Up next in 10
Learn what intuitive and mindful eating is with fitness influencers and bodybuilders who practice this daily.
Lucy Davis and Ben Haldon host 'How to eat intuitively' with Siobhan O'Hagan, Ryan Terry and Lex Griffin. In this exclusive talk from Myprotein's Labs Live event, we hear from Siobhan, Ryan and Lex what eating mindfully means to them, and how it has shaped their lives.
National Eating Disorders Association: A non-dieting approach to changing your eating habits is also known as "intuitive eating." Intuitive eating is about trusting your body to make food choices that feel good for you, without judging yourself or the influence of diet culture.
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Chapters:
00:00 - What is Intuitive Eating?
01:23 - How does bodybuilding differ?
03:15 - Eating Mindfully
05:51 - Fitness & Food
09:21 - Is dieting hard?
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0:00
okay so today we're going to be talking
0:02
about intuitive eating eating
0:04
intuitively and basically nutrition and
0:06
food in general so obviously people on
0:08
the panel is going to be different
0:09
opinions
0:10
about intuitive eating and eating
0:12
intuitively one of the first things we
0:15
actually want to go through and this is
0:17
just a really unfortunate name situation
0:19
so you have intuitive eating and you
0:23
have eating intuitively have you both
0:25
heard of as people heard of intuitive
0:27
eating and eating intuitively put your
0:29
hands up if you have yeah so pretty much
0:31
everyone
0:32
intuitive easy is actually a 10-step
0:35
principle process and you have to be
0:38
qualified in intuitive eating to talk
0:41
about it it's
0:42
holistic it's a structured program and
0:45
then you've got eating intuitively
0:47
eating mindfully which is where you're
0:50
still honoring your hunger but you don't
0:52
actually need to be a practitioner to
0:54
talk about it but the names are just
0:56
super similar so we're so we're talking
0:59
about eating intuitively eating
1:01
mindfully we will touch on calories and
1:04
macros and things like that as well in
1:05
terms of different goals Aesthetics and
1:08
things like that but first things first
1:10
I actually watched Darren the first
1:12
question at you Ryan
1:13
apparently because I think people might
1:16
be quite interested with your diet as a
1:19
bodybuilder and the fact that you
1:21
actually don't really track yeah so
1:24
that's very true and so when obviously
1:27
bodybuilding is all about counting
1:29
macros and all that kind of stuff but I
1:31
found early on in my career that it
1:34
wasn't enjoyable for me to be so
1:36
specific on calorie counting and
1:40
became a chore and monotonous and it
1:43
wasn't
1:43
he couldn't sustain that for 365 days a
1:46
year well that's how I found it anyway
1:47
some people can some people can't and I
1:50
was a guy who lost the enjoyment when it
1:52
came down to Counting every calorie I
1:54
was eating that being said
1:57
when I'm dieting for a show which is
1:59
obviously 12 weeks of the year or 16
2:01
weeks depending I'll I will weigh out my
2:05
food so I'll know the grammage of my
2:07
food but I won't look at the calories
2:09
and be too specific with that I go on
2:11
how I feel in the mirror how I look in
2:13
the mirror how my points are when I'm
2:15
training how long the pumps last for
2:17
whilst I'm training and my mental state
2:19
if I'm fatigued and all those type of
2:22
factors when I'm dieting a lot of
2:25
bodybuilders will count everything down
2:27
to a tea but as soon as I come off prep
2:30
I know roughly what my maintenance level
2:34
is what that looks like when you look at
2:36
it on a meal panel right food and I will
2:39
just be in a surplus of that so I'll
2:41
enjoy normal food with my family I will
2:43
eat clean I'll be very kind of I'll be
2:45
conscious of what I'm eating but I was I
2:49
will still be able to yeah have normal
2:51
to normal meals with my family we eat
2:54
normal every night like it together say
2:56
no or what
2:59
but yeah that's how I've always been 100
3:02
and then Siobhan yours is a little bit
3:06
different because you've had
3:07
bodybuilding experience where I did
3:09
track quite significantly and then
3:12
you've done more of like a 360 with
3:13
eating intuitively and you said eating
