Why You Shouldn’t Use Intuitive Eating If Fat Loss Is Your Goal

 
 

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Why You Shouldn’t Use Intuitive Eating If Fat Loss Is Your Goal

Have you heard of intuitive eating? This approach to food has many benefits to offer, but it’s not the right fit if your goal is to lose weight. So if you’ve been considering whether it’s right for you and your health goals, let’s take a closer look.

What is intuitive eating?

Intuitive eating is an approach to eating that is designed to help people improve their relationship with food and recover from disordered eating patterns. This can include prior eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and orthorexia, or it can be many years of chronic dieting.

What are the benefits of intuitive eating?

Intuitive eating as an approach has been around since 1995, but it’s only really taken off in the mainstream over the past few years. However, we do know that there are benefits of using intuitive eating, including:

  • Weight management (it’s believed it helps your body to settle at its ‘set point’)

  • Improvement in psychological wellbeing

  • A more positive body image

  • Being more in tune with your body’s hunger and satiety cues

  • Reducing the severity of eating disorder symptoms

  • Relief of symptoms of emotional eating and binge eating

However, one benefit you won’t see listed for intuitive eating is weight loss.

Why can’t I use intuitive eating to lose weight?

Put simply, intuitive eating is not designed for weight loss. In fact, it’s designed to help people move away from a focus on weight loss.

The goals of intuitive eating are to improve your relationship with food and your body. If you are an intuitive eater, you are only focused on your own physical cues and cravings – not on losing weight.

Now, can you lose weight with intuitive eating? Perhaps – some people do. Others maintain their weight. And some even gain some weight. But if you are actively pursuing weight loss, by definition, you’re not following intuitive eating.

The major downside of intuitive eating

There is one big issue I see people come across when it comes to intuitive eating – sometimes, your body cues are not appropriate for what you actually need!

For example, let’s look at insulin resistance. When you’re insulin resistant, you will crave more sweet, high-energy foods because your cells are struggling to access glucose. But does that mean your body needs you to consume more glucose? No – it means you need to look at how you can improve your insulin sensitivity and allow your cells to access what is already there.

It can also depend on what you’ve been consuming up until now. Say you’ve been eating a low-calorie diet for a while, and now you want to switch to intuitive eating. But you’ve been drinking diet drinks and eating diet snacks that use artificial sweeteners. Research shows that these can increase sugar cravings because of how they affect the brain. As a result, you end up eating sweet treats every day and getting on the sugar rollercoaster!

So although some might do well on intuitive eating, it’s not suitable for everyone. If you have some underlying health concerns to address or you need to learn the basics of healthy eating, you’re better off looking for another approach.

What if I want to lose weight?

Then intuitive eating is not the right approach for you right now. But the good news is that you can still take some ideas from it to help you along the way. For example, intuitive eating principles talk about: 

These are concepts we can all benefit from – even if intuitive eating isn’t a fit for you right now. In fact, if you worked on just those 4 areas of your life, you’d be well on your way to your goal.

Are you interested in losing weight in a healthy, sustainable way?

Applications for my 1:1 coaching are now open. By combining mindset, training, nutrition advice and accountability, you can achieve your health goals and feel amazing! To apply today, click here.

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Hey there, I’m Rachel!

NUTRITIONIST, PERSONAL TRAINER, WELLNESS COACH

Here I share healthy recipe ideas, training plans, and nutrition & wellness advice you need to know.

Check out my free guide to healthy eating to design your own version of a healthy lifestyle so that you can feel energised and vibrant, or hire me to work my magic on your health through mindset, nutrition, and movement.

 

While we make every effort to make sure the information in this website is accurate and informative, the information does not take the place of professional or medical advice.

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