Intuitive Eating Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality (Part 2) | Ep. 54

Real Fit

No matter what you've seen on Instagram, intuitive eating is about so much more than eating whatever you want whenever you want. It's not the hunger/fullness diet. It's not license to eat donuts all day every day or permission to never eat a vegetable again.

Intuitive eating (which is based on the eponymous book by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Eileen Resch, originally published in the 90s), is based on ten principles — the first of which is Reject the Diet Mentality.

This episode is part of a series on Intuitive Eating where I'm exploring each of the ten principles. I've already released two episodes in the series; if you haven't heard them yet, you can check them out:

Episode 44: What is Intuitive Eating?

Episode 47: Intuitive Eating Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality (Part 2)

While episode 47 focuses on what the diet mentality is, in this episode, I'm talking about why it's such an important aspect of intuitive eating, including some research that highlights the futility of dieting/intentional weight loss, the (weak) link between weight and health, and the importance of healthy behaviors (regardless of weight).

Links to research

TONS of studies on the Intuitive Eating website: https://www.intuitiveeating.org/resources/studies/

Intentional weight loss typically is not sustainable and most dieters will return to their baseline weight within 5.5 years: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17606960/

Finnish twins study: https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2011160

Swiss researchers find weight loss can lead to net weight gain: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-020-0547-1#:~:text=Several%20large%2Dscale%20prospective%20studies,than%20in%20those%20with%20obesity

Study authors fail to find a consistent relationship between higher BMI and mortality: https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(21)00963-9#%20

Study finds significant segments of "normal weight" people have markers for cardiometabolic issues, while significant segments of people who are considered "overweight" or "obese" have none of these markers: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18695075/.

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