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| Intuitive eating may be the answer to an unhealthy relationship with food. But what about weight loss? |
If you have been on any fitness influencers' social media or fitness page over the past year, chances are you've come across the words "intuitive eating". Intuitive eating seems to be the latest anti-diet buzzword being tossed around by trainers, nutritionists and influencers everywhere. But what is intuitive eating? Is it just a new diet craze promising you to lose weight? Or is it deeper than that?
In this article, I will discuss intuitive eating. I will discuss what it is exactly, whom it will benefit and the biggest question surrounding it, is it meant for weight loss?
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating was first made prevalent in 1995 by Registered Dietitians Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch. They wrote their book called Intuitive Eating after seeing many of their own clients struggle with yo-yo on and off dieting and losing weight just to put it back on. They wanted to teach their clients and others how to remove the diet mentality and focus on health, and longevity for their nutrition without restrictions or rules.
An intuitive eater is someone who makes food choices without experiencing guilt, or shame, someone who enjoys food without restriction. Intuitive eating also emphasizes internal cues and listening to your body vs external diet rules and restrictions. (You can find more information about intuitive eating on their website HERE)
Essentially, intuitive eating is removing all restrictions and listening to your body and feeding it what it needs without feelings of guilt or shame or rules. It also involves understanding portion control and is commonly meant for being able to maintain a healthy relationship with food and body weight. There's no way of failing intuitive eating or falling off the bandwagon because it is focusing on a lifestyle with no restrictions or rules.
There are fundamentally great things about intuitive eating. It involves having a healthy mindset and relationship with food and removing any restrictions and rules with dieting. Being able to feed your body what makes you feel good and removing guilt and shame surrounding certain foods that are usually deemed to be "bad foods". By removing restrictions and guilt surrounding food, you are allowing yourself to feed your body with what foods you see fit. This can help to reduce binges, yo-yo dieting cycles and emotional eating.
All these things will have a great impact on your mental health and body positivity by reinforcing a healthy relationship with food. (For more on what it means to have a healthy relationship with food, check out my other blog HERE)
With all that being said, is intuitive eating the newest secret to weight loss that social media is making it to believe?
Short answer: No it is not. In fact, intuitive eating was never meant to be for weight loss at all. A direct quote from Evelyn Tribole "Promoting Intuitive Eating as a way to lose weight ‘the right way’ is a misrepresentation of our work. It’s flat out wrong." (source)
Intuitive eating is not a solution to weight loss but meant to help with changing an unhealthy relationship with food and promoting positivity towards your body and mental health.
Weight loss requires you to be in a calorie deficit. This meaning that it does require changes to how you eat. Calorie deficit does not mean you have to restrict and have rules if what you can and cannot eat, but it generally means you have a good idea of how much you're eating and what you're eating to achieve your weight loss goals. Which doesn't exactly align with the definition and purpose of intuitive eating.
For most people to achieve a calorie deficit for weight loss, this involves needing to learn proper portions and putting emphasis on changing behaviours surrounding how much and what you eat. Understanding calorie deficits and portion sizes are key for successful weight loss and then transitioning into maintenance.
So if you have someone who doesn't understand portion sizes and they want to be intuitively eating, it can be counteractive if their primary goal is weight loss. This is where learning to track is helpful to learn what portion sizes look like, what foods will make your body feel good and how to incorporate all foods into your diet to learn moderation. In learning to measure and portion, you can teach yourself what it looks like to intuitively eat, which I have always considered being the ultimate goal of tracking.
Many social media influencers now are using intuitive eating as a way to shame measuring and calorie tracking for weight loss. They say tracking food is being too obsessive about your food or say that it encourages disordered eating.
This can ring true for some that have a history of unhealthy issues with food. As I mentioned before and in previous blogs, if you struggle with an unhealthy relationship with food or disordered eating, you need to focus on your relationship with food and deal with that first before you should start focusing on weight loss. In this case, yes intuitive eating (along with some help from a professional registered dietitian and/or a therapist) would be beneficial.
For others, myself included, tracking was a great way to learn proper portions and what makes my body feel its best. Many of my clients have also benefited from tracking for a period of time to learn what foods help them and what portions are best for them and how to eat for their goals.
Most don't know what as serving of 4oz of chicken looks like or a serving of pasta actually is. In fact, we tend to grossly overestimate these portions, hence why eyeballing doesn't always work for weight loss. But by tracking for a period of time, you can learn what these are so you can eyeball much better. Consider it learning a skill to be able to transition to intuitive eating.
I learned through years of on and off tracking and experimenting, what suited me the best and how to be able to eyeball proper portions. Now, I can maintain my body weight with not tracking, as well as no restrictions or rules and just knowing what works for me and my body. But I had to learn this before I could implement it into my life.
Intuitive eating has some great merits but it is not the answer to weight loss- in fact, intuitive eating and weight loss would be considered totally different goals. Learning about intuitive eating and incorporating it into your life will be undoubtedly helpful to rid of a stressful, unhealthy struggle with food, help improve your mental health and relationship with your body. But in doing so, you may need to let go of your weight loss goals for a time while you focus on those things. It doesn't have to be forever though, when you feel like you are at a place you are ready for weight loss, if that is still your goal, then you can focus on that instead.
Overall, intuitive eating is a refreshing view on nutrition because it focuses on eating to feel good about your body and by removing restrictions and rules from your diet and giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. It encourages a healthy relationship with food, your body and mental health.
It is not a new diet or gimmick to be exploited, but a way to focus on sustainability and longevity for nutrition. It was not meant to be an answer for weight loss, but rather an answer to help end yo-yo dieting cycles and focusing on overall health, not restricting calories. Intuitive eating should be the ultimate goal, and being able to listen to your body to fuel it with what makes you feel good, with whatever foods you like, and listening to your hunger cues and giving yourself permission to eat.
Whether your goal is to lose weight or not, this is a good goal to strive for, to ultimately have a healthy relationship with food and your body.
Although intuitive eating is not the answer for weight loss goals, it can be a huge help for anyone struggling with negativity towards food or on and off different diets to help change your mentality towards food.
If you want to pursue a healthier relationship with food, this may be what you are looking for. Just as in any journey, you need to find what works for you, your goals and listen to your body to what makes you feel healthy and happy!
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