only time that eating intuitively would work in order for you to gain weight is if you were experiencing extreme hunger and were strong enough to give into your hunger cures 100%, but I honestly dont think that many anorexics would be strong enough to ddo that early on in their recoveries anyway. I honestly think that following a mel plan is the best way to recover and gain weight, but of course that is just my opinion. I would be realle interested to hear whether other people have been able to make full recoveries without meal plans or counting calories. :)

As far as counting calories goes, I would avoid it if you could as it really is an awful and destructive anorexic behaviour. Counting calories seriously nearly drove me crazy and I am so happy that calorie counting is no longer such a big part of my life. While I still do keep track of the approximate amount of calories I eat, eventually my goal is to not worry about calories at all and to just eat completely intuitively.

While it is better not to count calories in recovery if you can avoid it, to a certain thing it may be necessary. For example when I put my meal plan together, I designed it so that it contained a certain amount of calories, so that I knew I was reaching an acceptable intake each day. I think that the best thing to do if it was possible would be to get a dietician or a similar specialist to design a meal plan for you. This would mean that they can do the calories counting for you to ensure that your meal plan is suitable without you having to worry about numbers of calories yourself.

So while eating intuitively may be a fantastic goal for you to have one day, it may not be suitable for you to try and do that whilst you are gaining weight. Just as following a meal plan is not a healthy thing for you to do for the rest of your life. I guess you just have to do what is best for you in your particular stage of recovery and do what allows you to reach your goals and be healthy and strong!