Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach

by Evelyn Tribole

Yet in spite of the fact that up to 95 percent of all diets fail, you tend to blame yourself, not the diet!

the fact that the majority of people who go on diets and lose weight gain it back, with many gaining even more weight.

Why are people so focused on losing weight? Why is there a valuing of thinner over fatter bodies?

research indicates that health professionals are one of the main perpetuators of weight stigma.

any focus on weight loss will sabotage your ability to reconnect with your body’s Intuitive Eating signals.

Intuitive Eating is a privilege.

Intuitive Eaters are less likely to base their self-worth on being thin.

The BMI is fraught with problems because it does not accurately reflect health status—in fact, it is a poor determinant of health

Intuitive Eating is associated with weight stability (Tylka et al. 2019), which may be an important determinant of health.

weight cycling (the repeated gaining and losing weight) may increase the risk of developing heart disease or type 2 diabetes

The results showed that parental monitoring and restriction of food intake had a significant impact on their college student’s emotional eating and Intuitive Eating Scale scores.

Parents who monitored and restricted their daughters’ eating had daughters who: (a) reported significantly more emotional eating and (b) were less inclined to eat for physical reasons of hunger and satiety.

Research shows that 35 percent of dieters will progress into disordered eating, and 30 to 45 percent of those dieters will progress into a full eating disorder

obesity” is a disease—in spite of the fact that there was not enough evidence to support this assertion.

One of the strongest predictors of weight gain is dieting, regardless of the actual body weight of the dieter

Semmelweis reflex, which is the rejection of new evidence because it contradicts established norms, beliefs, or paradigms.

unless you killed the chef or the farmer, there should be no guilt about your eating choices.

hold self-compassion for your desire to lose weight, as you learn that it has been a result of being conditioned by diet culture to believe in its significance as a measure of your worth.

It is unlikely that the way you eat during this stage will be the pattern that you will establish or want for a lifetime.

You may still be choosing previously forbidden foods most of the time, but you will find that you don’t need as much of them to satisfy you.

Intuitive Eating is a privilege that is not felt for those who don’t have food security.

Intuitive Eating work does nothing to get rid of the root of oppressive forces, which occur at the systemic level

the thought of giving yourself unconditional permission to eat may seem terrifying—and you might fear that you will never stop eating.

FEAR: If I stop dieting, I won’t stop eating.

Yo-yo dieters who continually regain the lost weight tend to regain weight in the abdominal area.

Many folks in larger bodies assume they could not have become large unless they possessed some fundamental character deficit.

feel guilty when I eat high-calorie foods or foods high in carbs. • I usually describe a day of eating as either good or bad.

during times of famine or food shortages, food becomes an overriding preoccupation, resulting in societal problems: breakdown of social behavior, abandonment of cooperative effort, and loss of personal pride and a sense of family ties.

What many people believe to be an issue of willpower is instead a biological drive.

Fasting or restricting is particularly counterproductive to appetite.

Many studies have shown that dieting makes no sense metabolically or to our brain chemistry.

Food deprivation or undereating intake drives NPY into action, causing the body to seek more carbohydrates.

The more you deny your true hunger and fight your natural biology, the stronger and more intense food cravings and obsessions become.

In a twenty-year prospective study, a low-carbohydrate diet high in animal proteins and fats was associated with a twofold risk for type 2 diabetes in men

A keto diet decreases exercise performance in adult men and women

To sum up—we need energy. Energy comes from food.

Rather than eating when hungry, eating is often tied in to a cognitive set point, based on the dieter’s set of rules: Is it time? Do I deserve it? Is it carb-free? And so forth.

Taste hunger.

Practical “hunger”—planning ahead

Emotional hunger.