What is intuitive eating?
The concept of intuitive eating is about making the best choice for you – this means eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full. Advocates of intuitive eating insist that hunger should be the cue to eat, although they draw a line of distinction between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
- Physical hunger is experienced by a growling stomach, tiredness, or irritability. These pass when food is consumed.
- Emotional hunger is described as being influenced by negative emotions that create cravings for food or are soothed by food, such as sadness, loneliness, boredom and stress.
Advocates of the concept argue that by eating intuitively, you learn to trust your body, and identify when it is a physical hunger rather than an emotional one. As a result you’re likely to make better choices about what, when and how often to eat.
How to practise intuitive eating?
According to American dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, there are 10 guiding principles:
1. Reject diet mentality
Forget the idea that dieting or restricting the foods you eat will result in quick, easy or permanent weight loss. Intuitive eating is the opposite of restriction – it is about learning to trust that your body knows best.
2. Honour your hunger
Feed your body when you experience the early signs of hunger. If you leave it too long, you’re more likely to make poor food choices and overeat. Listening to your body and its signals sets the stage for rebuilding trust in yourself and your food choices.
Read more on how you can manage your appetite.
3. Avoid categorising food
Instead of thinking about different kinds of food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, learn to listen to what your body needs. This way you are less likely to crave ‘forbidden’ food or to binge eat.
4. Challenge negative thoughts
If you experience negative self-talk or you find yourself totting up your calorie intake – challenge these thoughts. For example, telling yourself you’ve been ‘good’ if you didn’t go over your calorie goal for the day, or feeling ‘bad’ because you ate chocolate are not thought processes that benefit you.
5. Make the most of mealtimes
Enjoy eating – both the food and the environment. This will help you feel content and more satisfied.
6. Stop when you’re full
Listen to your body’s cues. Just as it gives you the physical signs when you are hungry, it will also tell you when you are comfortably full,
7. Manage emotional eating
Food can’t fix feelings, although it may offer a short-term solution to distract or numb them. Be aware of these times and develop alternative strategies to help you cope, such as walking, journalling or meditating.
Read six tools to manage stress and 10 diet and lifestyle tips to help manage stress.
8. Show yourself some respect
Learn to accept and respect your body whatever its shape or size.
Read more in weight and body fat – the facts.
9. Move more
Stay active and pay attention to how it feels to move your body, rather than tracking how many calories you’ve burned or the number of steps you’ve walked. Aim to build more movement into your everyday routines.
10. Balance nutrition with enjoyment
You don’t have to eat perfectly all of the time to be healthy and well. Make food choices that take both your health and your taste buds into account while also making you feel good about your decisions. You won’t become unhealthy or nutrient-deficient from one snack, one meal or one day of eating. It’s about what you do most of the time and that doesn’t require perfection.
Are intuitive and mindful eating the same?
No, intuitive and mindful eating are not the same although intuitive eating does include some elements of mindfulness and both methods are useful if you struggle with extreme dieting or binge eating.
In simple terms, mindfulness is the practice of present moment awareness, the overall objective being to slow down and savour the taste, smell and texture of the food on your plate. Intuitive eating encourages you to use your natural instincts and physical and mental cues to decide when, what and how much to eat.
Read more about mindful eating.
Can you lose weight by eating intuitively?
Intuitive eating is not a weight-loss diet, it’s a way of managing your food intake by eating in tune with your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Advocates say it may help create more ordered eating, which could lead to weight loss, if that is relevant for you. That said, they insist that being overly concerned with calorie counting or consciously choosing low-fat foods is contrary to the principles of intuitive eating.
This way of eating is not a short-term fix, it is a long-term approach that focuses on changing the way you think about food and becoming better attuned to your physical cues of both hunger and satiety. There aren’t any plans or recipes to follow, just a series of behaviours that are intended to redefine your relationship with food.
Is intuitive eating healthy? Our nutritionist’s view
Intuitive eating offers an alternative approach to traditional ‘dieting,’ that aims to help followers get back in touch with their physical hunger and satiety cues. The principle of intuitive eating involves a mindset shift towards a healthier relationship with food and is not a tool for weight loss. That said, studies demonstrate a consistent association between the practice and a lower body mass index as well as improved psychological health.
Who shouldn’t follow intuitive eating?
While generally believed to be beneficial for most people, those with an active eating disorder or certain health conditions such as coeliac disease, type II diabetes, high blood pressure or food allergies, as well as those who need to gain weight or follow a structured eating programme, should refrain from the practice.
Interested in trying this way of eating? Why not let us know how it goes in the comments below?
Read more…
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A balanced diet for men
What is talk therapy and how does it support gut health?
Five ways the food you eat affects your brain
Top 10 mood-boosting foods
This page was reviewed on 16 June 2025 by Kerry Torrens.
Nicola Shubrook is a qualified nutritionist registered with the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT) and the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). Find out more at urbanwellness.co.uk.
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