Intuitive Eating: To Diet or Not to Diet

Intuitive eating: To diet or not to diet

Not restricting food intake could help patients develop healthy eating habits

Nationwide, roughly 40% of adults are either overweight or obese. And, every year, 45 million Americans go on a diet. In fact, losing weight and living healthier routinely tops the list of New Year’s resolutions.

Clearly, dieting is popular. But for most people, it isn’t a long-term weight management solution. Within three years, 65% of dieters return to their pre-diet weight. Only 5% of people who shed pounds by restricting their food intake keep weight off. Some of these people are likely your patients.

If they’re coming to you with frustrations, there’s good news. You could recommend an alternative approach to weight management that doesn’t focus on portion control or eliminating foods. It’s called intuitive eating. Here’s what you need to know.

What is intuitive eating?

Intuitive eating isn’t a diet, and its intent isn’t weight loss. Instead, it’s a philosophy that rejects using rules to control food consumption. Rather than restricting the foods and amounts your patients can eat, this approach empowers them to make food selections based on their internal hunger, fullness and satisfaction cues. The goal is a healthier relationship with food.

10 intuitive eating principles

Embracing intuitive eating can be challenging for some patients. They’ll need to let go of existing thoughts and beliefs around dieting, food and eating. These old ideas can be negative, and holding onto them can undermine any intuitive eating efforts.

To succeed, your patient should learn their body’s signals for hunger and fullness. Recognizing those cues helps them know when to eat and when to push away from the table.

The 10 principles of intuitive eating include:

1. Let go of the diet mentality: Remind your patients that following a diet can negatively affect their health. Instead, intuitive eating is a lifestyle change that can give them a better understanding of their body’s food needs.
2. Pay attention to hunger: Dieting encourages your patients to ignore hunger pangs. But that feeling is important. It’s the body’s signal that it needs nutrients. Suggest patients pause when they feel hungry, figure out what their body wants and select a healthy food option.
3. Make peace with food: Your patient may be used to following strict food-related rules. Maybe they don’t eat after 7 p.m., or they avoid bread altogether. With intuitive eating, they can break these rules and eat a wider variety of foods.
4. Ignore the food police: This is the voice in your patient’s head that makes them feel bad about what they eat. Help them pinpoint the source of that voice. It could be something they feel internally, or maybe they picked it up from a parent or partner. Ignoring that voice could be as simple as enjoying some foods, such as chocolate, in smaller amounts.
5. Embrace satisfaction: Food should be enjoyable. Eating foods that aren’t satisfying means your patient isn’t paying attention to what their body wants. Encourage them to think about what foods will satisfy them before they start eating.
6. Pay attention to fullness: Let your patients know it’s OK to leave food on their plates if they’re full. Tell them to assess how they’re feeling as they eat, rating their hunger on a scale of 1 to 10. When they’re physically satisfied — not stuffed — they will know to stop eating.
7. Cope with kindness (not food): Emotional eating due to stress, anxiety, boredom or sadness is common. Talk with your patients about ways to handle these emotions that don’t involve food. Activities, such as reading, practicing yoga or going for a walk, can help them pivot from relying on food to soothe their feelings.
8. Respect their body: Food and exercise contribute to a patient’s body shape and size, but so do their genes. Explaining the impact of their genetics can help them develop a more positive body image and accept their body as-is.
9. Move with joy: Exercise can feel like a chore for many patients. Shift away from discussing workouts and talk about moving for fun instead. Encourage them to engage in fun activities, such as dancing or walking their dog.
10. Focus on nutrition: Proper nutrition is part of intuitive eating. Your patients should pay attention to which healthy foods fulfill their body’s hunger signals. For example, if they feel hungry shortly after eating cereal for breakfast, adding a banana may keep them full for a longer time.

Benefits of intuitive eating

Your patients may be skeptical about whether intuitive eating is effective, but recent research indicates it offers several benefits. Individuals who embrace the concept report:

• Better body image and self-esteem
• Better general well-being
• Less depression and anxiety
• Lower rates of eating disorders

Ultimately, intuitive eating is an anti-diet that many people can stick with long term. As a food philosophy, it can help your patients regain control over their relationship with food and build healthier eating habits.

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