Intuitive eating versus intentional eating: here's the difference

As we become more and more aware of the harmful impacts of diet culture, and move further away from prescriptive fad diets like keto and paleo, intuitive and intentional eating are moving into the spotlight. While neither of these concepts are “diets”, they offer frameworks for eating, both promising to improve your relationship with food and help you make healthier dietary decisions - both physically and mentally.

While they’re both often categorised under the “mindful eating” umbrella, these two approaches are actually quite different and distinct from each other. Let’s break down the priorities and differences between the two, to determine which is more effective or appropriate for you and your needs.

Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating involves giving yourself full permission to honour all cravings, hunger and satiety cues and any biological body signals you experience, without second-guessing or judging yourself. Essentially, it focuses on eating in sync with your body’s innate needs and cues, choosing foods which will satisfy your physical or emotional needs. In doing so, you begin to recognise your body’s hunger and fullness signals, learning to eat whenever you feel hungry, and stop once you feel satisfied.

Eating intuitively might look like eating a chocolate bar as a snack if you’re craving sugar, without feeling a need to compensate for doing so by increasing your exercise or altering your subsequent food choices. It might also look like forgoing a slice of cake in favour of a nutritious salad, if your body signals that it needs some additional nutrients or vegetables. Or, if you’re feeling really hungry, maybe it looks like going back for seconds or thirds of a meal without questioning yourself, until you identify your hunger has been sufficiently satiated. In each scenario, you unquestioningly indulge your body’s needs, whether they be physical or emotional, without any need to feel guilt or to “make up for” your actions and choices later on.

When you learn to eat intuitively and move away from feeling guilt around your food choices, you no longer need to “earn” your food or “burn it off” after eating. In short, you recognise that you are deserving of whatever food you feel called to in the moment. You recognise you can eat for reasons beyond pure hunger - things like pleasure, comfort and connection are just as relevant a reason to eat.

Developing the skills to trust your body to tell you when it’s hungry or not, and to trust yourself to honour your body’s needs regardless of what they may be, without judgement or question, takes time and practice.

Intuitive eating removes labels of “good” or “bad” associated with foods, viewing all foods as neutral and acceptable to eat and enjoy. The idea of intuitive eating was originally coined by two American dietitians, who identified the following 10 principles:

1. Reject the diet mentality. Stop trying diets and fads in an attempt to lose weight quickly. In fact, stop trying to lose weight at all. Instead, work towards body neutrality, and be curious about the experience of eating away from diet culture messaging. Don’t derive your self worth from whether or not you can stick to a restrictive diet.

2. Honour your hunger. Don’t try to delay eating, or hold off for a while once you recognise you’re hungry. As soon as you notice your individual hunger signals start to kick in, make a conscious decision to eat whatever foods will satiate this hunger. Eat regularly, making sure to provide your body with the energy it needs to feel its best and prevent reaching the point of excessive hunger - it becomes very difficult to adhere to conscious eating behaviours if you’re overly hungry. Respect your hunger signals, and eat when you need to in order to feel satisfied and nourished.

3. Make peace with food. Stop restricting certain foods or food groups, and allow yourself to eat all foods without limits or rules. This will help you overcome food guilt - because if you have true permission to eat all foods, then there’s nothing to feel guilty about in the first place!

4. Challenge the food police. Resist viewing foods as “good” and “bad”, “healthy” and “unhealthy”. And stop determining your own moral value based on the food decisions you make. The habit of seeing yourself as “bad” for eating a bar of chocolate, or “good” for eating salads and veggies all day is embedded deep in your mind, internalised by years of diet culture messaging. Be aware of whenever the “food police” pipe up to enforce all the rules diet culture has taught you over your lifetime, and resist the urge to give into restrictive or negative messaging and programming.

5. Discover the satisfaction factor. Re-learn that food and eating can bring you immense pleasure and satisfaction. Enjoy foods you actually want, in a pleasurable environment, and notice how food can feel satisfying. This will help you identify when you’re full or when you’ve eaten enough, preventing bingeing or overeating and leaving you feeling satisfied and satiated.

