QUIZ: Restrained vs. Unrestrained Eaters
Are you a restrained or unrestrained eater?
You can't tell if a person is a restrained or unrestrained eater just by looking at them.
It has nothing to do with your weight!
It's all about your relationship with food and whether you rely on internal cues to decide what, when and how much to eat.
Or if you rely on external advice, benchmarks and rules.
RESTRAINED EATERS
Restrained eaters are people who regulate their eating through external cues, often in an effort to manage their weight.
They are a lot more sensitive to hunger and satiety cues than unrestrained eaters.
Therefore it takes more food deprivation to feel hungry and greater quantities of food to feel full.
Making restrained eaters feel addicted to food because they are quick to become out of control, overeat and feel compulsive.
UNRESTRAINED EATERS
Unrestrained eaters are those who still rely on internal body cues to determine when, what and how much to eat.
They are a lot less sensitive to hunger and satiety than restrained eaters.
Therefore it takes less food deprivation to feel hungry and therefore less quantities of food to feel full.
Unrestrained eaters are the kind of people who leave food on their plate without effort.
ARE YOU A RESTRAINED OR UNRESTRAINED EATER
Do you try to control your body weight and don’t trust your body to do it for you?
Are you gaining weight or at the very least frustrated in your efforts to lose weight and or maintain?
Why?
Because attempts to control your food intake through willpower, discipline and control require that you drown out the internal signals of your innate body wisdom.
Leaving you much more vulnerable to external signals and temptations, getting you more of what you don't want.
This approach is a problem because unless you live under a rock with no access to a phone, there’s no way to ignore the constant exposure to food we face in our world.
Food or food images are everywhere!
As a restrained eater your biological protectors have been triggered and you will have an increased interest in food.
Resulting in you noticing food everywhere!
Whereas an unrestrained eater, whose biological protectors have not been triggered will not experience the same charged feelings.
If you’re an unrestrained eater those external cues don’t phase you.
Sure the pizza smells good but one slice maybe enough. If your needs are met and you feel satisfied you lose interest in food.
Meanwhile the restrained eater is already on their fourth slice, eating quickly and plotting what else they'll eat now that they've blown their diet!
Because when you put your willpower up against your biology - BIOLOGY WILL WIN EVERY TIME!
Take The Quiz
Now it's time to take the quiz and find out if you're a restrained or unrestrained eater.
Answer YES or NO for the following statements.
Grab a pen and paper to note your answers - and this is one of those times you need to be brutally honest with yourself.
1. I generally check nutrition labels or consider different nutrition facts before deciding if something is okay to eat.
2. I exercise as a means to manage my weight.
3. There are foods I love but don’t eat as a means to control my weight.
4. I consider what I weigh one of the most important indicator of my health.
5. I believe one day I will find the diet that will work for me.
6. I often feel dissatisfied with my body and wish that I could change its shape and or size.
7. When I am not on a diet, I am usually thinking about the next diet I will go on.
8. There are certain foods I consider “off-limits” because I know I can’t control myself around them.
9. When I eat past the point of fullness or eat foods I consider “off-limits,” I feel like I've failed.
10. I feel uneasy eating without guidelines from a diet or diet meal plan.
11. I consider certain foods to be good or bad and I feel good when I eat the good foods, and bad when I eat the bad ones.
12. I often eat past the point of fullness and feel uncomfortable.
13. I put off going on vacation, buying clothes or attending fun events because I am not where I want to be physically.
Tally up how many YESes you got out of 13 statements, and then come and meet me in the next lesson to find out what it all means.
Quiz Results
SCORING
0 – 2 YESes: Mostly Unrestrained
You are mostly connected to your innate body wisdom and you allow your internal signals guide your eating behaviours the majority of the time. Keep it up! You’re putting your body’s needs before external influence, which is super important!
3 – 6 YESes: Some Restrained Behaviours
You likely have some restrained behaviours that you’ve picked up along the way from diet and wellness culture, who present their advice as meaningful tools to create weight management and health.
You may still have some connection to your body cues, although you are prioritising external rules to ignore and override your body's needs, increasing the opportunity of overeating.
7 – 13 YESes: Restrained Eater
You're a restrained eater, AKA a professional dieter! You've been encouraged by diet and wellness culture to disconnect from your innate body wisdom in favour of their rules.
These rules create behaviours that inform your brain to send messages to your body that make you more out of control with food. And the more willpower and discipline you use - the more out of control with food your become as these signals intensify!
How did you go?
Comment below and please note that it doesn't matter what your results are. There is no right or wrong.
Just like that Maya Angelou quote “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been”?
Let's Get Started
Are you tired of feeling trapped in the cycle of Diet Culture and ready to heal your relationship with food and embrace intuitive eating?
Then it's time to join the Kickstart Project!
This program is designed to help you break free from the harmful effects of Diet Culture and build a healthy and sustainable relationship with food and your body.
By joining the Kickstart Project, you'll gain access to exclusive content, resources, and support that will help you:
Develop a deeper understanding of your relationship with food and your body
Learn practical tools and strategies for building a healthier relationship with food and your body
Connect with a supportive community of like-minded individuals who are also on the journey to breaking free from Diet Culture
You'll leave the Kickstart Project with a newfound sense of food freedom, body-confidence, and self-awareness, along with the tools and support you need to maintain a healthy relationship with food and your body for life.
Don't let Diet Culture continue to hold you back from living your life to the fullest.
Join the Kickstart Project today and start your journey to healing your relationship with food and your body!
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