Piloting a Novel Intuitive Eating Intervention for College Women With Disordered Eating

Piloting a Novel Intuitive Eating Intervention for College Women With Disordered Eating

The purpose of this research study is to pilot test a new intervention that helps young adult women learn adaptive eating and exercise strategies, increase their body acceptance, decrease unhealthy weight control behaviors and prevent future eating and problems. This intervention is experimental, and the study will test its feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness.

The intervention, Intuitive Eating, is an eating approach that addresses important risk factors and promotes adaptive eating attitudes and behaviors. It has three central tenets: 1) unconditional permission to eat when hungry, 2) eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, and 3) eating according to hunger and satiety cues. Intuitive Eating has ten principles that focus on rejecting the dieting mentality, honoring hunger cues, decreasing restrictive behaviors that lead to deprivation and bingeing, challenging rigid food rules, increasing awareness of satiety, discovering the satisfaction of food, coping with emotions without food, respecting and accepting one's body, using exercise as self-care, and balancing nutrition with satisfaction.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Not currently pregnant
• Enrolled in postsecondary education at VCU
• Have body image or eating concerns

Exclusion Criteria:

• Eating disorder threshold risk
• Men
• Pregnant women