Today’s post is about something that has been brewing in me for awhile as I kept running into coaches, programs, fitness pros, etc that are co-opting to food freedom aka intuitive eating, but still promoting diets in terms of weight loss.
The concept of Intuitive Eating and breaking away from diet culture has become more and more mainstream and well known to the health and fitness industry, thanks to the numerous contributions to this area. The pandemic may have even accelerated the idea that life is too darn short to go on diets. I know it has for me at least.
Diet culture and the diet industry is seeing this and as always, are trying to find ways how they can also get in on the food freedom bandwagon so they can of course, make more money.
When it comes to the non-diet approach and Intuitive Eating, weight loss is not the focus at all or the end goal. Yes, people HAVE lost weight doing the non-diet approach and Intuitive Eating, but some gain weight too, or even stay the same. Again, coaches and fitness pros who use the intuitive eating approach are not helping women lose weight and it is not a diet, but to be more in tune with what makes them feel good and break free from diet culture.
So here are some things to look out for when trying to find a coach or come across someone who is promoting the “non-diet approach” when in fact, they are not.
“It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle” is used numerous times to promote programs,work outs etc. But if they are STILL promoting weight loss or even mentioning “weight loss,” I am sorry but, yes, it is a diet. Those who promote weight loss this way can be kinda still obvious because they are still mentioning they are helping women to lose weight. Some are even more sneaky by maybe not mentioning the word weight loss but restricting the calories in their program down to just consuming 1200 calories a day for instance (yes we are talking about you Noom, that calorie count is more for toddlers!).
Promoting detoxes: The word diet or weight loss may not even be in the promoting of these but they are promoting diet culture.
The term “Intuitive Fasting” then came into light and a book was written about it, which is glaringly obvious this is a diet and a way to restrict calories. What the heck is Intuitive Fasting? It is just Intermittent Fasting, another diet disguised to hop on the Intuitive Eating bandwagon. Don’t fall for it.
Using the terms “earn your food” coming from an “Intuitive Eating Coach” is also a red flag that this is also another way to focus on weight loss and dieting, using excessive workouts that will only burn you out a the end. These coaches don’t even use the term weight loss but are very good at not mentioning it when in fact they are promoting weight loss in their programs. Food is a right, not something that some get and some shouldn’t.
When looking at posts that have the hashtag “Intuitive Eating” pay close attention to what they are really promoting. Weight loss coaches will use this hashtag to draw more attention to their pages when they have nothing to do with the practice of Intuitive Eating and fighting diet culture.
These are some of my observations so far that I have seen, would you add more to this list? Let me know in the comments or feel free to send me an email deanna@deannakozarov.com and let me know or if you need for me to take a look.
Deanna Kozarov LLC 