Intermittent Fasting: Is it Intuitive?
Intermittent fasting (IF) is a diet that isn’t entirely new, but in diet culture land it has been all the rage in recent years. Chances are, you’ve been in conversations with friends, family or colleagues, and someone has flippantly discussed their new IF habit. It’s popular among “biohackers”, as well as people trying to manage certain health markers or achieve weight loss.
If you haven’t yet, check out part 1 on IF to learn more about this diet, and the possible benefits (few) and consequences (many).
Who is this diet NOT appropriate for
People with a history of disordered eating
People with diabetes
Women trying to become pregnant or breastfeeding
Women with pre-existing hormone imbalances
People on medication for heart disease or high blood pressure
Anyone working on having a more positive relationship with food and their body
Intuitive eating and Intermittent fasting
Intuitive eating is based on the concept of trusting your body and tuning into your internal hunger and fullness cues, and honoring them. Intermittent fasting, however, is based on rules of when you can or cannot eat. These two are in direct opposition to each other. There is nothing ~intuitive~ about ignoring hunger, or having strict rules about meal timing. If anyone is claiming that fasting is congruent with intuitive eating, its safe to assume they are not well-versed on intuitive eating (red flag!).
So imagine you wake up and you are hungry…
The Intuitive eater: eats breakfast and moves on with their day, feeling energized and focused
The Intermittent faster: thinks about eating breakfast until they are “allowed” to eat and then eats breakfast quickly, potentially eating more than they would have without IF rules, also possibly feeling deprived and more preoccupied with food
When we ignore our hunger cues, it becomes hard to tune into fullness cues when we eat. Eating based on a clock, instead of internal cues, sets us up for potential episodes of bingeing or overeating. When folks set rules around eating, these rules are easily broken when life inevitably happens. This can lead to the “screw it, the day is already ruined” mentality, and reduced confidence, body trust and self efficacy when it comes to eating for wellbeing and self care. Intuitive eating, on the other hand, proves to be a much more workable solution to health-promoting eating.
Of course, eating past comfortable fullness happens to us all at some point, but one of the best tools to prevent it from reoccurring is unconditional permission to eat, and listening to YOUR BODY and its internal cues. These cues are never trying to trick you, so why do we attempt to trick our bodies? Hunger is one of the ways our bodies regulate appetite and our metabolism without external manipulation.
That means:
eating when you are hungry / stopping when you are full / resting when you are tired / eating foods that sound good to you / wearing clothes that make you {in your here & now body} feel comfortable
So I will leave you with this: my goal is for food and eating habits to be sustainable and enjoyable. I want you to feel in-charge of your food and your choices, not the clock or the influencer who’s promoting Intermittent Fasting. Just because it may “work” for someone else, doesn’t mean it works for everyone.
As always, if you have any questions or are considering changing your diet, reach out to your dietitian first!
Citations:
https://www.cnet.com/health/the-health-risks-of-intermittent-fasting-its-not-for-everyone/
Kumar S, Kaur G. Intermittent fasting dietary restriction regimen negatively influences reproduction in young rats: a study of hypothalamo-hypophysial-gonadal axis. PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e52416. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052416
