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2.6: Health At Every Size® and Intuitive Eating

  • Page ID
    38474
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    Learning Objectives

    Describe the benefits of following Health At Every Size® and Intuitive Eating principles, over typical dieting.

    Understand that taking care of your body and health is achievable no matter your size.

    Health at Every Size®

    At its foundation, Health at Every Size® (HAES) supports behavior changes that create sustainable habits to improve health and promote a better quality of life.[21] The HAES approach is an alternative to the weight/size-based approach with a focus on improving health without a focus on weight loss. The research shows this model is able to promote sustainable improvements in health.

    “In a study comparing the HAES model to a diet approach, though only dieters lost weight, both groups initially had similar improvements in metabolic fitness, activity levels, psychological measures, and eating behaviors. After two years, dieters had regained their weight and lost the health improvements, while the HAES group sustained their health improvements”.[22]

    The Health At Every Size® Principles are:

    1. Weight Inclusivity: Accepting and respecting the diversity of body shapes and sizes
    2. Health Enhancement: Recognizing that health and well-being are multi-dimensional and that they include physical, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional, and intellectual aspects
    3. Respectful Care: Promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes
    4. Eating for Well-being: Promoting eating in a manner that balances individualized nutritional needs, hunger, satiety, appetite, and pleasure
    5. Life-Enhancing Movement: Promoting individually appropriate, enjoyable, life-enhancing physical activity, rather than exercise that is focused on a goal of weight loss

    The image below illustrates many elements that go into Health at Every Size® principle #2: Health Enhancement.

    Screen-Shot-2020-06-09-at-2.52.12-PM.png
    Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Image by Jennifer Draper / CC BY 4.0

    Intuitive Eating

    Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to eating that promotes a connection to body cues of hunger and fullness and the selection of foods based on both pleasure and nutrient density.[24] When an individual is able to disconnect from diet culture and the focus on weight loss, they are able to eat in ways that support having energy throughout the day and feel competent around all foods. Instead of an outward focus on counting calories, dietary restriction, and measuring food portions, intuitive eating teaches a mindfulness practice of going inward and learning to respond to the cues and rhythms of the body. A review of 22 intervention studies that compared traditional weight loss to the intuitive eating approach concluded that the participants in the non-diet groups were able to stop unhealthy weight controlling behaviors, improve metabolic fitness and reduce risk factors, increase body satisfaction, and improve psychological distress.[25] While the non-diet approach has not been shown to promote weight loss, a review of clinical trials concluded that intuitive eating was able to stabilize weight and help to prevent future weight gain, in addition to an improvement in blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and dietary intake.[26]

    cdc-oCvk4XaAEV0-unsplash-2-1536x1022.jpg
    Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Image by CDC / Unsplash License

    The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating

    1. Reject the diet mentality - Diets for weight loss "fail" at least 95% of the time. Let go of all the years of diet rules you've gathered.
    2. Honor your hunger - Learn your hunger and fullness cues, and act on them. Your body knows what it needs.
    3. Make peace with food - Letting go of labels on food. There are no "good" or "bad" foods, just food.
    4. Challenge the food police - Whether in your head or the people around you, challenge the "rules."
    5. Discover the satisfaction factor - Food can and should be pleasurable and satisfying.
    6. Feel your fullness - After a lifetime of trying to eat less, it can be hard to sit with the feeling of being full and content.
    7. Cope with your emotions with kindness - Learn healthy ways of dealing with your emotional needs. Food won't fix them.
    8. Respect your body - Your body deserves dignity today. Right now.
    9. Movement: Feel the difference - Find ways of moving your body that are fun and "joyful," not to "burn calories."
    10. Honor your health – gentle nutrition - Honor your health and taste preferences. There is no "perfect" eating, and we get to make food choices every day.

    References

    Bacon, Lindo. (2010). Health at every size: the surprising truth about your weight. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books.

    Tribole, Evelyn, and Resch, Elyse (2020). Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach. 4th Ed. St. Martin's Publishing.


    2.6: Health At Every Size® and Intuitive Eating is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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