What Is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating means being able to listen to your body and trust its signals – noticing when you are genuinely hungry and when it is time to stop eating. It means that your eating is not determined solely by external rules, diets, calories, or the clock, but that you learn to notice what your body needs. Intuitive eating does not simply mean eating whatever you feel like eating at the moment. It means having a conscious connection with your body, where you are able to distinguish physical hunger from cravings, emotions, and habits, and make food choices that support your body, health, and well-being.
Who Can Use Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive eating is only suitable for healthy people: those who have a healthy relationship with their bodies, whose hormonal system works like clock, who are neither overweight nor underweight, and who generally know how to hear and listen to their bodies.
If you do not have such a relationship with your body, this means that at some point you have repeatedly ignored your body's signals, which is why intuitive eating is not possible for you right now. However, it is possible to restore your relationship with your body, after which you can move towards intuitive eating. But first, I want to explain why this is not possible right away.
Why Might We No Longer Notice Hunger and Fullness Signals?
Let me give you an example. A small child comes to their parent and asks for a cuddle. The parent does not have time for the child at that moment and, instead of giving the child what he needs, offers him a cookie. After a while, the child comes back to the parent and asks for a cuddle again. To get a little more time off, the parent gives the child a phone to play with. A little later, the child wants the parent's attention again, at which point the parent once again asks the child not to disturb him.
This kind of behavior affects their relationship. When a child does not receive the attention and closeness he needs from the parent, he quickly learns to seek it elsewhere – for example, from a cookie or in the phone that the parent has offered instead. As a result, child's actual needs may become secondary, and understanding of each other becomes difficult. To reconnect and restore closeness, it is necessary to change established patterns of behavior and give the relationship time and care.
Just as the example of the child and parent, our bodies have also constantly given us signals what they need – that we are hungry or thirsty, we need rest, or when it is time to stop eating. When we consistently ignore these signals, our connection with our bodies may gradually weaken, making it increasingly difficult to notice and interpret what our bodies need.
A good example is distinguishing between hunger and thirst. Surprisingly often, people may mistake thirst for hunger because the two sensations can feel quite similar – for example, as a vague feeling of discomfort, weakness, or a desire to consume something. Hunger and thirst are different physiological signals, but recognizing them is not always as clear as we might assume.
How Do Hunger and Fullness Signals Arise?
Our appetite and eating behavior are regulated, among other things, by the hormones ghrelin and leptin, which have interconnected roles. Ghrelin is produced primarily in the stomach. As the stomach begins to empty after eating, ghrelin levels gradually begin to rise, signaling to the brain that it is time to eat again. After eating, ghrelin levels decrease. Leptin is produced primarily by adipose tissue and provides the brain with information about the body's energy stores, playing a role in the long-term regulation of appetite.
If we are used to disregard hunger or eat when we are not physically hungry, our ability to notice and trust these body signals may become less reliable. As a result, it can become more difficult to tell when we are genuinely hungry and when we have had enough to eat. So the question is not only whether the body is sending us signals, but also whether we know how to notice, distinguish, and respond to them appropriately. Reconnecting with your body begins with learning to notice hunger, thirst, fullness, and other bodily needs again – and paying attention to them.
How to Reconnect With Your Body
The plan for restoring intuitive eating is as follows:
- First, we restore our connection with our body. This means establishing regular and balanced eating again, paying attention to the body's needs, and learning to distinguish physical hunger from habits, emotions, and cravings.
- Only then do we move towards intuitive eating and enjoy complete freedom from rules and opinions imposed by others.
If you feel that you need support in this process or do not know how regular and balanced eating looks like, my 2-month personalized nutrition support package will help you establish it step by step.
Before getting started, you can book a free introductory call. We will talk about your current situation and concerns and explore together how I can best support you.