3:16
mindfully yeah so yeah yeah so I did a
3:19
bodybuilding show in 2017 a long time
3:22
ago I'm like um but at the time I loved
3:25
traveling calories like I found it gave
3:27
me so much freedom and you know I didn't
3:29
have to you know eat
3:31
I just always love Nutella and I just
3:33
wasn't willing to cut it out if you
3:34
shredded
3:36
um and it really helped me you know
3:39
stick to you know to be in the calorie
3:40
deficit the right way to get shredded to
3:42
be on stage I you know as
3:45
to buy the numbers and then afterwards I
3:48
mean it was a roller coaster of up and
3:50
down you know I wasn't strict enough I
3:52
just didn't care enough what I looked
3:54
like but I found then once I started
3:57
training for performance I started doing
3:58
CrossFit and Muay Thai and I just kind
4:02
of was like I don't care what I look
4:03
like anymore it's not actually listen to
4:05
my Hunger levels rather than looking at
4:06
the numbers and
4:08
of course initially you can't just
4:10
switch off like I found initially I
4:11
would still think of the numbers so I
4:13
put in my head like oh spare 500 that's
4:15
why I probably have 2 000 calories today
4:17
so I don't think I think you've always
4:18
got that knowledge in your head and
4:20
sometimes we talk about eating mindfully
4:22
eating intuitively but you've always
4:24
know if you've been doing it for a long
4:26
time
4:27
um and then yeah I started
4:29
practicing on the hunger level you know
4:30
I'd say try not to let myself get too
4:32
hungry you know if I'm at it too I don't
4:34
make you know great decisions when it
4:36
comes to food
4:37
um and then you know don't eat past
4:39
point of fullness they go take a seven
4:40
and of course there's times that go way
4:42
over
4:43
um but by going like that I can make I
4:45
can choose what's important to me and
4:48
sometimes I do want to get a bit leaner
4:49
it doesn't mean like I gave up on being
4:51
shredded it means I was able to listen
4:53
to what I needed after training before
4:55
training and training for performance
4:57
and then a little bit of me would go
5:00
okay maybe go a little bit hungry just
5:01
so I know them in a calorie deficit
5:02
because I do want to be lean this summer
5:05
or something like that I didn't just go
5:07
never diet you know I just eat mindfully
5:10
but a few little tools I'm just gonna
5:12
slow down that's the big thing I just
5:14
slowed down and going yes I do want the
5:16
Nutella but I also want to be lean so
5:18
what do I really want and sometimes it
5:20
is you know so it's bad it's it's not an
5:22
easy thing to teach people but it it
5:24
takes practice and kind of letting
5:26
yourself Let Yourself Go oh
5:29
amazing I mean that's the thing that's
5:31
difficult for people to establish that
5:33
balance that you've experienced for
5:35
those years life's coming to you because
5:37
I think you're someone who can
5:39
potentially talk about how your ethos
5:41
may have changed over the years since
5:43
you've been in the industry because I
5:44
think you came from a time where diet
5:47
culture is like very strong in the
5:48
industry it's like where we are today
5:50
where things are moving to a more
5:52
balanced lifestyle and driven style diet
5:55
yeah so for people who don't know I was
5:57
I came in in the macro introduction era
6:01
so that was one of the first guys to
6:02
kind of be utilizing macros to diet for
6:06
bodybuilding shows
6:08
but when you've got the normally a week
6:10
out from a show people around Turkey
6:12
water dying napping in chairs
6:15
complaining about life I was having like
6:18
a barbecue with sausage and white bread
6:20
and it just blew people's minds but did
6:22
you ever win a shell huh
6:24
sorry
6:26
yeah it's all right
6:30
ones but no in terms of like bringing
6:34
body fat down to competitive levels that
6:36
have been very very lean it worked but
6:38
I'm also from a science-based background
6:40
so I went from full growth like
6:42
literally turkey roast cakes six almonds
6:46
there's no reason to eat six almonds I
6:48
just thought that's what somebody else
6:49
did I'm doing that and and working
6:52
full-time whilst they're not nonsense so
6:54
literally the next week flipping after
6:55
watching and seeing the science behind
6:57
