We eat everything, we no longer deprive ourselves, we forget about diets and we feel much better in our body: here are the keys to intuitive eating.
Among the methods of weightloss the most fashionable at the moment on TikTok and Instagram is theintuitive eating. A concept American created in 1995 by nutritionists Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch – authors of the bestselling book “Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works”- which then emerged In France, carried by the psychiatrist Dr Gérald Apfeldorfer and nutritionist Jean-Philippe Zermati, two founders of GROS (Reflection Group on Obesity and Overweight). Intuitive eating is particularly suitable for people who have difficulty controlling their weight, alternating between compulsions food and periods of drastic restrictions. And also for all the people who can no longer bear dieting without results.
What is intuitive eating?
Intuitive eating is based on the principle that our body knows what it needs and that’he is able to inform us if we listen attentively. So, when our body needs calories, it sends us the hunger signal, and when it no longer needs them, it sends us the satiety signal. Same thing for the need for nutrients: a need for iron and protein will result in a desire for red meat, and a lack of magnesium in a desire for dark chocolate or almonds.
What benefits?
Intuitive eating allows you to reconcile yourself with food, and to understand thatno food is bad or forbidden as long as it is eaten with hunger, desire and pleasure. Secondly, intuitive eating allows you to control your weight naturally and return to your balanced weight. According to a meta-analysis published in 2016 (which analyzed the conclusions of around twenty studies), eating mindfully would:
- Love your body more
- Be more optimistic and have more consideration for yourself
- Greater motivation for physical activity because the emphasis is on pleasure rather than appearance
- Better health
- Better social integration
- A reduction in stress
- Better blood sugar control
- Fewer eating disorders
Eating intuitively is not not easy because if we are all born with one biological clock very well adjusted and perfect food intuitivenesswe tend to detach during our lives. To adopt intuitive eating, you must reconnect with your food sensations, learn recognize feelings of hunger and fullness, to listen to your desires and enjoy your meals mindfully. THE two pillars of intuitive eating are: eating for physical, not emotional, reasons and rely on cues of hunger and fullness to determine when and how much to eat. Clearly, we do not eat everything as we want when we want but according to our hunger. Hunger is distinguished from the desire to eat, which is often linked to an emotion. Here we eat when we are really hungry, when the body demands food to meet its physical needs.
In detail, the two American nutritionists who created the concept have listed 10 basic principles for anyone wishing to follow intuitive eating:
- Reject the diet mentality: “Going on a diet is one of the major factors in weight gain” they defend. We must free ourselves from diet culture and the obsession with weight.
- Take your hunger into account, that is, eat without pressure and without constraint by only listening to your hunger.
- Make peace with food: as soon as you ban a food from a diet, the desire for it increases, so there is no deprivation here.
- Oppose the food “police” who control your diet: there are no forbidden foods, no overly rigid rules about what you should eat or not eat. On the contrary, you can indulge yourself according to your hunger.
- Discover the satisfaction factor when you eat with pleasure and hunger
- Feel full
- Welcoming your emotions with kindness
- Respect your body: stay kind to yourself rather than chasing an ideal weight and learn to love yourself
- Move for the pleasure it gives and feel the difference
- Taking care of your health with gentle nutrition
Any contraindications?
There are no contraindications to intuitive eating, but there are profiles more or less able to correctly apply the method and obtain results. For example, people who have not been used to eating everything, and who reject an entire category of foods, will have difficulty feeling the need for them, even when their body is lacking them. So, someone who doesn’t like any vegetables won’t be able to apply intuitive eating correctly. Other people cannot break away from diets and need to control their diet. This makes them feel like they are in control of their lives.