Why You Can’t Intuitively Eat

 

Hey beautiful human. 

There’s this idea out there that once you’re done tracking or dieting, intuitive eating should just click. That you’ll suddenly know what to eat, when to eat, and how much.

But if things feel kind of chaotic instead? There’s a reason for that.

In this episode, we’re getting into the real reason intuitive eating feels hard, especially after years of under-eating, skipping meals, or labeling foods as “good” or “bad.” I’ll walk you through:

  • What happens to your hunger cues when your body’s been in survival mode

  • Why cravings aren’t just about what your body needs, but what it’s used to

  • How blood sugar affects your ability to feel hunger and fullness

  • Why macro counting can actually build the foundation for intuitive eating

  • And how repetition (not guessing) brings those cues back online

If your goal is to eat without overthinking but your body’s not giving you clear signals yet. this is where you start.

And if you want help building that stable, consistent foundation, check out my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. I’ll show you exactly how to fuel your body in a way that actually makes sense.

For more on tuning in to hunger and cravings, make sure to listen to Episode 554: Why Understanding These 2 Types of Hunger Can Change Everything.

If you want more from me, be sure to check out… 

Transcript

00:00 -

Hey there, beautiful human, you're listening to Embrace your Real with me, julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace your real, let's get it. Let's go. Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace your Real podcast.

00:30

There's this idea floating around that once you heal your relationship with food, you'll automatically be able to eat intuitively. Your body will just know exactly what it needs. But if you've tried that and it has felt like chaos, you are not alone and we need to talk about it. Maybe you've told yourself I just want to trust my body again. You're tired of constantly thinking about food. You're tired of trying so hard. You're tired of feeling like the second that you stop counting macros. Your hunger signals go wild and your cravings just won't quit. Girl, I get it, I've been there. But here's the truth that most people won't say out loud Intuitive eating is a skill.

01:07

It's not something that just magically happens when you want it to. It's something that you build over time with consistency and intention. So today I want to help you shift out of that mindset Like why can't I just eat intuitively? And into what do I need to learn in order to eat intuitively? In today's episode, we're going to be talking about why your hunger and cravings can feel totally out of whack if your body's underfed or inconsistent for a long time. How cravings are shaped by what you consistently eat, not by what your body needs in the moment. Why stability and balanced nourishment are the foundation for hearing true hunger and fullness cues. How macro counting isn't the opposite of intuitive eating, but it actually is the training ground for it. And, last but not least, why intuitive eating is something that you build through repetition, not something you're just supposed to magically know how to do.

02:02

Before we dive in, though, I want to share this super sweet review. It comes from ProgressNotPerfection123. I love that username. She gave a five-star review and said episode 323 was a great podcast. I can either go all out or not enough, and this is really helpful to know what I should work on to build up to more workouts during the week. Thank you so much, julie. I love this. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to send in this review, and I'm so grateful that episode 323 was really helpful for you. I love these reviews because it helps us just know if there's a specific episode like this helps you or if just the podcast in general is helping you. We love to hear it. So if you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating interview, that means the absolute world to me and our team. Okay, let's just dive right into today's episode.

02:50

Why you can't intuitively eat. Number one you can't listen to your body if your body is confused. So you can't listen to your body if your body is confused, and I know that might feel frustrating to hear, especially if you've been working so hard to build a better relationship with food. But hear me out on this your body is incredibly smart, like crazy smart. It knows how to keep you alive, how to signal hunger, how to store energy, how to tell you when you've had enough. But here's the deal If you have spent years ignoring your hunger or skipping meals or cutting carbs or labeling foods as bad, your body's like um, are we okay?

03:25

And it starts to send out some mixed signals. And that's not a failure, that's survival mode. Let's break it down super simple your body is designed to protect you. So when it senses that it's not getting consistent energy like when you're under eating or you're skipping meals or you're bouncing between diets it's just going to adjust. And often that looks like slowing down your metabolism, ramping up cravings, especially for that quick energy source like sugar or ultra processed food, and holding onto fat source just in case that restriction happens again. So when you're craving those cookies or chips all the time or you feel like you just cannot stop snacking at night, it's not that you're lacking willpower. It's that your body is trying to fix a deficit. It's literally trying to help you survive the fastest way that it knows how. But that also means that your hunger and your fullness cues aren't super trustworthy right now, not because you don't have enough willpower, but simply because it's confused.