macros we're flipping next week to
6:59
having ice cream and regular fruits and
7:02
everything involved just making more of
7:03
a healthy balance but I did Count
7:06
down too
7:07
like a Rice Krispie in the bowl like I
7:10
was fanatical with it to a point I do
7:12
when I'm dieting but which meant off
7:14
season I just switch off for the rest of
7:16
the year I didn't think that measuring
7:17
in sector is important like you need to
7:19
be able to gauge volume of food that
7:20
you're eating if you're not gauging
7:22
volume yeah you you're gonna be like
7:24
this every day up and down on the scales
7:26
up and down in the mirror which is just
7:27
disheartening in itself are you reading
7:30
for a bodybuilding show no actually in
7:32
general in general so if you're if
7:34
you'll feel like you're waking up and
7:36
you're fluctuating weeks where you can
7:37
be very very frustrating water retention
7:39
levels can can rise and fall depending
7:41
on how late you finish eating one night
7:43
so how early you finished eating the
7:45
previous night which is where
7:46
intermittent fasting can come into play
7:48
which is not magic it just makes you eat
7:50
in a time frame so that you look more
7:52
consistent when you wake up every day so
7:53
you feel a bit better and you can stay
7:55
controlled but for me having that era of
7:57
just really monitoring macros to a
7:58
really high level then allowed me to be
8:00
able to spot monitor it so it won't but
8:03
still be able to look at the food I'm
8:04
putting on my plate in a realm of you
8:07
know control
8:07
and also to remove guilt from food
8:10
because when you when you do do macros
8:12
you realize I can eat chocolate if I
8:14
want to eat a chocolate and utilize that
8:15
many carbs and that many fats and you
8:18
eat it guilt-free knowing it's within my
8:19
allowance my body's just mature it up
8:21
whereas most people's opinion and you
8:23
said it before you say clean food I'm
8:25
really upset because I hate this term
8:27
yeah there's no such thing as clean or
8:29
unclean food unless you're washing it
8:30
through the fair liquid that's clean
8:32
food but outside of that is just how
8:35
many you know how impactful is that food
8:37
is it a low impact food or high impact
8:39
food and that's the bit there's no bad
8:41
food there's just too much of certain
8:42
types and and if you're willing if you
8:45
want chocolate and you're willing to
8:46
give up x amount of calories for that
8:48
chocolate it's fine eat that chocolate
8:49
It's Gonna Do no harm but then you just
8:51
realize you're giving up you know later
8:53
in the day some other things that might
8:55
be more satiated yeah so this is more a
8:58
question for everyone even you might be
8:59
able to answer this one with regards to
9:01
dieting and the reason intuitive eating
9:04
out of practice was created is because
9:06
over five years the long-term success
9:09
rate of diets is so poor it's in 80 of
9:12
people regain the weight from the diet
9:15
why do you think
9:16
diets are that unsuccessful because
9:19
people think they're a short-term
9:21
solution dieting is what you eat on a
9:24
day your diet is what you eat daily it's
9:26
not something we do for eight to ten
9:27
weeks
9:29
I think that's the main point diet it's
9:31
a nutritional plan
9:32
like a lot of people at the last diet is
9:34
like you say 12 weeks or online that
9:36
they can't sustain it for me I will be
9:39
I'm I don't fit in really with intuitive
9:42
eating because I I do eat quite a
9:44
structured diet 365 days a year but I
9:47
choose to do that and it's impart my
9:49
living and I enjoy it and I've been able
9:52
to sustain it for
9:53
20 years now whoa
9:58
um well for some people that's not
10:00
sustainable I think like you've just
10:01
said with the five over the five years
10:03
not being able to sustain it because
10:04
they're trying to eat foods that they
10:06
don't particularly like or fit in with
10:09
their their day-to-day
10:11
um I found something that works for me
10:12
and I enjoy what I do and I think that's
10:14
what's important when you're from a day
10:15
too it's almost like I was going to say
10:18
the opposite but for me it's like I
10:20
stopped eating to look a certain way
10:24
yeah
10:25
um and it's funny like now I I found a
10:28
