Intuitive Eating

You might think intuitive eating is a new idea, but it has in fact been pioneered since 1995, however, it seems to be gaining a lot of traction recently and I am seeing a growth in popularity within fitness influencers. When the Influencers start shouting about it, the everyday consumer starts to think about it so although it isn’t a new concept to me, I thought it was time I did some in-depth research into this phenomenon and, as ever, I’m excited to share my findings with you.

What Is Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating is the brainchild of Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch; a Dietician and Nutrition Therapist, respectively. They created the approach with chronic dieters in mind, with a view to removing the focus off weight and liberating the individual from what they describe as ‘a prison of diet culture and weight obsession’. Their intuitive eating book moves the focus onto nurturing your body rather than losing weight, and they claim it encourages natural weight loss, helping you find the weight you were meant to be.

Essentially, Intuitive Eating is the process of listening and responding to the messages of the body (hunger) in order to meet physical and psychological needs.

All sounds wonderful, right? You don’t worry about your weight…no calorie intake tracking, no target protein levels, you instead ensure you only eat when you are truly hungry and stop when you are full. Ok, so I am being flippant here and this is by no way me saying this doesn’t work - but at this stage, I have to admit that I am sceptical because don’t we all want to stop eating when we are full? I don’t think it’s that easy. Let’s dig a bit more.

Intuitive Eating Principles

The book outlines 10 basic principles for the intuitive eater to follow.

Reject the diet mentality - this is the idea that there is a diet out there to suit everyone. This idea should be rejected, as an intuitive eater never has to diet again
Honour your hunger - hunger is not the enemy. Feed your body when you are hungry, as allowing yourself to be hungry for long periods will likely increase the chances you’ll overeat
Make peace with food - remove any notions of good or bad food and foods you should or should not eat. No foods are off bounds
Challenge the food police - you are not good or bad for eating the foods you enjoy, challenge thoughts that tell you anything to the contrary
Respect your fullness - learn to recognise when you feel full and stop eating when you have had enough
Discover the satisfaction factor - make eating an experience, sit down to eat, cook foods you really enjoy and take time to make eating pleasurable
Honour your feelings without using food to cope with them - find alternative ways to deal with your emotions, many people overeat when unhappy, happy, bored – find other ways to cope such as walking, meditating or socialising
Respect your body - rather than finding faults, appreciate and love your body for what it is
Exercise - exercise to feel strong and energized, not to lose weight or as punishment
Honour your health - choose foods that honour your health and taste great while making you feel good. Remember that you don’t have to eat perfectly all the time in order to be healthy. One meal or snack won’t cause you to be unhealthy, it is what you eat consistently that matters.

Intuitive Eating Research

Despite this approach being around for almost 20 years, research is very limited. This may change, given the amount of exposure it’s now receiving, but as it stands, we don’t have an awful lot of fact-based information out there.

That being said, the limited research available does show a positive correlation between following an intuitive eating strategy and improved attitude towards food, lower BMI and good levels of adherence. A 2014 Study by Public Health Nutrition found substantial and consistent associations between intuitive eating and both lower BMI and improved psychological health. And, a Study by Springer found that Intuitive Eating may be a valuable intervention target for improving psychological health and reducing disordered eating behaviours, particularly binge eating.

As you can see, the research is pretty thin but it’s promising in terms of helping with psychological health in regards to food.

So, what do I think of it?

The methods I use with my clients are 100% research-based, so at this point, intuitive eating, although very interesting, is not something I would advocate for anyone wanting or needing to lose fat. I am more than open to re-assessing this, should reliable and thorough research be released that supports its use.

My thoughts on the method are mixed and, due to the lack of research, are purely my anecdotal, experience led musings. I really like the principles, they are very aligned to the flexible eating strategy that I introduce to my clients. An eating strategy that isn’t a diet, it’s not a short term restrictive fix to a lifelong challenge but a lifelong approach to eating that doesn’t demonise or restrict food groups, nor does it demonise the individual for eating the foods they like in moderation. Advocating exercise, self-love and really taking the time to enjoy foods are all part of what I do and are championed by me every day – your body is amazing, appreciate it, nourish it and give it the respect it deserves.

The concept of eating when hungry, stopping when full and not counting calories is an area that I feel would likely not work for everyone. Fat loss can only be achieved by burning more calories than you consume, there are lots of diets that elicit this, some sustainable, some not, but that’s a fundamental equation for anyone needing to lose weight. This approach throws that out of the window completely, and although I am sure that for some people, they can listen to their body and eat intuitively, but for many people, this isn’t feasible for them…hence why we live in an obese society. There are both deep-rooted environmental and genetic factors at play here, someone who has overeaten since childhood would likely find it very hard to learn what true hunger and comfortable fullness feels like and from a genetic point of view, research has found that genes variants, such as a variation in the FTO gene, can cause a genetic propensity to obesity. A study by Obesity Journal found that variants in or near the FTO gene have been seen to result in less sensitivity to satiety cues and binge eating episodes. This would make an intuitive approach very difficult for an individual.

So, although the principles do resonate with me, and I think this approach may work for some (that does remain to be seen once we have more thorough research), I do believe that this approach isn’t the holy grail that will work for us all.