6. Feel your fullness. Honour your body’s signals indicating you’re comfortably full and have eaten enough for now. Pause midway through a meal and assess how hungry you are, and how much you’re enjoying the food. If you want to continue eating, go ahead. If you’re full, then know that you can come back to your food whenever you feel like it in the future - there’s no need to force it all in at once.

7. Cope with your emotions with kindness. Instead of turning to food to numb or avoid your emotions, learn to recognise, name and sit in your feelings - even the scary ones! Discover other coping strategies beyond food to help you resolve or cope with your emotions.

8. Respect your body. Stop trying to fit yourself into a physical mould, or achieve the body shape and size you see on others. Accept that your genetics play a huge role in how your body presents to the world, and it’s futile to attempt to fight these genetics. Instead, respect your body exactly as it is and show it respect. You don’t have to love your body every minute of every day, but you do need to show it care, nourishment and acceptance.

9. Movement - Feel the difference. Instead of exercising to earn food or burn it off, focus on how movement makes your body feel. Forget the calorie-burning effects of exercise and find a style of movement that leaves you energised and excited, leaving all punishing, obligatory exercise behind.

10. Honour your health with gentle nutrition. Recognise that you can be healthy even when you’re not eating “perfectly”. Learn to make food decisions which honour both your health and your taste buds or desires. No single meal or food will make you “healthy” or “unhealthy”, so respect the cravings and physical needs of both your body and mind, while considering which foods will leave you feeling your best too.

Does it work?

Intuitive eaters have been found to include more variety in their diets, meaning they’re providing their bodies with a wider range of nutrients and minerals, and supporting a diverse gut microbiome for good health. They’ve also been found to eat less on average, as they’re less likely to binge or overeat since they are confident in the knowledge that food is always accessible to them when they want more of it - whatever food they may need in the moment.

However, intuitive eating is not appropriate for everyone. If you identify with any of the following, intuitive eating might not be right for you at the moment:

• You want to learn how to eat intuitively to help you lose weight. Be really, brutally honest with yourself. If a small part of you hopes that, by practising intuitive eating, you’ll eat less and lose weight, it’s not for you. Intuitive eating does not aim for weight loss. It focuses on achieving body respect and neutrality, and improving your relationship with food. 

• Similarly, if you’re in recovery from an eating disorder or disordered eating, you may not be ready to abandon all structure and try to eat intuitively just yet. Focus on recovery first and foremost.

• You’re struggling with emotional eating. For those who find emotional eating hugely distressing or difficult to overcome, intuitive eating might not be helpful for you right now. While it’s completely normal to eat according to your emotions at times, this can interfere with your ability to recognise your body’s biological hunger and fullness cues, and make it challenging to move beyond feelings of guilt around your eating habits. For now, you may benefit from working on building coping strategies beyond food to handle your emotions, or adopting an approach like intentional nutrition until you’re more ready to try eating intuitively (more on this to come).

• You’re recovering from hypothalamic amenorrhea. You likely need to eat in a surplus, which may require eating past fullness or when not hungry. You also may be experiencing some dysregulation of your appetite regulation hormones.

• You need structure in your nutrition and dietary patterns. Whether you’re aiming to build muscle, recovering from disordered eating, or following a meal plan for other purposes, intuitive eating does away with recipes, meal plans and rigid guidelines, so it may feel daunting or unsuitable for your needs right now.

• Food is your sole coping strategy. If you use food as your only way to self-soothe or tolerate distressing emotions, it’s important to develop other coping strategies before you try to implement intuitive eating. If food is your way of self-comforting or numbing out, it will be very difficult to identify your body’s physiological needs compared to your emotional drive for food. However, once you have other coping strategies in your toolkit, you can turn to these to help you handle emotions, and work on your relationship with food at the same time. Try things like journaling, breathwork, meditation, walking in nature, or other mindfulness practices if you’re looking for healthier, more proactive coping strategies

Intuitive eating might be challenging if you identify with any of the following, yet could be what you need:

• You don’t think you can embrace all of the 10 principles above. For intuitive eating to truly be effective, you need to embrace and enact each of the 10 foundational principles. It may take time and practise to do so, but you can’t pick and choose which ones you want to try. It takes commitment, practise and learning.

