Relationship Between Body Image Discrepancy and Intuitive Eating

Dieting is widespread among college women despite being ineffective and harmful long term. Intuitive eating is a dieting alternative that teaches eating in response to hunger and satiety cues. It has been associated with improved physical and psychological health and studied in association with various body image dimensions. A sample of college first years completed baseline measurements during an intuitive eating intervention to test the association between intuitive eating and body image discrepancy (BID). BID represents whether a respondent believes her current body is larger or smaller than ideal. Greater BID was negatively associated with intuitive eating (p ≤ .05); participants who believed that their current bodies were larger than ideal were less likely to attend to hunger and satiety cues than participants who expressed little or no BID. These women should be targeted in future weight management interventions in order to avoid negative health outcomes of dieting.