Why Intuitive Eating Doesn’t Work – A Nutritionist Point of View

A reminder – What is Intuitive Eating?

Before we delve into what’s not working, we need a quick explore about what intuitive eating is. Intuitive eating is an anti-diet way to heal your relationship with food and your body. It uses 10 principles to help build body trust and body awareness that helps you create sustainable healthy behaviours around eating, exercise and your body.

It is evidence based with over 150 scientific studies and a validated assessment scale.

Importantly, Intuitive Eating is not something that is used for intentional weight loss. You will have probably seen so many weight loss coaches coopting Intuitive Eating language. It is weight inclusive, you cannot be Intuitive Eating without it. The focus being taken away from weight is an important part of the process of intuitive eating. Someone may maintain their weight, gain or lose weight doing intuitive eating and there is no prediction for this.

Overall, I find intuitive eating such a lovely tool to support our relationship with food (which is a healthy behaviours in itself). It comes from a place of body respect and self care rather than the shame and hatred from dieting. But also at the same time, there are many reasons it seems like Intuitive Eating doesn’t work for so many people

What Intuitive Eating is not!

Intuitive eating is not a way to intentional lose weight. It isn’t a fad diet. It also is not anti weight loss, your body will do what it needs to do with intuitive eating and your weight will settle in the place your body feels as ease and peace with.

It also isn’t just a hunger and fullness diet. And on the same track, it isn’t just eating what you want, when you want it. It is a far more nuanced practise.

Ok great but what does Intuitive Eating “working” actually mean?

There is no way to fail intuitive eating, although I hold so much space for you feeling that way, it is so valid. Intuitive eating is a tool that is so nuanced that it will look and feel different from person to person. What feels like it isn’t ” working” might be that you have come to a block in your road.

Intuitive eating itself is the “work”. What I mean by that is, Intuitive eating in your 30s is going to look different to your 40s but also different parts of your life and what is happening in your life. So intuitive eating may need to be revisited to see what “work” you need to do to get back to a place of normal eating that feels good to you.

What intuitive eating looks like when it is “working” will vary from person to person but here is what that may look like generally: –

• Not having the same food noise as you had before. Not thinking about food 24/7.
• Being able to eat food without shame and guilt.
• Feeling in control around food. Foods do not have power anymore.
• Eating doesn’t worry your or cause you anxiety.
• You are able to be part of memories and no longer avoid going out for meals etc.
• You are more present.
• You feel more comfortable in your body.

Why isn’t Intuitive Eating working for me right now?

You have stopped dieting, and begun to eat what you want when you want it.

Although this is a great step you have taken and so hard, there is more to intuitive eating than this. Being stuck in a place where you are eating like this can feel, well ick. Not just mentally but also physically. You have missed out on essential works around food neutrality and hunger and fullness.

You have been eating when you are gently hungry and stopping when you are full, but that is that.

This part of intuitive eating can feel part of a diet rule. The hunger and fullness rule. This part is incredibly nuanced because there are so many reasons to eat when you are not gently hungry and to eat past fullness etc and all reasons are valid and not wrong.

You are trying intuitive eating but you are still weighing yourself.

It is so hard to stop weighing ourselves and to stop measuring our successes using a scale. I think this is a tough one. When we diet, we always have a weekly (or daily) weigh in that confirms to us that what we are doing is “working”. We are used to that external validation of those numbers on the scale. The scale also leads us onto….

You are just so fearful over gaining weight.

I feel this one in my bones. This fear is more scary if you are a large bodied person already because weight gain may come with a loss of body privileges like less options for clothes and not fitting in chairs, how we are treated in a doctors office. This fear is a completely valid and normal fear which is also a major block in the road. This is why my own coaching framework includes fat acceptance and fat accommodation.

You are scared that all you would do is just eat “bad” food all day/just eat all day.

This is a fear we have absorbed from diet culture. Diet culture has us mistrusting ourselves and trusting “experts” to tell us what to do. Learning to trust our own body is SO hard goes agaisnt all of the marketing out there right now. I can promise you, you won’t just eat all day every day and your choices won’t be just for certain types of food. At first that can happen, but while you move through and work on your relationship with food, that can pass quite quickly.

You need to lose weight to be “healthy” and Intuitive eating doesn’t help you do that.

I hear you. And I used to think the same. Intuitive eating goes hand in hand with Health at every size framework. It isn’t a promise that everyone will be health at every size but every size should have access to healthy behaviours and a world without discrimination because of their size. We know because of the science that weight is far more complicated than what we are sold. 

You find this so hard. You have done so much at once. This feels overwhelming. There are so many blocks right now.

This is a sign you might need support from someone like me! Intuitive eating isn’t easy but it is so worth while. Working with a professional saves you so much time and practically cuts part of the rollercoaster of intuitive eating shorter. My own personal journey took 5 years, but it didn’t have to. When you work with a pro, we have worked with so many people who have shared similar struggles to yours. My membership The Table would be a good fit for you is this resonates.

Is Intuitive Eating a good fit for everyone?

A huge yes! But with a lot of personalising for each person.

I think there are different marginalised groups who mainstream intuitive eating professionals may (accidentally) fail. These groups are people who are Neurodiverse, people of colour, disabled, fat folks and LGBTQIA+. It doesn’t mean that the people in these groups can’t do intuitive eating and that it isn’t accessible to them. Is it all about finding the right person to follow and/or work with.

I am a white, mid fat, straight, cis gendered, potentially ADHD, able bodied woman. I am a tireless ally to all of these groups of people and intersectional feminist. I work through a feminist lens in my work to help my clients go further with their relationship with food and their body.

Intuitive eating does not work if you are a person who is searching for a diet and weight loss, it will seriously disappoint you there. But you will gain the skills to live a compassionate and nourished life regardless of your weight.

Do you think you are ready for intuitive eating? Has this helped you understand your blocks to intuitive eating?