• You still view foods as “good” or “bad”. While unlearning these rules and labels is part of the intuitive eating process, if you’re unable to remove these judgements around food, you won’t be able to fully embrace intuitive eating. It’s very difficult to honour your needs if you still hold rules or judgements around those needs and wants.

• You see intuitive eating and its principles as “rules”. These principles are gentle guidelines, they are not rigid rules and restrictions for you to follow. They aim to help you restore your relationship with food and your body, not to force you to eat and act in a specific way. Intuitive eating is all about unlearning rules and restrictions around food, so it’s important to be flexible and compassionate as you embark on your intuitive eating journey. There’s no “wrong” or “right” way to practise intuitive eating. Stop placing expectations on yourself to be “perfect” in your intuitive eating practice, and remove all expectations of outcomes and results you hope to see. Lean into the present moment, show yourself compassion and celebrate your progress along the way.

• You see intuitive eating as a short term solution or practise. Intuitive eating doesn’t have an “end date”, or a finish line. It’s a way of living and approaching food. It views health as a long-term lifestyle practice, which you work towards every day by practising the intuitive eating principles. This is one of the reasons it abandons short-term dieting and restriction, instead focusing on the “forever” side of good health: finding a long-term healthy lifestyle you enjoy and feel able to sustain for good.

• Your self-worth is tied up in the way your body looks. If you’re deriving too much of your value and worth from your body and appearance, it can be incredibly difficult to trust yourself and your body as you begin intuitive eating. Intuitive eating relies on trusting your body’s hunger and fullness cues, and honouring its biological and physical needs without question, guilt, or compensatory behaviours. In order to do this, you need to trust your body and its signals, without copious amounts of fear or panic around what these signals will result in for your body or appearance. If you’re struggling to honour your needs due to fear of body changes or weight gain, you may find intuitive eating more challenging. But eating intuitively is associated with a more positive body image and self-esteem so stick with it.

It’s important to note that, while many people believe intuitive eating places no importance on nutrition, this isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, it emphasises choosing foods based on the energy and nutrients they provide, as well as the taste and satisfaction they offer, while abandoning any external rules or restrictions around food you’ve developed in the past. It practises “gentle” nutrition, whereby you consider the nutritional value of your food choices, but it isn’t the only factor influencing your dietary decisions.

Intentional Eating

There’s some crossover between intentional and intuitive eating, however they are different in practice and purpose. Intentional eating is a considered approach to eating, combining both nutrition and mindful eating practices and principles. It’s essentially the stepping stone between dieting or tracking calories/macros, and intuitive eating.

This approach still helps you improve your relationship with food, and reduce any obsessive thoughts around eating, however it incorporates mindful eating practices while simultaneously working towards specific health or nutrition goals.

Where intuitive eating encourages you to honour whatever your body is asking for in the moment, intentional eating recruits your decision-making processes slightly more. Instead of immediately responding to cravings or desires, intentional eating requires bringing your attention to how your body’s wants can be met in a way that also works towards your individual health goals. 

For example, if you notice you’re really craving a big bowl of pasta, intuitive eating will encourage you to give yourself permission to meet that need without question or judgement. Whereas intentional eating may require you to pause for a moment and go a step further to consider how you can make that same bowl of pasta more nourishing or satiating - for example, can you add a source of protein to keep you feeling fuller for longer? Or perhaps add a serving of vegetables to give your body some additional nutrients?

Another example is, if you’re experiencing extremely high levels of hunger, instead of reaching for the nearest energy bar you’re desperate for, intentional eating will encourage you to take a moment to reflect on which nutrient-dense foods will leave you feeling more full and satisfied. While you may still decide the energy bar fulfils your biological hunger and your health goals, you may also decide to opt for a bowl of protein oats instead if you determine this snack would be more satisfying and nourishing. 

Intentional eating combines mindful eating with an awareness of your health goals to help you make positive food and nutrition choices, while still emphasising the importance of repairing your relationship with food.

When To Eat

While intuitive eating emphasises eating only when you’re hungry, and stopping when you’re full, intentional eating recognises that there are times you need to eat even when you’re not necessarily hungry, and times when you should hold off slightly from immediately responding to the initial signs of hunger, in line with your health goals. 

