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Home » Long Term Weight Loss » Intuitive Eating: The Not-Diet Diet for People Who Are Sick of Diets – VICE

Maybe you read the widely-shared opinion piece in the New York Times calling on women to smash the Wellness Industry. Maybe youve heard that were in the middle of a backlash against diet culture, or that the latest diet trend is not dieting.

Sounds pretty good, right?

That not-diet diet everyones talking about is intuitive eating, and its the current source of curiosity/obsession among health bloggers, Instagram fitspo accounts, and wellness news publications including, I guess, VICE? 2019 was a big year for intuitive eating, with trend stories appearing everywhere from NPR to the Cut in the last several months.

This way of eating may be newly resonant, but its not newthe philosophy was introduced by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their 1995 book book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works.

Its not a fad, and thats the difference, said Lisa Sasson, a clinical professor of nutrition at NYU Steinhardt. I teach it in all my classes.

Put simply, intuitive eating is intended to eliminate the guilt associated with food and the binary of foods as good or bad. Its more of a psychological attitude; its not about counting calories or eat this, dont eat that, Sasson continued. Intuitive eating doesnt exult any of-the-moment superfoods; theres no obsessive nutrition label reading.

It is, technically, eat-whatever-you-want, but theres a bit of public misperception around that: Registered Dietitian Anne Mauney, who also uses Instagram to promote an IE lifestyle (@fannetasticfood), said that even though youre not paying attention to calories when eating intuitively, you are being conscious of how hungry or full you are. Theres a focus on how foods make you feel, and an emphasis on mindfulness. That means eating slowly, putting down the fork periodically, checking in after a few minutes to see if youre still hungry, and not continuing to eat just because theres still food on your plate.

The idea is that the longer you stick to these lifestyle changes, the more youre in control. You respect your own bodys signals, Sasson explained.

Its also not a weight loss plan, no matter what you mightve read. If you Google intuitive eating, intuitive eating for weight loss comes up pretty early, Mauney said. Its frustrating, because Ive seen a lot of people marketing intuitive eating for weight loss, which is not at all what its about. If youre really focused on weight loss, its going to be almost impossible to be an intuitive eater.

One of Sassons classes is called Nutrition Through the Life Cycle, and she said were a nation with an eating disorder, behavior that begins when were kids. Children rely on hormones that tell them when theyre full or hungry; they know to eat and when not to. Its parents who make them finish food even if theyre full so they can, say, watch TV or go play. When food becomes more than foodwhen broccoli is a requirement or cookies become a rewardthats when people get out of touch with their own body cues. And that internalized message can follow you your whole life, leading to moderate body dissatisfaction or an all out eating disorder.

Thats not the only thing making it tough to practice. Theres also the fact that the moment we live in is that it isnt built to make eating well, quite so intuitive.

We live in a 24/7 world of food advertisements on the television, on the radio, on Facebook and Twitter, said UCLAs Dana Hunnes, a senior dietitian at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center.

You know, I was at Macys, the department store, a few weeks ago, Sasson said. Every floor had food. You could smell the aroma as youre going through womens shoes, or womens dresses. There was an eating opportunity on every floor.

In a world where SUVs come outfitted with XL cupholders and snacks are engineered to make us crave more and more of them, eating well can be a challenge. When youre constantly being bombarded by billboards plastered with 20-foot-tall burgers; scrolling Twitter during, say, a week-long media craze over a certain fast-food fried chicken sandwich; or looking at the umpteenth grain bowl or smoothie bowl in your Instagram feed, it can be difficult to parse what you want from what you think you want. Hunnes said all that subliminal messaging can dampen or influence our own intuitive thinking, which makes it easy to see why some are skeptical about the IE lifestyle.

So what do you do about it? In short: If you think you want it, eat it. There's no judgement either way, this is all just information, said Molly Bahr, whos both a licensed mental health counselor and an intuitive eating Instagrammer. This can be a helpful reframe each time we think we mess up with intuitive eating ... there is no messing up, it's just information. How else will we learn our natural body cues, what we find satisfying, or what feels good in our bodies? It's all an experiment, and we're gathering data.

Intuitive eating isnt a get-fit-quick schemedietitians will tell you its more of a yearslong and in fact lifelong undertaking. Bahr said its a way of eating and living meant for anyone whos tired of going on diets but not getting the long-term results they expected or hoped for. One of the things she liked about it is that it can truly be tailored to anyoneespecially with the help of a dietitianregardless of their relationship with food.

Someone with anorexia or who has dieted for a long time may not be able to detect their hunger or fullness cues yet, but they can start with other principles like rejecting the diet mentality and work with a dietitian on how to navigate the hunger and fullness piece until the cues get back on line, she explained. Keep in mind, this process can take months and years. No one is expected to get a handle of all 10 principles in 12 weeksthat's sort of a lingering diet mentality.

If youre wondering where to start, or are interested in learning how you can adopt some of the principles in your own life, we asked them to demystify the process and tell us what the intuitive eating-curious need to know.

Bahr recommends reading the books Intuitive Eating, Health At Every Size, The Body Is Not An Apology, and Just Eat It. And she has an array of podcast recommendations: Dietitians Unplugged; Love, Food; Food Psych, Dont Salt My Game.

If that sounds like a lot of reading and listening and youre ready to get going right now, she also laid out the 10 principles of intuitive eating (which you can read more in-depth descriptions of here):

1. Reject the diet mentalityLearn about diet culture and why diets don't work, set aside weight loss goals, and let go of dieting behaviors to get out of our heads and into our bodies.