way that I found an environment where I
10:29
train and I eat well and I stay lean
10:31
um but I was gonna say the reason it
10:33
probably doesn't last is that
10:35
people don't want it enough and
10:36
sometimes people can get triggered when
10:37
you hear that but like that's why I
10:40
don't track everything because I'm like
10:41
I actually don't care as much what I
10:43
look like anymore so it's not that
10:45
important to me so I'm like you know
10:47
like if I have to decide between two
10:49
Foods or decide between a higher calorie
10:51
lower economy if it means even if it
10:53
means a scale it's going to book
10:54
tomorrow or anything it's like
10:56
it's okay because I don't really care
10:57
what I look like
10:59
um no saying that I think there is a
11:01
healthy like obviously health is
11:02
important and I would never just go eat
11:04
terrible for so long which I have done
11:06
for the last six weeks I've been on the
11:07
holidays but I think natural but not
11:09
naturally there will crave routine you
11:12
know I think like as long as you have
11:13
those good habits in place if you do go
11:15
like too far one way I think naturally
11:18
you want to come back to that set point
11:20
um but it's not like I'm not as strict
11:22
it's not like oh I gotta have to eat
11:23
this because I want to look that way I
11:25
think that's what other people realize
11:26
is that they get you know they diet hard
11:28
and they drink and they die down to the
11:30
way they think they'll find happiness
11:31
and it's not there so that they just
11:33
keep who's on a diet right now Hanzo
11:35
who's actually very actively dieting
11:39
I've just done that many actual people
11:41
how many of you just eating what you
11:43
want whenever you want
11:45
how many do you feel good about that and
11:47
the way you look that's pretty easy
11:49
perfect that's breathing and most people
11:52
highly active
11:54
yeah so you're buffering the diet with
11:56
more movement
11:58
yeah so this is a sensible way of doing
12:00
things if you're moving a lot and be
12:01
very active you're going to have a
12:03
higher calorie allowance if you're
12:05
sitting in more a more sedentary for
12:07
through a certain day just eat less that
12:08
day and you can literally start on that
12:10
base level have a bit you know no I'm
12:12
not allowed to eat that full cover
12:13
popcorn today because I've sat down for
12:15
eight hours editing or whatever you've
12:16
been doing maybe you've been out hiking
12:18
gym you've done all that day yeah eat
12:20
intuitive and sense of I get way more
12:22
allowances there I find that that for me
12:24
really helps even if I'm trying to
12:26
actively gain weight if I've been sat
12:28
still for a lot a long period of a
12:30
single day I would cut my calories at a
12:32
cut the volume if you like because I
12:34
know it's it's not going to get utilized
12:36
in the right way it's going to be stored
12:37
more in those fat cells and stuff like
12:39
that because I'm not actively using it
12:40
because I tend to put a lot of my carbs
12:42
around the training and activity times
12:45
when I do when I do take them in so if
12:47
there's no activity at all goes down and
12:49
I find that I don't drop weight that way
12:50
but I do keep gaining the good weight
12:52
when I want it and so that's that stops
12:55
me putting on excess I think I think the
12:57
common theme is that a lot of people
12:58
tend to dip in and out of intuitively
13:02
and dieting and there's nothing wrong
13:03
with that because like you were saying
13:05
before you don't
13:06
intuitively but I would argue in some
13:08
periods that you potentially do and it's
13:10
fine to do that I think it's good for a
13:12
lot of people to do that rather than
13:13
just diet all the time because I think
13:15
one of the big things that comes from
13:16
dieting is like 30 to 35 of people who
13:19
are dieters then transition into
13:21
pathological dieters then 20 to 25 of
13:24
that going to eating disorders yeah
13:26
which is like one of the the biggest
13:28
causes of their friends in the UK so
13:31
it's good to have an intervention in
13:33
terms of eating more intuitively just to
13:35
bring balance back to to your life as
13:37
well there's nothing wrong with that
13:38
dieting as well like if I die now I do
