Does Intuitive Eating Work for Athletes?
My first question is: what does “work” mean?
This really depends on the goals of the athlete or individual, but it is most important that we assess the fit of the tool for the job.
Some people might say that Intuitive Eating is “one tool in the toolbox” but in the words of one of my long-time mentors Adee Levinstein, “Intuitive Eating is the toolbox.”
What is Intuitive Eating Anyways?
For the purpose of this blog, it’s helpful if we get on the same page. Intuitive Eating has been gaining popularity and there are many takes on it, but today I will be referring to the trademarked, researched, established system as developed by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
This version of intuitive Eating (IE) was developed in 1995 and has since been published in over 200 studies on eating behavior and health outcomes. It is a non-diet “nutrition as self-care” framework[1].
Full disclosure: I began the process of becoming a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor this past year so you could say I have some bias, but I was impressed to learn the supporting evidence and developmental psychology that underlies the theory. The creators posit that everyone is born with innate eating skills, but our signals can get hijacked, and our sense of trust and autonomy can become corroded. Eating may turn chaotic and reactive.
Disruptions in self-trust, autonomy, and interoception (perception of internal body signals) can lead to over-reliance on external cues to regulate eating. Think: needing to be on a diet to feel in control or having specific rules to follow and otherwise feeling out of control or uncertain. Intuitive eating is designed to help rebuild one’s innate ability to eat and nourish their body while breaking down barriers that interfere with it.
One external belief system that skews our internal wisdom is diet culture and the thin ideal (or in athletes’ case this can be replaced with the lean or athletic ideal). Essentially, believing that to be healthy and/or worthy, one must be thin and internalized body dissatisfaction greatly influences eating behavior. Perception of limited food resources can drive overeating and binge eating, which furthers the belief that we cannot trust ourselves around food. This drives guilt around eating and leads to even more reactivity! For most people, dieting simply doesn’t work and people are often worse for the wear after bouts of dieting[2]. I write more about this here.
Rejection of the diet mentality is a key component of IE. This is why Intuitive Eating for the purpose of weight loss is not a true use of the tool. While it’s true that for some, practicing Intuitive Eating can lead to weight changes, that’s not its intended purpose. An overfocus on body changes can interfere with developing and strengthening the real powerhouse: body trust.
Intuitive Eating is guided by 10 key principles at its foundation. Principles include respecting your body’s genetic potential (i.e. try as hard as you’d like, a greyhound will never be a Labrador retriever and vice versa), attending to emotional and physical needs, and learning to honor body cues of hunger, fullness, satisfaction, and more.
I think of Intuitive Eating as a process rather than a goal post. There’s not a certain end point where you win an award for becoming a “100% Intuitive Eater”. I think of it more as an approach that opens the door for curiosity. There is always wisdom to be gained from eating experiences rather than seeing them as failures or mistakes. What led to that disconnection from my body that caused me to overeat? What was missing that led me to feel unsatisfied from that meal? Am I relying on food to meet my mind’s desire to never experience boredom?
This is the place in which the external rules fade away and we begin to have the safety to explore how foods actually make us feel.
What Does This Mean for Athletes?
Being an athlete throws a few wrenches into the IE process. While joyful, connected body-celebratory movement is central to Intuitive Eating, athletes know that not every workout feels good. There’s no way around it that some training sessions are a grind.
Body cues can be skewed by training (intensity really does kill hunger cues!) and sometimes the energy needs of sport exceed what an athlete experiences as fullness. There’s often not a ton of joy or satisfaction in the mechanical nature of eating to fuel your body through high volume training cycles either.
Some athletes may also be required or recommended to make changes in their body composition or weight in weight class sports or due to the nature of their sport. Some folks rely on their sport for income and there is notable pressure from social media, sponsorship opportunities, and revealing uniforms to meet appearance expectations.
Does That Mean IE is not for Athletes?
Resch and Tribole assert that IE should never become another set of rules to follow, or that defeats the entire process of dismantling rule-driven eating.
So, I’d say (and I hope they’d agree) Intuitive Eating is for anybody who is willing to do a little extra exploring and strengthen their relationship with food with key modifications and understanding.
Based on the research, I would also argue that implementing aspects of IE can be a protective factor from the development of disordered eating and eating disorders, of which athletes are at increased risk[3][4].
Ok, so what? Athletes could have a better relationship with food- but does that actually support performance?
A really common misconception of Intuitive Eating is that it is just eating whatever you want, whenever you want (false, by the way, because that’s not typically self-care is it?) Intuitive Eating is also an incredible container for approaching health (or performance) promoting nutrition strategies.