2. Honor your hungerEat consistently, throughout the day, including when you notice gentle signs of hunger.

3. Make peace with foodGive yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods (excepting those you cant because of medical conditions, of course).

4. Challenge the food policeSay no to the food rules diet culture has taught us about what, how much, how often, and when to eat.

5. Feel your fullnessListen for the signs you're no longer hungry; notice the signals telling you when you're comfortably full.

6. Discover the satisfaction factorEat what you really want to eat. No more food swaps for zucchini when youre feeling pasta.

7. Cope with your feelings without using foodSeek out and learn additional ways to deal with emotions and practice self compassion.

8. Respect your bodySimply put? Treat and talk to your body with respect.

9. Joyful movement: feel the differenceEngage in activities you find enjoyable, and notice what you like about it (better sleep, more energy).

10. Honor your health with gentle nutritionEat a variety of foods and notice how they feel in your body.

Note that these are guidelines, not rules. You dont have to (and truly, wont be able to) do all 10 right away. And, Bahr said, theres no such thing as failure or messing up here; there are wins, and theres learning. You dont have to go in orderalthough principle 10 is listed last for a reason. If we jump into nutrition too soon, we can quickly turn it into another diet, Bahr said.

What happens over time as we start to feed ourselves consistently with food we want, learn our hunger and fullness cues, notice how foods feel in our body, stop constantly trying to lose weight, and cope with our emotions in healthy ways we will naturally begin to crave a variety of foodsincluding nutrient dense foodswithout actually trying to focus on the 10th principle.

If you came to intuitive eating by way of Instagram, you might believe the movement is for a certain type of (thin, privileged) person. (Take a scroll through a few lists of intuitive eating Instagrammers to follow, and youre going to see a lot of white women with incredibly toned upper arms who incorrectly overextend intuitive eating into being a weight loss method.)

Social media absolutely creates a distorted sense of reality and unrealistic expectations, Bahr said. The people she chooses to follow dont center their body on their accounts. In other words, Bahr said, Their body is not their business card.

She recommended digging into your personal biases when it comes to intuitive eating online. Do most of the people you follow look like you or your ideal self?

It may be a signal to diversify who you follow. Look for accounts in different sizes, colors, abilities, and lifestyles.

I know how hard it is in the beginning to wrap our minds around this, but there are no rules in intuitive eating, Bahr said. (Unless, of course, eating something would be fatal.) As humans, we want what we can't have; a lot of people discover they don't actually like the foods they've been avoiding. It took me a few boxes of Pop Tart flavors to realize I actually don't even like them and I haven't looked back since.

Bahr described giving yourself this permission to eat as working through a habituation phasethink, for example, about how excited you are when you get a new phone, outfit, or even a new relationship. Now think about how you feel about these items a year later. The overexcitement fades.

This is where mindfulness comes in: eating slower, chewing, and really being aware of your food. Mauney tells clients to actually pay attention, put it on a nice plate, really sit downno distractionsand enjoy that food. You might realize that half of a cupcake is enough to leave you feeling satisfied, loosening the grip and diminishing the allure that certain foods once held over you.

When you assign a negative trait to a food, you give it power, Sasson said. If you worked in an ice cream shop, and every day you could have two scoops of ice cream, ice cream would not be a big deal anymore. Its denial and deprivation that can lead to obsession.

Its not uncommon to eat emotionally, whether that emotion is loneliness, or sadness, or good old-fashioned boredom. Sassons recommendation was to try and find something else you can do when youre stressed or overwhelmed, and to learn ways to deal that arent foodwhich can provide temporary comfort, sure, but doesnt deal with the real issue.

Bahr said that in the same way cravings and binge-y behaviors will become less frequent the longer you eat intuitively, external factors will begin to influence your food and drink choices less over time. Just as we can trust our body to breathe, tell us when we need to go to the bathroom, or go to sleep, we can learn to trust our hunger and fullness cues while also aiming for satisfaction in our eating experience.

Bahr said to throw out the scale (the one for weighing you, and the one for weighing food) and to delete your food tracking app and other fitness trackers, along with old transformation pictures. She recommends unfollowing accounts that promote diet culture, and instead following actual intuitive eating or healthy-at-any-size accounts.

But, again? Dont feel like you have to do all of that right now.

I havent met anyone thats completed all these things in one day, Bahr said. This takes time. We let go when were ready.

No one is a perfect intuitive eater. Im not sure we can ever 100 percent get rid of those [negative] thoughts, Bahr said. Just know that we dont have to believe all our thoughts. They arent always helpful. They arent orders. And we dont have to listen to them.

It might be really, really hard. This is not a way of eating or living that meshes with our get-it-now culture. But over time, you might feel better. Over time, you might be able to find the joy in eating again.

And whos to say something that gives you psychological joy isnt as important as something thats good for your body? Sasson asked. Start to learn the pleasure that food can bring.

What is intuitive eating? Its really that youre an expert on your own body, Sasson said.

But once again: Its a diet only in the way of eating sense, not in the do this to drop 10 pounds fast sense. Its being co-opted by diet culture and sold as the new weight-loss program, Bahr said, so its confusing to know what's current and who to listen to. Its possible to lose weight with the program; others gain weight.

For anyone who gains weight after intuitively eating, seeing [a] thin, fit celebrity talking about it and praising it may send them mixed signals and may damage their self-esteem, said UCLAs Hunnes. And that could lead an IE newbie to return to the disordered patterns theyre familiar with.

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Intuitive Eating: The Not-Diet Diet for People Who Are Sick of Diets - VICE

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Home » Long Term Weight Loss » Intuitive Eating: The Not-Diet Diet for People Who Are Sick of Diets – VICE