Intuitive Eating: Eating by Listening to Your Body
Discover intuitive eating: honor your hunger, respect your fullness, and eliminate food guilt. Is it right for you? Voical guide.
Calorie calculation examples by profile
Person with chronic restriction
Person with healthy food relationship
Regular athlete
Sedentary person
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is an approach developed by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in 1995. It's based on 10 principles aimed at reconnecting with natural hunger and fullness signals, rejecting diet mentality, and making peace with food. The goal isn't weight loss but a healthy relationship with food.
The 10 core principles
1) Reject diet mentality. 2) Honor your hunger. 3) Make peace with food. 4) Challenge the food police. 5) Respect your fullness. 6) Discover satisfaction. 7) Cope with emotions without food. 8) Respect your body. 9) Exercise for enjoyment. 10) Honor your health with gentle nutrition.
Who is this approach suited for
Intuitive eating suits people with a history of yo-yo dieting, a conflicted relationship with food, or restrictive eating behaviors. It's less suited for those who need structure to achieve specific goals (weight loss, muscle gain) or who don't clearly feel their hunger/fullness signals.
Intuitive eating and tracking
At first glance, tracking and intuitive eating seem opposed. But tracking can be a learning tool: understanding what satisfies you, identifying patterns, then gradually detaching from numbers to trust your sensations. Tracking doesn't have to be a prison but a temporary guide.
Important
Never go below 1200 kcal/day (women) or 1500 kcal/day (men) without medical supervision. Too aggressive a deficit can be dangerous for your health and counterproductive for weight loss.
Complete Guide to Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating offers a radical alternative to traditional diets. This guide explores its principles, benefits, and limitations.
The 10 Principles in Detail
1. Reject Diet Mentality
Stop believing in diet promises. The statistics are clear: 95% fail long-term. As long as you hold hope for the “next diet that will work,” you can’t truly practice intuitive eating.
2. Honor Your Hunger
Eat when you’re hungry, not according to a schedule or rules. Hunger is a legitimate biological signal, not an enemy to fight. Ignoring hunger often leads to overeating later.
3. Make Peace with Food
Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. Prohibition creates desire. When all foods are allowed, their obsessive power diminishes.
4. Challenge the Food Police
Question thoughts that classify foods as “good” or “bad.” “I shouldn’t eat that” is diet thinking. No food defines your morality.
5. Respect Your Fullness
Learn to recognize when you’re comfortably full, not stuffed. Eat without distraction to better perceive these signals. You have the right to leave food on your plate.
6. Discover Satisfaction
Eat what you really want in a pleasant environment. Satisfaction differs from fullness: you can be full but not satisfied (and keep searching).
7. Cope with Emotions Without Food
Food can temporarily comfort but doesn’t solve problems. Identify why you’re eating: hunger, stress, boredom, sadness? Find other ways to manage emotions.
8. Respect Your Body
Accept your genetics. You can’t aim for size 6 shoes if your foot is size 10. Similarly, your body has a natural weight influenced by genetics.
9. Exercise for Enjoyment
Move because it feels good, not to “burn calories” or “pay for” a meal. Find activities you genuinely enjoy.
10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition
Health matters, but a single meal won’t make you sick or healthy. It’s consistency over time that counts. Aim for progress, not perfection.
Who Intuitive Eating Works For
Good Candidates
- History of yo-yo dieting
- Chronic guilt around food
- Restriction-compensation behaviors
- Clear but ignored hunger/fullness signals
- Desire to make peace with food
Less Suitable Candidates
- Need structure for athletic goals
- Confused hunger/fullness signals (don’t feel satiety)
- Medically necessary weight loss goal
- Preference for quantified approaches
Critiques of Intuitive Eating
Recognized Limitations
- Not for everyone: Some people need structure
- Privileged: Assumes access to food variety
- Faulty signals: Some people don’t clearly feel hunger/fullness
- No weight goal: Can be frustrating for those wanting to lose weight
What Critics Forget
Intuitive eating isn’t “eat whatever you want without limits.” It’s a practice requiring effort and attention, just without rigid diet rules.
Intuitive Eating and Tracking: Compatible?
The Apparent Paradox
Tracking seems opposed to “listening to your body.” But they can coexist:
Using Tracking to Learn
- Learning phase: Track to understand your patterns
- Correlation: Observe how certain foods affect your fullness
- Awareness: See where your calories actually go
- Gradual detachment: Reduce tracking as intuition develops
When to Combine Both
- Starting out: Tracking as education, not restriction
- Periodic check-ups: Occasional “check-in” to stay calibrated
- Specific goals: Temporary tracking for a precise purpose, then return to intuitive
Voical as a Learning Tool
Voical can serve as a bridge between strict tracking and intuitive eating. Use it to:
- Understand portions that satisfy you
- Identify high-satiety foods for you
- Observe your patterns without judgment
The goal isn’t to track forever but to learn enough to trust your sensations. Voical makes this process simple: 15 seconds, clear data, and progressively, less dependence on numbers.