04:21

If you're always crashing in the afternoon, if you wake up not hungry but ravenous at night, if you feel totally good one day and then totally out of control the next day, those are all signs that your signals are still out of sync. So when you start consistently nourishing yourself with the right balance of protein, carbs and fats throughout the day, your body actually starts to relax. It doesn't have to be on this high alert anymore. Your hunger signals begin to regulate, your cravings, start to lessen, your energy levels even out. And this is the foundation for intuitive eating not forcing it, not hoping that it will click one day, but actually creating a stable, well-fed environment in your body so that those intuitive signals can come back online. And if you're like, okay, cool, but I don't even know where to start, this is exactly what I teach inside my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. I will walk you through everything step-by-step, so you're not second guessing, you're not Googling or making it up as you go. You can head over to MacroCountingMadeSimplecom Again, that's MacroCountingMadeimplecom Again, that's macrocountingmadesimplecom to learn more. I will also include it in the show notes so that you can easily go access that now.

05:29

But number two your body craves what it's used to, not always what it actually needs. Okay, we have to talk about cravings for a second, because this is one of those topics where there's some truth in the idea that your body will ask for what it needs, but it definitely is not the whole picture. Yes, in some cases, if you're low on iron, your body might just start craving red meat like crazy. Or if your sodium levels are off, you might notice that you're reaching for something salty. But most of the time our cravings aren't that biologically perfect. Why? Because our cravings are shaped by exposure.

06:03

So what your body gets regularly is what it learns to expect. It's like a habit loop. So if your body is used to getting this big hit of sugar at 3 pm every day, your brain's gonna light up at 2.55 and be like hello, where's my cookie? Or same for coffee or caffeine, not because you need it, but because it's a use to it. And this is where biology and behavior overlap. So when you eat something that gives you a fast energy spike, like simple carbs or sugar, your brain releases dopamine. That's that feel good chemical, and your brain's like oh, that felt nice, let's do it again. So it starts building a pattern, and that's how cravings are reinforced, even if the food isn't actually giving your body long lasting fuel. It's. Add in stress, add in emotions, lack of sleep. Now your cravings are firing for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with nutrient needs.

06:55

Now, does this mean that you'll never crave something that your body truly needs? No, not at all. But if you've spent a lot of time under eating or skipping meals, or mostly eating processed stuff. Your body might not have enough exposure to nutrient-dense foods like protein, healthy fats, fiber, veggies to know how good those foods actually make you feel. So it doesn't ask for them yet.

07:18

And this is where the real work comes in, because here's the truth. If your body has been living in survival mode, if it's been running on low fuel, inconsistent meals, nutrient gaps, it's not just going to flip a switch overnight. Your body needs proof repeatedly. It needs to see that it's safe, now that food is coming, that you're not going to go another five hours without eating or skip out on the nutrients that you actually need. So when I say nourish your body with real, balanced meals, I mean that actually giving your body the full package like protein to support muscle and repair, complex carbs for steady energy, healthy fats for hormones and satiation, fiber to support that digestion and blood sugar balance, and those key micronutrients that keep everything from your brain to your immune system running well. When you give your body that kind of consistency, like real nourishment, several times a day, without big gaps or huge calorie swings, your system starts to calm down, it realizes and says oh okay, we're good.

08:23

Stress hormones start to regulate your blood sugar, stabilizes energy levels even out, and even in that chaotic, random cravings, those actually start to fade too. Now, I know it's tempting to want this to work fast. We want to eat one nourishing meal and immediately feel better. But this isn't a one salad fixes everything solution. Your body learns through repetition. Just like you don't build muscle after one workout, you don't fix your hunger and cravings with one day of balanced eating. It's the meals that you choose day after day, snack after snack, that start to rewire those signals. And this is literally how your brain and your body work together. Like, your brain is always looking for patterns, and when it starts to associate balanced meals with stable energy, good moods and no more 9 pm pantry raids, it begins to ask for more of that, and that's when those cravings shift from chaos to clarity. So if you're feeling like your body's all over the place with hunger and cravings, the absolute best thing that you can do isn't to control harder or restrict more. It's actually to nourish more consistently.

