10 Principles of Intuitive Eating [EXPLAINED]
Do you keep hearing about intuitive eating and wondering what it’s really all about?
Perhaps you’re new to the intuitive eating world and want a bit more guidance?
We’ve got you covered!
In this post, I’ll explain what intuitive eating really is, what it’s not, the 10 principles, who it’s for, steps to get started, and the million dollar question people ask themselves: “will I lose weight with intuitive eating?”
Let’s dive in!
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is an approach to health and wellness that helps you tune into your body’s signals of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction in order to feel confident with food and your body.
This evidenced based approach is not another diet or restrictive practice, meaning this is not something you can “fail” at (because as we all know, diets are designed to fail!) With intuitive eating, gone are the days of setting rigid rules for yourself, like what you “should” or “shouldn’t” eat, eating at specific times, or needing to exercise in order to “earn” your food. Instead, you can heal your relationship with food, exercise and your body through proper nourishment and prioritizing self care.
The intuitive eating framework was created in 1995 by two registered dietitians, Elyse Resche and Evelyn Tribole, as a way to help others break free from the diet-obsessed world we live in and instead tune into their innate wisdom.
What on earth do I mean by “innate wisdom”, you ask?! Well, we are all born as intuitive eaters. As babies, we cry when we’re hungry, and we throw or play with our food once we’re full. As we get older, we become influenced by disordered messages that suggest what to eat, how to move our bodies and what we’re “supposed” to look like.
These external factors could be from the internet, social media, our peers, family members, school, work, magazines…truly anywhere! The more and more we hear these types of messages, the more we begin to doubt our body’s own internal cues.
If you’ve ever deprived yourself of a certain food group, food, a specific amount of food, or forced yourself to do certain exercises in order to change your body, and are looking for a new, flexible relationship with nutrition and movement, intuitive eating is for you.
What are the benefits of IE?
There are hundreds of research studies that have measured the outcomes of intuitive eating. The benefits found with intuitive eating include:
re-established body trust
improved mood
higher HDL cholesterol
lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol
lower Triglyceride levels
higher self-esteem
more life satisfaction
lower rates of disordered eating
lower rates of emotional eating
Who is it for?
Intuitive eating is for anyone that is ready to let go of dieting and disordered behaviors in order to get back in touch with their body’s internal cues. We have worked with clients of all ages, body sizes and lifestyles who now have balance and flexibility with food and exercise.
How long does it take to become an intuitive eater?
Because everyone’s food and body story is unique, everyone’s process in healing their relationship with food, exercise and their body is different. For some, intuitive eating can be attainable in a few months, whereas others it could take longer.
For those with an active eating disorder, it might feel out of reach to immediately dive into intuitive eating. This is usually because your body needs to go through a refeeding or renourishment phase in order for the body to get back to homeostasis.
Our team of dietitians can help you through each of these stages so that you can ultimately find freedom with food.
What’s the difference between IE and mindful eating?
Every so often I hear people use the term mindful eating in place of intuitive eating. The two terms are similar in the sense that they both bring awareness to what our mind and body wants and needs in a non-judgmental way. Mindfulness techniques are implemented within the intuitive eating approach.
Mindfulness is all about paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and actions around food. Specifically, mindful eating emphasizes using your five senses when choosing what sounds nourishing and satisfying in the moment. Mindful eating focuses on using physical hunger and satiety cues to determine when to eat and when to stop.
Intuitive eating, on the other hand, encompasses all that is part of mindful eating while also adding the work of rejecting the diet mentality, challenging the food police, coping with emotions, respecting your body, and implementing joyful movement.
While implementing mindfulness is a helpful step in your intuitive eating journey, it’s crucial to also let go of dieting and weight bias in order to truly feel confident and at peace with food and your body. Otherwise, there could still be some black and white thinking happening.
What are the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating?
1. Reject the Diet Mentality
In order to become an intuitive eater, you must let go of the belief that dieting will work. I know this can be a tough pill to swallow for some. Think about it this way – if a doctor continued to prescribe you something that did not do what it is intended to do, would you continue with that intervention? I hope not! Dieting is no different.
Diets are a multi billion dollar industry for a reason. They are designed to fail over time so that the consumer will move on to another, shiny, new, diet. While a new diet or “lifestyle change” may lead to weight loss initially, over time most people regain that weight and some gain even more weight. In these types of situations, you might be thinking you failed the diet. Well I’m here to tell you that you did not fail the diet. The diet failed you, because that’s how they keep you going back for more.
