Studies

Intuitive Eating Studies

2012 Studies

Gast, J., Madanat H., & Nielson A. (2012). Are Men More Intuitive When It Comes to Eating and Physical Activity?  Am J Mens Health vol. 6 no. 2 164-17.

Menscoring high on Hawks’ Intuitive Eating scale, was associated with lower body mass index. Menplaced value on being physically fit and healthy, rather than on an ideal weight.

Madden C.E., Leong, S.L., Gray A., and Horwath C.C. ( 2012). Eating in response to hunger and satiety signals is related to BMI in a nationwide sample of 1601 mid-age New Zealand women. Public Health Nutrition. Mar 23:1-8. [Epub ahead of print].

Women with high Intuitive Eating Scale (IES) scores had significantly lower body mass index, which suggests that people who eat in response to hunger and satiety cues, have unconditional permission to eat, and cope with feelings without food, are less likely to engage in eating behaviors that lead to weight gain.

2011 Studies

Augustus-Horvath CL and Tylka T.  (2011) The Acceptance Model of Intuitive Eating: A Comparison of Women in Emerging Adulthood, Early Adulthood, and Middle Adulthood. J Counseling Psychology 2011 (Jan ) 58:110-125.

The acceptance model of intuitive eating posits that body acceptance by others helps women appreciate their body and resist adopting an observer's perspective of their body, which contribute to their eating intuitively/adaptively. We extended this model by integrating body mass index (BMI) into its structure and investigating it with emerging age, in adult women from ages 18–65 years old.

Heileson J.L., & R. Cole (2011). Assessing Motivation for Eating and Intuitive Eating in Military Service Members. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 111 (9 Supplement), Page A26.

Intuitive Eating was associated with lower body mass index levels in 100 active military troops.

Dockendorff, S. A., Petrie, T. A., Greenleaf, C., & Martin, S. (2011, August).Intuitive Eating Scale for Adolescents: Factorial and construct validity. Paper presented at the 119th annual American Psychological Association conference, Washington, DC.

Tylka’s Intuitive Eating scale was adopted for adolescents and Intuitive Eating was associated with health benefits including lower body mass index, without internalizing the thin ideal, positive mood, and greater life satisfaction.

Sarah H. Shouse S. J. & Nilsson, J. (2011). Self-Silencing, Emotional Awareness, and Eating Behaviors in College Women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35: 451-457.

Expression of thoughts, feelings, or needs seems to be a critical aspect of healthy eating behaviors.  The suppression of voice, combined with high levels of emotional awareness, may decrease trust of internal signals of hunger and satiation and disrupt Intuitive Eating. Intuitive eating is maximized when a woman has high levels of emotional awareness and low levels of self-silencing. Conversely, intuitive eating is disrupted.

Young, S. Promoting healthy eating among college women: Effectiveness of an intuitive eating intervention. Iowa State University, 2011, Dissertation 147 pages; AAT 3418683.

This is the first experimental study to test the effectiveness of an intuitive eating intervention designed to increase adaptive eating practices and reduce eating disorder risk factors. Overall these results present empirical evidence that the intuitive eating model can be a promising approach to disordered eating prevention in a variety of service delivery modalities.

2010 Studies

Cole RE and Horacek T. Effectiveness of the “My Body Knows When” Intuitive-eating Pilot Program. Am J Health Behavior 2010; (May-June):286-297. 

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the “My Body Knows When” Intuitive Eating program tailored to assist Fort Drum military spouses in rejecting the dieting mentality.The intuitive-eating program was able to significantly transition participants away from a dieting mentality towards intuitive-eating lifestyle behaviors. Overall, Intuitive Eating is a holist approach to long-term healthy behavior change and would benefit from an extended support system to improve effectiveness.

 Galloway A.T., Farrow, C.V., & Martz DM. (2010). Retrospective Reports of Child Feeding Practices, Current Eating Behaviors, and BMI in College Students. Behavior and Psychology (formerly Obesity), 18(7):1330-1335.

Nearly 100 college-aged students and their parents completed retrospective questionnaires of parental feeding practices regarding the college students’ childhood. The results showed that parental monitoring and restriction of food intake had a significant impact on their college student’s body mass index, emotional eating, and Intuitive Eating Scale scores.

MacDougall EC. An Examination of a Culturally Relevant Model of Intuitive Eating with African American College Women. University of Akron, 2010. Dissertation 218 pages.

The present study explores the model intuitive eating with African American college women. Results of the present study provide empirical support for several propositions underlying a model of intuitive eating that suggests several, but not all, model paths may extend and generalize to more diverse samples of women.

2008-2009  Studies

2006-2007  Studies

2004-2005 Studies

  • Bacon L. Size Acceptance and Intuitive Eating Improve Health in Obese Female Chronic Dieters. J Am Dietetic Assoc.2005;105:929-936.
  • Hawks S et al. Relationship Between Intuitive Eating and Health Indicators Among College Women. Am J Health Ed 2005:Nov-Dec;36(6):331-336

Special thanks to Steven R. Hawks of BYU; Tracy L. Tylka of OSU; and Lori Smitham of Univ Notre Dame for advancing and validating the Intuitive Eating process and allowing their research to be shared on this site.

Studies Related to Intuitive Eating

  • Bacon L and Aphramor L.Weight Science:Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift. [2011]. Nutrition Journal, January. 10:9. [Free full text]. http://bit.ly/f4CKOK .
  • Ciampolini M et al., Sustained Self-Regulation of Energy Intake: Initial Hunger Improves Insulin Sensitivity, Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, vol. 7  2010. [Free full text]
  • Ciampolini M et al. Sustained self-regulation of energy intake. Loss of weight in overweight subjects. Maintenance of weight in normal-weight subjects, Nutrition and Metabolism, vol. 7, article 4, 2010. [ Free full text.]
  • Ciampolini Mand R. Bianchi, Training to estimate blood glucose and to form associations with initial hunger, Nutrition and Metabolism, vol. 3, article 42, 2006. [ Free full text.]

  • Eneli et al. (2008). The Trust Model: A Different Feeding Paradigm for Managing Childhood Obesity.Obesity.2197-2204. [Free Full Text.]

  • Field AE et al.(2003).Relation Between Dieting and Weight Change Among Preadolescents and Adolescents. Pediatrics, 112:900-906. [Free Full Text.]

  • Mann, T. (2001).Medicare’s search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the answer. Am. Psychologist, 62(3): 220-233.

  • Neumark-Sztainer D, Wall M, Guo J, Story M, Haines J, Eisenberg M. (2006). Obesity, disordered eating, and eating disorders in a longitudinal study of adolescents: how do dieters fare five years later? J Am Diet Assoc,106(4):559-568.

  • K H Pietiläinen, S E Saarni, J Kaprio and A Rissanen (2011). Does dieting make you fat? A twin study. International Journal of Obesity.