09:31

Number three your hunger cues cannot work if your blood sugar doesn't. Let's think about this for a second. If your body is constantly swinging between extremes, like barely eating during the day, pushing through hunger or skipping meals and then finally feeling totally out of control at night. It's going to be really hard to hear those gentle hunger and fullness cues. And it's not because you're doing something wrong. It's because your body is trying to get your attention in the loudest way it knows how. So when you don't eat enough throughout the day, your blood sugar drops and your body sees that as a threat.

10:04

Your brain's main job is to keep you alive, so it starts to sound that alarm Like you might suddenly feel shaky or dizzy or irritable or ravenous, and that's because your low blood sugar triggers this release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Basically, your brain is yelling emergency get food now. And when that happens, your body isn't calmly asking for a balanced plate. It's literally scrambling for fast energy, usually carbs, sugar and anything quick and high reward. And that's why so many people feel good during the day and then they totally lose control at night. It's not about willpower, it's biology. Your body is trying to make up for the energy deficit that it experienced earlier.

10:48

But here's the good news when you actually start fueling consistently, like eating enough, eating regularly, including a solid balance of protein, carbs and fats your body begins to relax, like your blood sugar levels stay more stable and your stress hormones come down. Your brain isn't in this survival mode anymore. It's in this, okay, we are good mood. And when your body starts to feel safe and steady, like that, it doesn't have to scream. It's in this, okay, we are good mood. And when your body starts to feel safe and steady, like that, it doesn't have to scream, it can actually whisper. And that's when you start to notice the more subtle cues, the gentle hunger, the quiet fullness, the ability to walk away from food without obsessing or pause and think. Actually, I feel satisfied, and that's why consistency is the foundation of real intuitive eating, because you can't hear the quiet signals until you've stopped living in this chaos of blood sugar crashes under eating and reactive cravings. And again, this is exactly what macro counting helps you to do, like. It gives you a framework so that you're not just guessing, you actually learn what your. It gives you a framework so that you're not just guessing, you actually learn what your body needs in a day and how to fuel it in a way that is balanced and sustainable. And no, this is not about perfection. It's about finally building that stable environment that your body needs to stop yelling and start trusting Number four. Reprogramming your signals is not restrictive, it's actually liberating.

12:12

I want to talk about one of the biggest misconceptions floating around. A lot of people think that learning how to count macros or paying attention to what you eat somehow cancels out intuitive eating, like if you're using structure, then you must be disconnected from your body. But I need you to hear this Structure does not take away freedom, it actually creates it, like when you learn what your body actually needs in a day, how much protein it takes to support your energy, how many carbs you feel to fuel your brain and your workouts, and how healthy fats actually can support your hormones and satiation. It's not restrictive, it's actually empowering, because here's what most women are dealing with Decision, fatigue, food confusion, the kind of anxiety where every snack feels like a test. And when you're in that space, intuitive eating can feel really unclear. You're trying to listen to your body, but the signals aren't making any sense, like you don't know if you're actually hungry or just used to eating out of habit or emotion. And this is why learning the foundation of what your body needs is so important, and macro counting is just a tool to help you do that.

13:19

It's not about eating by numbers forever. It's about using numbers to teach you what it feels like to be consistently nourished. Because once you've experienced that, once you feel what enough protein or balanced meals actually does for your energy, your mood, your cravings, it becomes way easier to recognize those things without needing to track. Like you might catch yourself thinking wow, when I build my meals this way, I don't crash mid-morning, or when I prioritize my protein, I'm not thinking about snacks constantly. And that kind of awareness doesn't come from guessing. It comes from actually feeling well and noticing how your body responds. And that's what leads to intuitive eating that actually works, that actually lasts. Not the kind where you're hoping that your body will suddenly start to crave kale. The kind where you have built enough consistency and stability that you can finally hear your body again. So no, reprogramming your signals is not restrictive. It's what gets you out of survival mode and into a place where food feels simple again.