The solution? Say goodbye to dieting once and for all. Let go of the false belief that dieting will not only help you lose weight, but keep it off indefinitely. Only then will you be able to tap into your intuitive side with food and exercise.
Very often I see clients swing back and forth between the extremes of restricting and overeating, also known as diet land and donut land. Challenging this black and white thinking will ultimately help you find the gray area that I like to call the “sweet spot”, where you eat a variety of nutrient dense and non-nutrient dense food.
Action Step
Grab a pen and your favorite journal and jot down every external factor that you have used or are currently using in order to feel in “control”. Calorie counting apps, scales, & comparing your portions with others are just a few examples of some external factors.
2. Honor Your Hunger
Giving yourself permission to eat when your body is sending you hunger signals is an essential act of self-care. If you’re unsure how to listen to your hunger cues, I created a detailed post along with a hunger & fullness scale that you can use along the way!
Oftentimes our mind & body sends us a signal of hunger when we are feeling tired. Honoring your hunger in this sense means allowing yourself to eat carbohydrate rich foods since that is an essential food group for our brain and body to become re-energized.
As you honor your hunger with nourishing meals and snacks, your body will begin to trust that it will be properly fed and will in turn lessen the urges to mindlessly eat. This phase can take time, depending on the severity and duration of restriction that has happened in the past.
Action Step
Use my hunger & fullness levels cheat-sheet and begin to track your hunger before meals and snacks.
3. Make Peace with Food
Do you ever find yourself feeling guilty or ashamed after eating a certain food or snack? Have you ever thought “well, now my day is ruined, so I might as well keep going like this for the rest of the day and start over tomorrow”? Do you place moral judgment on certain foods or food groups? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to call a truce with all foods.
If you’re rolling your eyes at me, let me paint a picture to explain this further:
Imagine a baby on the floor with all of its toys spread out to play with. As the baby looks up, (he/she/they) sees their parent holding an iphone. Suddenly, the baby wants the shiny object that is completely out of reach for the little one. That is exactly what happens to our brain when we place restrictions to certain types of foods.
The third principle of intuitive eating is about giving yourself unconditional permission to eat both nutrient dense and non-nutrient dense foods.
Action Step
Start to notice if you place any moral judgment around foods. If you find yourself labeling certain foods as “junk” or “bad” versus others as “clean” or “good”, work on neutralizing all foods by calling them “non-nutrient dense” vs “nutrient dense” foods.
4. Challenge the Food Police
Did you have an “almond mom” growing up? You know, someone who is immersed in dieting and likely thinks “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”? Has there ever been someone in your life that would look over your shoulder and tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat or when you’re supposed to be hungry? That’s what we call a food police.
Oftentimes I see clients who end up becoming their own food police. This could be due to weight bias and fatphobia from their peers, loved ones, or the media. In order to get back to being an intuitive eater, you’ve got to go against that little, pesky voice that’s bullying you into what you can or can’t eat.
You are not morally “good” for eating salads and not morally “bad” for eating burgers. Remember, food is not inherently good or bad. Practicing talking back to your internal food police will help you conquer this fourth principle.
If you’ve ever considered working with a dietitian but hesitated because you were afraid of being judged for what you ate, I’ve got some good news for you. Non-diet dietitians such as myself and my team will never judge you for what you eat. Instead, we’ll be by your side, cheering you on as you let go of old diet-culture messages.
Action Step
I challenge you to unfollow any social media accounts that trigger the food police in you.
5. Discover the Satisfaction Factor
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard people compare a substance addiction to a food addiction. My response? Unlike substances, where you can refrain from them indefinitely, food is part of life! Food brings people together, creates memories, traditions, and joy!
Food provides what I think to be the most important vitamin of all - vitamin P aka PLEASURE! Life is short, so why not enjoy your favorite foods? As you begin to implement the fifth principle of intuitive eating, you might find yourself craving those foods more often. If so, take a deep breath because this is totally normal!
When breaking up with diet culture, many clients will find themselves in what I call a “honeymoon phase” with foods they’ve avoided for some time. Rest assured, this phase will fade with time. Patience, young grasshopper.
6. Feel Your Fullness
Sitting with fullness can be challenging, especially for those that struggle with an active eating disorder. Gently reminding yourself that there is a beginning, middle and an end to feeling full can help alleviate some of the stress that comes with tolerating fullness.
