The truth about intuitive eating
Is the ‘intuitive eating’ approach all that it’s cracked up to be? Let’s find out.
Intuitive eating is a strategy or approach to eating where, rather than placing restrictions or limitations on yourself, you listen to your body’s cues and eat what feels right to you. Which we love - we love the idea of being in tune with your body’s natural hunger cues, and focusing on moderation and balance instead of restriction. But here’s the thing: the name ‘intuitive eating’ implies that we’re in touch with our actual intuition - and, frankly, many of us are not. Starting with an intuitive eating approach takes for granted that we can understand our body’s cues. If we try to implement this approach but do not have the knowledge necessary to do so - if we can’t understand the cues our body is giving us - then it’s not going to be a very effective strategy.
At one point, if we look back to our ancestors, we humans were probably pretty good at this without giving it a second thought. But fast forward to today, and we’re constantly bombarded with marketing messages, confusing labels, and contradictory (or even false 😬) information on the internet. So really, given that context, it’s no wonder many of us have fallen so far out of touch with what our bodies really need.
But that doesn’t mean that intuitive eating doesn’t work - keep reading, friends.
At fuelED, we spend time helping people pay closer attention to what they’re putting into their bodies (in terms of both quality and quantity) and to what changes - positive or negative - they feel as a result. Every time a person does that, they’re one step closer to having the knowledge they need to practice intuitive eating. Our goal is to get as many people as we can to a point where they’re not reading every label or always whipping out a food scale, if that’s not necessitated by their goals. But first we have to lay the groundwork for being able to do that. So even if a person isn’t counting macros or calories directly (though those can certainly be helpful tools!), we’re spending time looking at labels, learning what a balanced meal looks like, and developing healthy habits and skills - that way, they’re a little more equipped to eat intuitively. So that’s it. Intuitive eating is a desirable end state. But in order to get there, we must first develop a basic understanding of what it is that we truly need. And while that usually requires a more hands-on approach than just “listening to our bodies,” it doesn’t have to focus on restriction or cause us to have a negative relationship with food.
This topic came up when owner/head coach Allie Potter (then Allie Mikels) talked with Dr. Ben Moore of EVO Performance Therapy on The Fitness Evolved Podcast back in April 2021. If you want to hear more, check out that episode - it’s linked below!
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