Intuitive Eating: A Non-Diet Approach to Positive Health
Amy H. Olson, LCSW
Interventions for weight management, weight loss and associated co-morbidities have focused on
behavioral strategies to restrict caloric intake and increase daily energy expenditure. Individuals of all
ages and sizes have internalized these recommendations, initially aimed at those needing to manage
health risks. The result is a culture of dieters and compulsive eaters obsessed with thinness, fearful of
food and far removed from the innate ability to honor signals of hunger and satiety. This culture
negatively impacts quality of life for women and men of all body sizes, makes it harder to discover and
maintain one’s natural healthy weight and increases the risk of the development of eating disorders.
A return to the anti-dieting movement, which emerged in the 1980’s, holds promise as an
alternative intervention to promote positive body image at any size, decrease maladaptive obsessions
with food, and build trust in one’s relationship with food. Until recently there has not been much
empirical evidence for the promotion of anti-dieting strategies. A branch of the anti-dieting movement,
called Intuitive Eating, an approach published by Tribole and Resch (1995), has gained considerable
attention prompting researchers to formalize it’s definition and substantiate it’s health benefits. The
purpose of this paper is to define the primary tenants of Intuitive Eating, understand the health
benefits of this approach as well as pitfalls. Overcoming Overeating (1989), an approach which
preceeded Intuitive Eating, will also be highlighted in support of the tenants of Intuitive Eating.
A weakness of the non-dieting approach has been “…the lack of scientific support” (Foster, 2002,
p. 607). To address this gap in the literature, Trylka (2006) introduced the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES)
highlighting three adaptive eating behaviors present within intuitive eaters. These adaptive behaviors
include: “… (a) unconditional permission to eat when hungry and what food is desired, (b) eating for
physical rather than emotional reasons, and (c) reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues to
determine when and how much to eat” (p. 226). An individual who practices these adaptive eating
behaviors, the thrust of Tribole and Hirschman’s approach, experiences physiological and
psychological benefits.
Unconditional permission to eat when hungry and what is desired
“Unconditional permission to eat reflects a readiness to eat in response to internal physiological
hunger signals and the food that is desired at the moment” (Tylka, p. 227).
Underpinning the concept of unconditional permission is the belief that restricting, banning, and/or
assigning moral judgment towards high calorie/high fat foods creates a sense of deprivation and
scarcity. Exaggerated yearnings, food obsessions and binge eating follow this prohibitive attitude.
Unconditional permission grants all foods equal status: green beans are equal to chocolate and
chocolate is equal to bread and so on. There is no fantasy that that these foods have equal
nutritional value, however, an intuitive eater naturally eats nutritious foods as the bulk of his or her
diet. This natural inclination will only happen when all foods are legal and one commits to the practice
of making all foods available, as desired, and there is no fear that foods will be removed.
Also included in the definition of unconditional permission is respect for the rhythm of ones own
hunger cues, which may or may not match up with culturally defined meal times. Munter and
Hirschman (1989) call this respect demand feeding. Demand feeding refers to a way of feeding
infants - when the baby cries the caregiver provides nourishment - supporting the belief that we are
born knowing when and how much to feed ourselves. Adults get disconnected from this process by
living on a culturally accepted meal schedule as well as from years of dieting.
Eating for physical rather that emotional reasons
“People who eat intuitively use food to satisfy a physical hunger drive and not to cope with their
emotional fluctuations and/or distress” (Tylka, p.277). Using food for reasons other than hunger is
understandable; food is the first thing we know associated with nurturing. Occasionally eating for
reasons other than hunger, such as for sensory gratification and comfort are not necessarily wrong or
problematic, unless it is a regular practice and/or food is used to distract from feelings, to sedate or
punish the self (Tribole & Resch).
Reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues to determine when and how much to eat
“People who engage in intuitive eating are both aware of their internal hunger and satiety signals to
guide their eating behavior” (Tylka p. 227). Compulsive eaters have lost sense of natural cues of
hunger and satiety – consequences of dieting and quieting hunger by staying busy. Gentle
sensations have atrophied and hunger is only experienced in the extreme. This creates vulnerability
for overeating; further reinforcing the belief that one cannot be trusted with food. An intuitive eater
attends to subtle hunger and comfortable satiety.
Stopping eating at comfortable satiety is difficult and can create a sense of deprivation. Munter and
Hirschmann reframe this deprivation, stating that the intuitive eater stops at a point of comfortable
satiety, and is therefore, able to feel hungry again sooner. Each time one is hungry it is an
opportunity to eat, which is the ultimate act of parenting the self and feeling like a good caretaker.
The process of intuitive eating is in itself esteem building.
Benefits of eating intuitively
Total scores on the IES reflected that, “intuitive eating (is) negatively related to eating disorder
symptomology, body dissatisfaction, poor interoceptive awareness, pressure for thinness, and
internalization of the thin-ideal stereotype.” In addition, “…IES total and subscale scores were
positively related to measures of self esteem, optimism, proactive coping, and satisfaction with life…”
(Tylka, p. 227). Those with higher IES scores also had lower body mass indexes.
The skills reinforced by eating intuitively help an individual become a good self-caretaker and
better equipped to deal proactively with problems outside the domain of food. The process of trusting
ones’ ability to assess the reality within the body and attend to it accordingly helps one to feel less
reliant on outside sources to guide thoughts and behaviors.
Pitfalls
A primary pitfall of this approach is attempting to use it solely as a weight loss strategy, hence,
making it another diet. The goals are to improve ones’ relationship to food - mainly eat less
compulsively - and enhance body image at any size. No promise of weight loss is implied but a saner
relationship with food is likely.
The counterintuitive nature of this approach is likely to instill panic in many chronic dieters, fearing,
“I’ll just eat junk until I blow up!” Tribole and Resh assure “habituation” - the process of food
becoming less appealing the more one is exposed (p. 106). This speaks to every dieter’s memory of
one childhood friend whose cupboards were stocked with high caloric and high fat foods, which were
eaten sparingly
Another pitfall is “pseudo-permission”, or getting scared after legalizing and jumping back on the diet
cycle. Intuitive Eating and Overcoming Overeating stress that one must give up dieting for good. For
many, “unconditional permission” may sound crazy, but as a standard, dieting results in regain of
weight lost plus more, so how crazy is it?
Those gravitating to this approach after dieting, and maintaining an artificially low weight, will need
to adjust weight loss or weight maintenance expectations. It is common to blame the approach for
subsequent weight gain, but one must keep in mind that the weight would probably have been
regained anyways. By becoming a more intuitive eater, it is likely that not all weight will be regained.
Intuitive Eating is now measurable and its benefits are clearly noted. The best strategies for
teaching and implementation continue to become more clearly defined. One can use books in a self-
help format, and/or attend groups or individual sessions facilitated by instructors and therapists. It is a
potentially effective method to encourage positive self-esteem and ones natural healthy weight.
References
Hirschman, J. & Munter, C. (1989). Overcoming Overeating. New York: Ballantine Books.
Foster, G. (2002). Nondieting approaches. In C.G.Fairburn & K.D. Brownell (Eds.) Eating disorders
and obesity: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.) (pp. 604 – 608). New York: The Guilford Press.
Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (1995). Intuitive eating: A revolutionary program that works. New York, NY:
St. Martin’s Press.
Tylka, T.L. (2006). Development and psychometric evaluation of a measure of intuitive eating.
Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 2, 226-240.