14:23

Number five intuition. Follows education and experience, not confusion. Let's get real about this word that we hear all of the time intuition. It sounds so effortless, right, like you should just know what to eat, when to stop, what your body's asking for. But here's the truth that nobody says enough. Intuition doesn't just show up out of nowhere. It's not something you're either born with or not. It's something that you build through practice, through repetition, through actually giving your body the chance to feel what real nourishment looks and feels like.

15:00

Think about, like learning a new language, if someone dropped you into a country where you don't speak a word of the language and said just speak intuitively. You would look at them and be like, um how you would feel lost, you would feel overwhelmed, you'd feel unsure of yourself and you'd probably make a lot of mistakes. And not because you're doing something wrong. It's just because no one ever taught you how to do it right. That's what trying to just eat intuitively can feel like, when you never consistently fueled your body with enough food, the right nutrients or a rhythm that actually works for your life. But here's the good news you absolutely can learn this. It's just a matter of slowing down and giving yourself the tools.

15:41

Macro counting is like your beginner course. It's not there to control you or keep you stuck. It's there to teach you the grammar of what your body needs the basic building blocks. Enough protein to keep your energy stable. Enough carbs to fuel your brain in your workouts. Enough fats to keep your energy stable. Enough carbs to fuel your brain in your workouts. Enough fats to keep your hormones humming. It helps you understand balance and consistency in a way that makes sense.

16:04

And once you start doing that consistently, once you repeat those patterns day after day, something incredible starts to happen. You stop thinking so hard about it. You stop second guessing every bite. You start to feel the rhythm. Your body starts to happen. You stop thinking so hard about it. You stop second guessing every bite. You start to feel the rhythm. Your body starts to respond with clarity instead of confusion. And that's what intuitive eating really is. It's not magical. It's built on a foundation of trust, and trust only comes from showing up again and again and again with consistent care and nourishment. So let's stop beating ourselves up for failing at intuitive eating when we were never really taught how to fuel in the first place. Let's stop expecting our bodies to function on guesswork or old habits and let's be honest about what our bodies need and start giving it to them on purpose.

16:53

I hope that this episode helped clear up some of the confusion or guilt that you might have felt struggling with intuitive eating. But there you have it five things that you need to understand before intuitive eating can actually feel intuitive. Let's quickly do a recap. Number one you can't listen to your body if your body is confused. Survival mode sends mixed signals and your body needs consistent nourishment to calm down and to communicate clearly. Number two your body craves what it's used to, not always what it needs, but when you consistently give it balanced, nutrient-dense meals, those cravings start to shift over time.

17:31

Number three consistency is the foundation of intuitive eating. Stable blood sugar and regular meals are what makes that gentle hunger and fullness cues easier to hear. Number four reprogramming your signals is not restrictive. It's what gives you freedom. Like when you know what your body needs, you can finally make food decisions based on confidence instead of confusion. And last but not least and number five, intuition is built through practice. Macro counting is like your language course and intuitive eating is the fluency that comes from repeating the right patterns.

18:08

And if you're thinking, okay, I get it, but I still actually don't know how to start Again. That is exactly why I created my Macro County Made Simple Online Academy. Inside the academy, I will walk you through step-by-step how to calculate your macros and how to build your meals to satisfy, how to stay consistent without getting obsessed, so that you can finally learn what your body needs and how to give it to it, and how to give it that so that you can build the body that you want without guessing or Googling your way through it. You can go to MacroCountingMadeSimplecom. Again. That's MacroCountingMadeSimplecom, and if this episode helps shift your mindset around intuitive eating or helped you feel a little bit more hopeful about food again, would you mind sharing this with a friend or a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would need to hear this message? And if you haven't left a review already, I would so appreciate it. It helps more women find this message and feel less alone in the process.

19:04

If you love this episode, I know you will also love episode 554, why understanding these two types of hunger can change everything. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes that you can easily go check that out, but that is all that I have for today's episode. I hope that this was helpful. I love you so much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one.

19:30

All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.

 
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