Emotional and intuitive eating: an emerging approach to eating behaviours related to obesity

Abstract

Emotional and intuitive eating are associated with obesity. In the present study, it was aimed to evaluate the relationship between intuitive eating and emotional eating behaviours in adults with anthropometric measurements of obesity-related disease risk and gender. Body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist, hip and neck circumferences were taken. Emotional Eater Questionnaire and Intuitive Eating Scale-2 were used for the assessment of eating behaviour. A total of 3742 adult individuals (56⋅8 % (n 2125) female and (n 1617) male) were participated voluntarily. The total score and subscales of EEQ were higher in females than males (P < 0⋅001). The scores of the IES-2 subscales and the total score were higher in males than females (P < 0⋅05). In metabolic risk classification according to waist and neck circumference, EEQ scale scores (except type of food) were higher in the metabolic risk group, while IES-2 (except body-food congruence in neck circumference) scores were higher in the non-risk group (P < 0⋅05). While there was a positive correlation between EEQ and body weight, BMI, waist circumference, waist-height ratio, a negative correlation was found between age and waist-hip ratio. There was a negative correlation between IES-2 and body weight, BMI, waist-height ratio, waist-hip ratio. In addition, a negative correlation was found between IES-2 and EEQ. Intuitive eating and emotional eating differ by gender. Anthropometric measures and metabolic disease risk is associated with emotional eating and intuitive eating. Interventions to increase intuitive and decreasing emotional eating behaviour can be effective in preventing both obesity and obesity-related diseases.

The Intuitive Eating Scale-2 Adapted for Mexican Pregnant Women: Psychometric Properties and Influence of Sociodemographic Variables

“…With respect to pg-BMI, we observed a negative influence on the overall IES-2 scale score. Other studies have also documented a higher level of intuitive eating with lower BMI [6,[15][16][17]20,22,41,42]. Among the postulated explanations for this inverse relationship is the hypothesis that the interoception and trust in hunger and satiety cues and less reliance on emotional or situational motivators to eat which are commonly observed with intuitive eating, positively influence food habits and the quantities of food consumed [43].…”

Intuitive eating has reduced the chances of being overweight in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…These associations were also observed between the three subscales—EPR, RHSC and B-FCC. In fact, obese individuals have less confidence in hunger and satiety signals, and eat less for physical reasons and more for emotional reasons, which explains why emotional eating is associated with increased body weight ( 53 ).…”

“…It is important to highlight, however, that although intuitive eating is associated with a lower BMI ( 52 , 53 ), this way of eating is not capable of, in isolation, preventing weight gain, since this gain is multifactorial, and potentially greater in an adverse context, such as the pandemic ( 24–26 ). Thus, more intuitive eating may favor greater weight stability ( 12 ), and may, therefore, have helped to reduce the impact of the pandemic on weight gain.…”

Bodily sensations and bariatric surgery: Links between interoceptive sensibility, intuitive and disordered eating behaviour in obesity and obesity surgery

“…The authors believed this behavioural tendency to explain the link between poorer self‐reported interoceptive accuracy and higher BMI in a sample composed of 53% individuals with overweight and obesity (Robinson, Marty, et al., 2021). Among individuals with obesity, intuitive eating was found to be negatively correlated to body weight, BMI, emotional eating, waist‐height and waist‐hip ratios (Ayyıldız et al., 2023). Post‐bariatric surgery, intuitive eating was associated to weight loss (Nogué et al., 2019) and a healthier relationship with food (Virani et al., 2019).…”