Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works

by Evelyn Tribole

Upon ending a diet, going on a food binge and feeling guilty. One study indicated that post-dieting binges occur in 49 percent of all people who end a diet.

The more drastic the diet, the more it pushes the body into the calorie-pinching survival mode. Fueling metabolism is like stoking a fire. Remove the wood, and the fire diminishes. Similarly, to fuel metabolism, we must eat a sufficient amount of calories, or our bodies will compensate and slow down.

A team of UCLA researchers reviewed thirty-one long-term studies on dieting and concluded that dieting is a consistent predictor of weight gain—up to two-thirds of the people regained more weight than they lost (Mann, et al, 2007).

Intuitive Eaters march to their inner hunger signals, and eat whatever they choose without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma.

Expression of thoughts, feelings, or needs seems to be a critical aspect of healthy eating behaviors. The suppression of voice, combined with high levels of emotional awareness, may decrease trust of internal signals of hunger and satiation and disrupt Intuitive Eating. Intuitive Eating is maximized when a woman has high levels of emotional awareness and low levels of self-silencing. Conversely, Intuitive Eating is disrupted.