If, on the flip side, you are someone that can’t stop eating once full, make sure you are eating adequately all throughout the day and not eliminating any specific food groups. During each meal and snack, check in with yourself halfway through using my hunger & fullness level cheat sheet.
Remember, giving yourself unconditional permission to eat a variety of foods and in adequate amounts for your body’s needs is necessary in order to truly feel your fullness. Once you do this, your body will send you the signal that it no longer needs food at that given time.
7. Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
So here’s the thing, we all emotionally eat every now and then. Remember the scene in Legally Blonde when Elle Woods is depressed in bed eating chocolate after being dumped? Yeah, it happens to all of us if we’re truly being flexible, intuitive eaters.
Diet culture has demonized emotional eating, but the reality is it can be a helpful coping skill during hard or traumatic times. Emotional eating can become a problem if that becomes your one and only coping mechanism.
Action Step
If you find yourself emotionally eating more frequently, try your absolute best to practice self compassion. There’s no need to bring back that food police we discussed back in the fourth principle of intuitive eating. Working with a non-diet registered dietitian that specializes in intuitive eating can help you navigate this process.
8. Respect Your Body
What does body respect mean? It means honoring your mind & body’s needs with adequate nourishment, rest, hydration, and whatever else it is signaling to you. When you implement self-care on days that you have negative feelings towards your body, you are sending your mind and body the message that your self worth is not tied to your appearance.
In no way do you have to love your body in order to respect it. Speaking to yourself with kindness sends your mind and body the message that you respect it. When you criticize or shame yourself about the way you look or what you just ate, your body can have adverse reactions. Studies have shown self judgment while eating can negatively impact the digestive system and slow down motility. Moral of the story? The way you talk to yourself matters.
Action step
Practice self-compassion!
9. Movement – Feel the Difference
Intuitive exercise is all about finding a form of movement that sounds fun and feels good to YOU. Implementing exercise within the intuitive eating framework means letting go of any focus on numbers, including calories burned, steps taken, and miles or stairs completed.
Joyful movement has nothing to do with how your body looks and more so to do with how you’re physically feeling. Are you feeling stronger? Do you have more energy? Are you sleeping better? Is your mood improving? Perhaps you feel accomplished after a hard workout? There are so many benefits to exercise that have nothing to do with changing your body!
10. Honor Your Health – Gentle Nutrition
The final principle of intuitive eating is honoring your health with gentle nutrition. There is no “perfect” way to eat. Gentle nutrition is all about honoring your health with balance, variety and flexibility.
Flexibility could look like going a week without fruits and vegetables because you’re on vacation and want to enjoy fun, new cultural foods, then coming home and craving more fresh food and home cooked meals the following week. Gentle nutrition is also about noticing what foods are more satiating, which are more satisfying and how to balance the two.
Will I lose weight with intuitive eating?
This is one of the most common questions I get. My response? I don’t have a magic wand that will tell me exactly how your body will respond. Some people lose weight, some maintain, and some gain. Everyone’s body is different so it’s really hard to say.
If you hyperfocus or fixate on the number on the scale (an external factor), you will actually become more disconnected from your body’s internal signals, which steers you further away from intuitive eating.
When hyper-focusing on weight or other types of external measurements, it essentially means you lack trust in your body and therefore need an outside tool to dictate whether or not you are doing something “right”. Remember, the intuitive eating approach is not meant to be a weight loss method. Instead, intuitive eating aligns with the Health at Every Size approach, which states weight and BMI are not measures for health.
Can I still do intuitive eating if I want to lose weight?
We live in a world that praises thinness and weight loss regardless of the extreme measures it takes to get there. Meanwhile, society demonizes weight gain and treats those in marginalized identities very poorly. With that being said, I will never judge or shame someone for wanting to lose weight and have so much compassion for those that are impacted by weight bias and fat-phobia.
If you are contemplating the intuitive eating approach but hesitate due to the desire for weight loss, it’s worth continuing to explore intuitive eating while working with a weight-inclusive dietitian. Together, the two of you can untangle the desire for weight loss and the itch to let go of the diet mentality.
Final Thoughts
Intuitive eating is a non-diet, weight inclusive framework that will help you become confident around food and your body. While there isn’t a simple answer to how long it takes to become an intuitive eater, if you follow and live by the ten principles, you will reap the benefits indefinitely. Think of it as a short term investment in the harder thing for a long term return of freedom.
Ready to become an intuitive eater? Fill out an inquiry form to work with one of our dietitians!