Is It Normal (& OK) to Gain Weight With Intuitive Eating?

Last week I got a question regarding weight gain with intuitive eating and I wanted to take a blog post to answer this because it's a very common question. And by understanding the answer to this question, it is my hope that you'll be able to take a few breaths and move further in your own journey to food freedom! That is my goal and what I hope for you. :)

Weight gain. The immediate thought for a lot of people is that it's a negative thing. But look at it this way...Weight gain for many people is a sign of regaining health. For someone with cancer, weight gain can be a sign of healing, an indicator that their body is growing stronger. For someone struggling with anorexia, weight gain is a sign that he or she is moving towards recovery. In pregnancy, weight gain is a beautiful acknowledgment that there is new growth happening and a new person soon coming into the world!

Weight gain is not always a bad thing. And with intuitive eating, weight gain could be a sign that you're getting closer to food freedom and peace with your body! Especially if you have a history of orthorexia, disordered eating, or an eating disorder.

There's a complete and totally normal progression that occurs with intuitive eating for a lot of people. For those who have struggled with dieting and a restrictive mindset around food, working through the principles of intuitive eating starts with getting rid of all things that lead to restriction and prevent trust of your body. Then, through learning how to listen to your body once again, little by little you'll find that wonderful balance that is honoring and respecting your body through how you eat.But with this sort of discovery phase, with giving yourself full permission to enjoy all types of foods again and learning what your comfortable fullness level is, and knowing how to eat throughout the day to not binge when you get home from work each night, you may incur some weight gain. Also, if restriction before intuitive eating kept you at a weight that was below your body's comfortable weight and size, you may experience weight gain that, again, is totally normal and is a sign that you're moving forward in recovery.Weight gain is a good thing!

It means your body & your mind are getting healthy. It means your body may start to balance out its hormones again and get you back a regular period! It means you're able to put your time and energy into things that bring you joy (or spark joy if you're a Marie Kondo fan like me :) ). There is nothing to be ashamed of with weight gain.

It can be difficult to accept the possibility of weight gain for a lot of people. Maybe for you, too. Maybe you're scared about the thought of your body changing sizes, or you're worried about what other people may think.I know this is hard, but remember what I said above...weight gain isn't always a negative thing as our culture makes it out to be. There are many good things about weight gain! Whenever you're feeling negative thoughts creeping in about weight gain, remember that this is a sign of your recovery. It's a sign of health.I wanted to share a little exercise I have my clients do when they run into this roadblock of worrying about weight gain.

First, I want you to write down all the things that scare you about gaining weight. Whatever those things are, put them down on paper. Take it a step further and vocalize those fears. Doing this will help you acknowledge your fears and be able to start moving forward past them.

I heard something recently about fear. There are very few times you're going to do things that are big steps without fear. What you have to do is do that thing (whatever it is) with fear. You move forward despite fear. This is where big things happen and big changes start to take place in your own personal, physical, mental, or spiritual growth.After you have your fears written down, I want you to write all the reasons why weight gain would be good for you. I know this may be difficult and take some time. So don't rush this part. Start writing all that weight gain would possibly mean for you.

Now know this, weight gain isn't always the case with intuitive eating. Just because you're giving yourself full permission with food does not mean you will gain weight. For some, intuitive eating leads to weight loss. For others, they see no change in weight. The point of intuitive eating isn't about weight, but rather about eating, moving, living how your body was meant to eat/move/live. The point is to get away from a focus on weight and instead focus on total body health. You can trust that with eating intuitively, your body will find it's comfortable set point and maintain for the season of life you're in.

I hope this post and the exercise helps you understand and answers your questions about weight gain with intuitive eating. I'd love to hear from you and even be your safe place to share fears of weight gain as well as positives of weight gain for you! Email me at victoria@victoria-yates.com and I'll help you walk through some of the fears you're experiencing with the possibility of weight gain and help you get past that roadblock that's keeping you from enjoying full peace with food. Or, if you want to share here, just leave a comment below with one fear that you have of weight gain.