Lather, Rinse, Repeat

On stepping off the dieting carousel

A typical dieting cycle looks something like this:

Adapted from Gentle Nutrition by Rachel Hartley, RD

If this is familiar, you are not alone. Studies show that this cycle is the normal pattern of dieting. There are physiological reasons for this. When you don’t consume enough energy to fuel your day, your body dials up hunger through various pathways. Your brain alone uses 20% of your metabolic energy every day and its only source of fuel is glucose, so it starts asking for carbs and sugar to get what it needs. There are also psychological reasons. Studies show that just thinking something is off-limits increases our craving for it. In other words, this isn’t just about willpower, it is about biology.

The dieting cycle has knock-on effects that are very much the opposite of what the original diet was trying to accomplish. Up to two-thirds of dieters regain more than they lost in the first place, leading to gradual weight gain over time.¹ Weight cycling (aka yo-yo dieting) is shown to have negative effects on muscle mass, cardiovascular health, and diabetes risk.² Dieting can also be a precursor to eating disorders.³

And very importantly, but often overlooked, are the psychological costs of dieting along the way. Chronic dieters often experience anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, brain fog, fatigue and social isolation.⁴

Intuitive Eating is an antidote to the diet cycle. The premise is that we were all intuitive eaters when we were children. Through all sorts of conditioning, we learn to adapt our eating style to the culture around us. Some of that may be perfectly normal, such as sitting at the table with others for meals. Some may cause unintended problems, such as a requirement to clear your plate or not snacking between meals (ie ignoring your own hunger cues for social convention). The more rules and requirements we put around our eating, the more disconnected we can become from our bodies’ natural needs around food.

Dieting is a common factor in exacerbating this disconnection, especially for women, but it isn’t the only one. Some use food as an emotional tool, eating to bring comfort or restricting to gain a sense of control. Some have chaotic eating patterns that can lead to continuous hunger, perpetual snacking, or an over-reliance on fast food. Shift work, long hours, chronic stress and sleep problems are all contributing factors to disrupted eating patterns.

Intuitive eating is really a self-care framework to help sort all of this out. There are 10 foundational principles, which can be worked through in any order. Some people may find that only a few of these resonate, while others may find that all of the principles add value. And if you are a naturally intuitive eater, you may be scratching your head that anyone would need to do this learning at all.

A key concept underpinning Intuitive Eating is interoceptive awareness. This is your brain’s perception of your body’s state based on messaging from your internal organs. Cool, right? An obvious example is the feeling of the need to pee. A subtler example is being able to perceive your own heartbeat. Most of us notice our heart when it is racing, but you can also try to tune into your heartbeat by settling your body and being very still. You might even be able to count your pulse this way. Obviously, hunger, fullness, and satiety use these same pathways and the Intuitive Eating principles can help strengthen our awareness of them or remove barriers that are interfering with them. When you notice how you feel after fueling your body well, you’ll tap into the kind of intrinsic motivation needed to build long-term habits. That’s the goal.

Will I lose weight? Any time you change the way you eat, you might lose weight, gain weight or remain the same. It depends on so many factors that there is no guaranteed outcome. But to strengthen your ability to eat intuitively (that is, based on what your body is telling you) you need to pause your efforts to change your size and just let your body do its thing. As Evelyn Tribole and Evelyn Resch, the founders of Intuitive Eating, explain, “Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally futile (and uncomfortable) to have a similar expectation about body size.”

But what about my health? There is a big fear that Intuitive Eating means “eat whatever you want whenever you want!” The tenth principle is “honor your health with gentle nutrition” and incorporates evidence-based nutrition to support health, energy, and mood. But nutrition isn’t treated as dogma and mental health (including the impact of diet culture on our well-being) counts in the overall analysis. So while you are going to try to eat more plants, whole grains, fiber, etc, there is never a reason to feel guilty if a meal or a day falls short of perfection. What you eat consistently over time is what matters for health. Consistent progress will always trump temporary perfection.

Work with me! I am currently completing the requirements to become a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor in addition to my nutrition qualification. I am really excited to be able to introduce others to Intuitive Eating. If you are interested in exploring the Intuitive Eating Workbook in a small group or getting nutrition counseling one-on-one, please drop a comment or get in touch.

P.S.

Last week, The New York Times ran a long piece on the origin story of Intuitive Eating with background on its co-creators, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. Click through to learn more.

1. Mann et al. 2007

2. Tylka et al. 2014; Park et al. 2019

3. Shisslak et al. 1995

4. https://lindnercenterofhope.org/blog/why-dieting-can-be-harmful/