Intuitive Eating changes how we relate to external guidelines through the principle of Gentle Nutrition. Personally, I find that working with athletes and discovering their values and why behind their nutrition guides my approach.
Reactive and fear-based approaches to nutrition “I have to do this or else” is exactly what IE aims to soften. If that fear were gone, what would influence your eating?
This is where values come into play.
Taking a more supportive, self-compassionate approach can go against the grain of the “get tough or die” sporting culture, but emerging research is supporting that self-compassion is powerful for athletes[5].
From this understanding of self-care and values, one can push themselves really hard while still attending to, rather than numbing out, body cues entirely.
Bringing in interoceptive listening to hunger and fullness doesn’t mean that we are turning hunger and fullness cues into another set of rules like “only eat when you’re hungry” and “always stop when you’re full”. For athletes, I may work with them to understand how much their body needs for their sport then use hunger and fullness signals to understand how they may feel when meeting their body’s needs. Hunger and fullness cues become another asset to make food choices rather than what they feel like they “should” eat.
Making peace with food, another IE principle, helps to morally neutralize food. (yes I know broccoli and donuts are not the same food, but feeling guilty after eating a donut is not actually health-promoting). Dropping the reactivity around food is a necessary part of fueling your body to feel its best.
Consider that meeting energy needs is key to recovering from training and adapting. Athletes often will need to rely on quick sources of energy such as simple carbs, or more palatable foods due to reduced appetite. Being able to skillfully use (and even enjoy!) processed or convenience foods to support training and when desired is in the wheelhouse of the intuitive eater. Every athlete is able to choose what works best for them, but I never want guilt or fear to be the deciding factor. If you prefer to fuel on dried fruit, I don’t care, but you need to be able to move on if in a pinch you fueled up on gummy bears (both great choices for quick and tasty carbs).
A Final Note:
Body composition and desired changes are such a tricky, nuanced topic that I believe need to be addressed individually and with the athletes’ whole health in mind. While this topic really deserves a deeper dive, I particularly have found this discussion about body composition in sport to be helpful. Truthfully, overemphasis on body composition is prevalent in athletics and is too often at the cost of longevity and optimal fueling practices. Body composition manipulation should be ruled out absolutely in some cases and potentially proceeded with cautiously and with safeguards in place for others maybe but is not necessary for the vast majority.
In my opinion, I think there is a long way to go when it comes to accepting body diversity, especially in sport. Hopefully more people take an ear to what my favorite rugby/body positivity icon Ilona Maher has been saying about athletic bodies: everybody can be an athlete. For her, celebrating her size and strength has been key to her success. Recently she responded to the idea that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”: “Really? Have you ever felt strong?”, she exclaimed, “I’m feeling well-fed!” and she feels pretty damn good[6].
A well-fueled, powerful athlete isn’t so much a look but is more a feeling that results from arriving nutritionally prepared for training and practices day after day, week after week, season after season. It comes from working towards body acceptance and appreciation, making peace with food, and learning what works best for your body at different times, yet being flexible and adaptable. It comes from being grounded in values, developing body trust, and being open and curious about the wisdom to be gained from it.
So yes, I may be biased— but if that’s your goal, Intuitive Eating most definitely “works”.
Note: this blog is a reflection of my opinion and my opinion alone- it does not reflect the opinion of any of my professional, employment, or otherwise associations.
Citations:
[1] Tribole, E. (2019, July 17). Definition of intuitive eating. Intuitive Eating. https://www.intuitiveeating.org/definition-of-intuitive-eating/
[2] Bacon, L., & Aphramor, L. (2011). Weight science: Evaluating the evidence for a paradigm shift. Nutrition Journal, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-10-9
[3] 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 5 years later? Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 106(4), 559-568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2006.01.003
[4] Giel, K. E., Hermann‐Werner, A., Mayer, J., Diehl, K., Schneider, S., Thiel, A., & Zipfel, S. (2016). Eating disorder pathology in elite adolescent athletes. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 49(6), 553-562. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22511
[5] Kuchar, A. L., Neff, K. D., & Mosewich, A. D. (2023). Resilience and enhancement in sport, exercise, & Training (RESET): A brief self-compassion intervention with NCAA student-athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 67, 102426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102426
[6] Ilona Maher on Instagram: "You really gotta try this". (2025, July 14). Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMDomCegq_L/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MWIxcGczaGZtZXF1bw==