13:40
it super aggressively so like you would
13:42
save them from a mortgage for your house
13:44
you have to spend the same amount of
13:46
time being really strict with your
13:48
finances and then you can just balance
13:50
out by paying your monthly mortgage
13:51
payments I did the exact same with my
13:53
diet so I'll be super strict go
13:55
aggressive like two or three weeks get
13:56
in shape and algebra maintenance
13:58
calories then just maintain it and use
14:00
intuitively and there's a tool to
14:01
maintain it so there's not there's
14:03
nothing wrong with flicking in between
14:04
the two you just can't do both at the
14:06
same time you can't dive
14:07
kind of restricted diet and intuitively
14:10
because you just don't go hang around
14:11
nothing what you said about the um being
14:14
a Perpetual Dieter that's a really bad
14:16
thing to do so if you're jumping from
14:17
diet to diverse to diet today whatever
14:19
it is you're doing you need consistency
14:21
whether it's a really simple just
14:23
monitoring like the volume of things on
14:25
your plate or just you know mimicking
14:27
meal for near like three meals a day you
14:29
need consistency over at least like
14:31
three months
14:33
to let it settle in and let you kind of
14:36
monitor how your body's going to react
14:37
you can't do something for a week two
14:39
weeks expect to see change and then flip
14:42
things up because it's not working the
14:43
way you want you need time and
14:44
consistency to be able to make these
14:46
micro adjustments as you go along and
14:48
you need to understand as well if you
14:49
mess up
14:50
cool it's not going to hinder everything
14:51
that you've done up to that point you
14:53
just messed up that one day or that one
14:54
week just get back on track and then
14:56
forget about it and move forward I think
14:58
a lot of people Chuck everything out the
14:59
window because they had like a week of
15:01
mistakes and it doesn't work like that
15:02
your your body will often fluctuate with
15:04
water retention more than anything which
15:06
makes you feel bad make sure that you're
15:07
putting loads of weight but you can't
15:08
gain tons of weight really quickly just
15:10
like you can't get shredded really
15:12
quickly it's the same you know on this
15:14
it's the same sea salt yeah it's good
15:15
like they coach women and it's the
15:18
biggest thing I want them to count
15:19
calories initially because I want them
15:20
to learn it's not like I want I want you
15:22
to be really strict I want your life to
15:25
be restrictive but the problem is they
15:27
think you know they're thinking in clean
15:28
and dirty or good and bad foods and I
15:30
want them to learn to make intuitive
15:32
decisions you know to learn like oh
15:34
maybe I don't want avocado with my eggs
15:35
today if I'm trying to stay a bit leaner
15:37
rather than thinking good food bad food
15:40
so I'm quite not insistent but I just
15:42
recommend it to a lot of clients even if
15:44
it's for a couple of weeks just most
15:46
women are actually eating too little for
15:48
their goals you know they can't just
15:49
keep it up in the long run because
15:51
they're eating too little so I most of
15:53
the women are getting to eat more when
15:55
they get their calories they're like how
15:56
can I eat this much like because you're
15:58
actually going to eat like an adult and
16:00
you're not gonna just have chicken and
16:01
leaves you're gonna like eat so that
16:03
you're full so you're not making
16:04
irrational decisions and that's where
16:07
the hardest thing is just the women are
16:08
ruined by a lot of men as well I'm sure
16:10
and ruined by diet culture and it's it's
16:12
trying to let them learn about food to
16:14
make their own decisions yeah that's one
16:16
of the things that you're doing there is
16:17
like it's almost we're teaching them
16:19
that that first lesson it's like if you
16:21
were to go dancing your land and stuff
16:23
is like one two three four one two and
16:25
then you get into a flow you don't have
16:26
to count anymore you just do it more
16:29
with a flow and that's what you're doing
16:30
with diet and after you've learned so
16:31
steps
16:34
[Music]
16:35
[Applause]
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