What’s Your Eating Personality?
We are all born intuitive eaters. As babies, we fussed and cried when we were hungry and stopped when we were full. We ate more of the foods we really liked and refused to eat those that we didn’t like. But somewhere along the lines between childhood and adulthood, that changed. We now let external food rules, diets, and social influences control what, when, how, and why we eat.
As a result, we have developed a negative association with hunger. We think hunger is a “bad” thing. Its not! True physical hunger is a sign that your body needs nourishment. Its needs gas in the tank. It needs energy.
We dismiss hunger by finding clever ways to trick ourselves into thinking that we are full or ignoring it completely until you just can’t take it anymore. This distrust has led us to become out of tune with our hunger/fullness sensations. We have replaced our natural born intuition around food with harmful practices and attitudes. Understanding your eating personality is a great first step to adopt healthier nutrition habits, rebuild your relationship with food, and regain trust in your body.
There are 4 Eating Personalities:
The Intuitive Eater
Intuitive Eaters rely on their body’s internal cues to make food choices based on what they feel their body needs. They do not rely on external sources such as meal plans, calorie targets, or points to make decisions on what to eat. When an Intuitive Eater is hungry, they select foods that are pleasing, nourishing, and satiating. They eat until they reach a level of comfortable satisfaction. Intuitive Eaters have a positive relationship with food and their body.
The Professional Dieter
Professional Dieters are perpetually dieting, cleansing, and detoxing and are always up to date with the latest in weight loss trends. They’ve tried everything in search of a “quick-fix.” They’re caught up in a chronic restriction/chronic overeating cycle that sounds something like this: “lose weight, gain weight, restrict, burnout, binge, back to dieting, repeat.” Oftentimes, they engage in bingeing or “the last supper” mentality before starting on a new diet. Professional dieters are frustrated with their results but fail to question the process.
The Careful Eater
Careful Eaters aren’t on any specific diet like Professional Dieters, but they are extremely vigilant about what they eat and tend to overanalyze their food choices. Oftentimes they attach morality to food, labeling foods as “good” and “bad.” Food guilt is common with Careful Eaters if they eat something that doesn’t meet their standard of what is considered to be healthy. They scrutinize nutrition labels and won’t eat something if they believe it is “unhealthy” or contains too much fat, carbs, or sugar. They spend inordinate amounts of time meal planning/prepping to ensure everything is perfect. At a glance, Careful Eaters may appear to just be genuinely concerned about their health, but oftentimes body image is what they are trying to manage.
The Unconscious Eater
The Unconscious Eater is rooted in a lack of attention, awareness, and attunement while eating because they are usually engaged in other activities while eating (i.e – scrolling social media, responding to emails, watching TV, socializing, multitasking). This mindless, unconscious behavior can easily lead chronic overeating.
There are four types of Unconscious Eaters:
- The Chaotic Unconscious Eater
These are the eaters who a have a hectic, overextended life, causing them to have an irregular eating pattern. Some days they may just grab whatever is available and other days they may skip meals and not eat at all. Chaos tends to overshadow living a healthy lifestyle.
2. Refuse-Not Unconscious Eater
Regardless of hunger level, this type of unconscious eater will simply eat just because food is around. They “can’t help themselves around food” and are unaware of what and how much they are eating. “Grazers” also fall under this category of Unconscious Eaters.
3. Waste-Not Unconscious Eater
These eaters always finish a meal or clean their plate, regardless of their hunger/fullness level. They are driven by getting the most out of their money and value the food dollar and over nutrition.
4. Emotional Unconscious Eater
This type of unconscious eater uses food as a coping mechanism in times of stress, grief, boredom, or anger. These negative emotions may lead to a feeling of emptiness or an emotional void. Emotional Unconscious Eaters use food for a temporary alleviation of emotions and tend to feel guilty afterward. Oftentimes this can lead to chronic compulsive binge eating.
What type of eater are you?
Perhaps you’ve been all of them at some point. This isn’t unusual as eating patterns can shift depending on what is going on in your life.
The goal is to regain full trust in your body… just like when you were a baby. A greater understanding of your eating personality can be very insightful and helpful as you work toward connecting back with your body’s wisdom, cues and needs.
Want to learn how to begin shifting your eating personality and behaviors around food?
Send me an email and let’s talk.
In Strength,
Kerianne Los
kerianne@pursuit.fit
