Intuitive Eating Could be Your Best Shot at Weight Control
Reported November 24, 2005

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- We know most fad diets don't produce results, but simply counting calories may not be the best way to lose weight either. New research shows taking an approach toward food, or intuitive eating, may be the best way to change your waistline.

The basis of intuitive eating is to take internal cues from the body, recognizing what the body wants and then regulating how much you eat based on hunger and satiety. In a small study, researchers from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, identified a group of college students who were naturally intuitive eaters and compared them to those who weren't. The students were then tested to see how healthy they were.

Results show intuitive eating was significantly linked to lower body mass index, lower triglyceride levels, higher levels of good cholesterol and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Researchers found about one-third of the variance in body mass index was accounted for by intuitive eating scores, while 17 percent to 19 percent of the variance in blood lipid profiles and cardiovascular risk was accounted for by intuitive eating. The lead researcher on the study, Steve Hawks, is a BYU professor of health science who adopted an intuitive eating lifestyle himself several years ago. He's 50 pounds lighter after doing so.

Hawks says, "The findings provide support for intuitive eating as a positive approach to healthy weight management." He explains: "What makes intuitive eating different from a diet is that all diets work against human biology, whereas intuitive eating teaches people to work with their own biology, to work with their bodies, to understand their bodies. Rather than a prescriptive diet, it's really about increasing awareness and understanding of your body. It's a nurturing approach to nutrition, health and fitness as opposed to a regulated, coercive, restrictive approach. That's why diets fail, and that's why intuitive eating has a better chance of being successful in the long term."

Hawks says to be an intuitive eater a person has to adopt two attitudes and two behaviors. The two attitudes necessary for success are body acceptance and an understanding that dieting is harmful. The behaviors to adopt are learning how to not eat for emotional, environmental, or social reasons and learning how to interpret body signals, cravings and hunger, and responding in a healthy, positive, nurturing way. Hawks says: "If people are committed to recognizing what their bodies really want, the vast majority of people will say that they very quickly overcame cravings. It certainly has worked for me."

SOURCE: American Journal of Health Education, published online 2005