For example, athletes needing to increase their energy intake to support performance and recovery may need to eat even when they’re not feeling hungry. On the other hand, if you’re looking to achieve fat loss to support your cardiovascular and metabolic health, it might be beneficial for you to hold off on your initial hunger signals for a little while, rather than immediately responding to the first signs of any hunger and cravings that may arise - depending on your specific goals.

When is Intentional Eating Preferable?

Often, people practise intentional eating as they move away from tracking or obsessing over food, and move towards intuitive eating. However, intentional eating can be thought of as a long-term approach to eating and health, just as much as intuitive eating, for many people. This framework simply encourages you to stay aware of and honour your body’s needs and signals, while also moving towards your personal health goals - whatever they may be.

Intentional eating may beneficial for you if:

• You’re working towards a specific body composition or performance goal, but find tracking too demanding or damaging to your relationship with food.

• You want to work towards intuitive eating, but you need a bit more structure and consideration of your health goals until you’re ready for it.

• You’re wanting to build more trust in yourself and in your body’s internal signals and cues, without throwing caution to the wind and obeying your body’s every whim and craving immediately.

• You’re working to regain your period and cycle, and may need to eat a little more than you normally would in order to do so.

• You’re working towards specific fitness or health goals and need to eat enough for performance, recovery or optimal health, even when you’re not necessarily hungry.

Intentional eating might be challenging if you identify with any of the following, yet could be what you need:

• You’re struggling to identify your body’s internal cues and meet its physical needs without structure. While intentional eating is more structured than intuitive eating, it can still be overwhelming and make it more challenging to meet your body’s needs and energy requirements. If you’ve spent a long time ignoring or denying your hunger and fullness cues, it may take time to tune back into these and learn how to identify whether you’re nourishing your body adequately or not.

• You’re recovering from disordered eating or an eating disorder. Often, eating disorder recovery is demanding and challenging. It requires developing coping strategies away from food, relearning your body’s needs and signals, and regularly involves following a meal plan or guide in order to ensure you’re eating enough to support your body. If you’re used to under-eating or under-fuelling your body, you may not be ready to try intentional eating just yet or it may feel slightly more challenging. Work on nourishing your body and getting healthy once again, and variable levels of structure could be of benefit.
  
  

Which is more effective?

Both intuitive and intentional eating have a place and purpose, and both can be effective in helping you become healthier and happier, and building a more positive relationship with food and your body.

Both intentional and intuitive eating encourage the abandoning of diets and restriction, in order to focus on the internal - things like your body’s needs, hunger levels, cravings, energy requirements, and emotional state. By ditching diets, you no longer prioritise external variables like diet rules, restrictions, comparisons with others, expectations about ideal body composition and appearance, or false moral values and beliefs around your food choices. Instead, you acknowledge diets don’t work, and turn to your body’s physiological signals to identify what foods are most appropriate for you and your health in that moment.

When you break it down, intentional eating may be more appropriate for anyone needing a little more structure or guidance with their eating behaviours, working towards particular health goals, or feeling not quite ready to embrace a way of eating which requires complete trust and honouring of your body’s needs. Whereas intuitive eating is often more appropriate for anyone feeling more confident to work towards trusting of their body, and able to honour all its needs without question or guilt (this will take time).

Either way, practice bringing joy back into eating and movement, fighting against thoughts of how you “should” and “shouldn’t” eat or act. Resist comparing yourself and your eating habits against others, and get used to pausing before you eat to assess your hunger level and your body’s needs. Apply the science of nutrition gently to your food choices, but recognise that your dietary decisions require consideration of far greater factors than nutrition alone. Rediscover pleasure in food and eating, and show yourself kindness and compassion as you work towards either of these eating practices - knowing that they take time, practice and learning in order to feel confident and at ease eating this way over the long-term.

Both intuitive and intentional eating can be powerful methods of repairing your relationship with food and your body, depending on your needs and goals, so they’re worth diving into and considering if you feel ready. Reach out to the ETPHD team for guidance in determining which (if either) is right for you, and for help in beginning to implement the foundational practices of either framework.