

What Is Intuitive Eating and Should You Try It?

Break free of food rules and embrace your intuition when it comes to your diet.

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  • Intuitive eating focuses on listening to your own personal hunger cues to guide what you eat.
  • According to research, practicing intuitive eating has been linked to general weight management.
  • Intuitive eating emphasizes the importance of planning ahead regarding fueling or hydrating for your runs.

    You already know how the proper timing and nutrients of your meals affects your running performance. For instance, simple carbs are best before a workout, and you need a mix of carbs and protein afterward.

    But there’s another concept out there called intuitive eating, which lets you break free of food rules and embrace your intuition. Unlike typical diets with strict requirements, intuitive eating focuses on listening to internal cues to guide eating habits.

    While intuitive eating isn’t as simple as eating whatever you want whenever you want, it can benefit you as a runner. We turned to Heather Caplan, R.D. and Kelly Jones, M.S., R.D. to explain.

    What Is Intuitive Eating?

    Intuitive eating is a phrase coined by two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, who literally wrote the book Intuitive Eating. Tribole and Resch argue that the rules and regulations that accompany dieting have stopped people from listening to their bodies, and the goal of intuitive eating is to help rebuild a healthy body image and make peace with food.

    “Intuitive eating is inviting a flexible relationship with food so that you have permission to eat whatever fuels your lifestyle and helps you feel full and satisfied,” Caplan says. “That means tapping into your body’s natural ability to regulate how much, what, and when you need to eat,” Jones says. In other words, eating food should work for you and not against you.

    In practice, intuitive eating is based upon 10 key principles, which include ideas such as rejecting the diet mentality, honoring your hunger, respecting your fullness, and challenging the food police in your head. One of the underlying concepts of intuitive eating is to throw out food rules that suggest certain foods are “good” or “bad.”

    But what if you’re the type of person who will eat an entire bag of tortilla chips even though you’re not that hungry and rationally know you’re not making the healthiest choice?

    “Overeating on previously ‘forbidden’ foods is normal in the first couple of weeks of allowing all foods to fit [into our diet],” Jones says. Caplan adds that restricting tortilla chips (or anything, really) in the past could be a reason why you’re likely to overeat them when they’re near.

    “The next step is to buy tortilla chips for the house and see what happens,” Caplan says. “It’s okay if you eat too much, but eventually the chips become less exciting because they're less restricted.”

    With all that said, how does intuitive eating translate to the world of sports nutrition?

    Intuitive Eating for Runners

    It’s common for runners to rely on structured nutrition plans. We tend to have a pretty good idea of what works for us in terms of performance, and don’t typically stray from it. But it’s doubtful that any runner actually enjoys or feels hungry for a midrace Gu—they just know that it will give them the energy and electrolytes they need to finish strong.

    [Run faster, stronger, and longer with this 360-degree training program.]

    Jones and Caplan agree that taking in midrace fuel is listening to “practical hunger,” which is an aspect of intuitive eating. “We have to take into consideration different forms of hunger, and ‘practical hunger’ helps you realize that while you might not be hungry right now, you will be starving after your workout if you don’t eat,” Jones says.

    In other words, practical hunger emphasizes the importance of planning ahead and fueling or hydrating for sustained energy and enhanced performance.

    Should You Give Intuitive Eating a Try?

    Like any style of eating, there are pros and cons to intuitive eating. One of the more positive aspects is that it’s not restrictive, and it’s meant to help you create a healthy relationship with food. Once you’re up and running, you get to finally stop worrying about food rules and “good” and “bad” foods, and you can just focus on nourishing your body.

    Plus, previous research has shown that intuitive eating has positive effects on overall health. According to a study published in the journal Obesity, men and women who practiced intuitive eating were less likely to be overweight or obese. What’s more, a study published in the journal Nutrition Research Reviews found that practicing intuitive eating is beneficial for general weight management. (Obesity has been linked to health problems such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.)

    Caplan and Jones agree that there is no real downside to successfully implementing intuitive eating principles, but is it possible for anything to be that perfect? For athletes who like structure and a step-by-step approach, intuitive eating seems a bit theoretical and intangible. “Although people want quick fixes, adopting intuitive eating principles should take some time,” Jones says.

    In the end, there is no one-size-fits-all way to eat; the best eating plan or diet is the one that works best for you and your lifestyle—and won’t compromise your running performance. If intuitive eating seems like something you want to try, start with these expert tips:

    1. Start writing things down. “Keep track of what you ate, the time, and how you felt—and do the same thing for your exercise,” Jones says. This is a good way to acknowledge your hunger and how it affects you throughout the day.

    2. Hone in on practical hunger. “Runners may experience different forms of hunger other than stomach hunger, such as weakness, lightheadedness, or headaches,” Jones says. Recognize those symptoms of being underfueled and adjust accordingly.

    3. Ditch the diet mentality. “You can’t go into intuitive eating with the purpose of weight loss,” Caplan. She suggests focusing on a behavior, rather than numbers on the scale, such as having more energy or feeling better in your running clothes.

    4. Start by ditching one food. “If you get rid of rules all at once, it’s overwhelming,” says Caplan. Instead, pick one food rule that you want to throw out, like not eating at night, and give yourself the freedom to eat whenever you want.

    5. Be fair to yourself. “I don't have perfect meals, or even really tasty meals, every single day,” Caplan says. Sometimes you just eat what you can, but there’s less guilt about that because if you’re not following any rules, you can’t break any rules.

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