Types of Eaters
There are 8 different types of eating styles. While we are all born with the innate cues to be intuitive, mindful eaters, societal pressures and information overload often are persuasive and intriguing to follow or ‘buy in’...especially if we have the desire to lose weight or change our physical appearance one way or another.
This post will unveil the various types of eating styles and allow you to discover where you fit. It’s possible to have more than one eating style, as life events can influence or shift your eating personality. However, all but one eating style exhibits a form of a ‘dieting’ mindset. Let’s get into it!
The Careful Eater
Careful eaters tend to be viewed as the ‘perfect eaters’. Highly nutrition conscious. On the surface this type of eater seems health and fitness oriented. However, they can get easily stressed on food choices and the effects on the body.
Range of eating behaviors that may be exhibited include scouring the food labels to avoid particular ingredients due to the perceived health content or avoiding meal options based on preparation methods. These eaters tend to under eat and closely monitor the quantity of foods eaten. Lots of mental space is taken up with the thoughts on what has been eaten or what is left to be eaten, often chastising ‘unhealthy’ or fatty foods.
Nothing is wrong with being a careful eater who is interested in the well-being of their body. The problem occurs when the perfectionist mindset affects the ability to maintain a healthy relationship with food.
2. The Professional Dieter
Professional dieters are perpetually dieting. They have been around the block with all dieting fads, tips and tricks and well versed in ‘cutting it all out’. They have a lot of dieting knowledge and possess careful eating traits. Eating choices, however, are based on the sake of losing weight rather than on nourishing the body.
If the PD isn’t currently on a diet, they are often thinking about the next one they will attempt. They wake up thinking ‘today will be the day I do good’.
The mindset of a PD is more black and white-thinking ‘can vs. can’t or good vs. bad’ It is more common within this eating style to ‘start over’ often because the dieting rules become difficult to stick with.
These eaters get easily frustrated due to the vicious cycle of dieting, losing weight, gaining weight, and moving on to the next diet. It is difficult and mentally exhausting for anyone to sustain this type of eating pattern or lifestyle. The yo-yo dieting sabotages a positive food relationship.
It is when a professional dieter recognizes that the yo-yo cycles are not helping them sustain long term success, that they can more easily shift perspective and focus on a more sustainable and positive path towards weight management and goal attainment.
3. The Unconscious Eater (AKA…the multi-task eater)
This eating style exhibits that of eating while doing other things at the same time…such as watching TV, scrolling through social media, reading, or working.
To sit down and eat is often viewed as a waste of time. Eating paired with another activity is thought to be time productive.
When the unconscious eater can sit down to eat, focusing solely on their food and how their body feels while eating (taste, smell, sense of fullness as the meal goes on), they can bring mindfulness into their day. This can help break the cycle of unconscious eating.
It can actually be difficult to identify this eating style due to the lack of awareness and subtleties. As a result, there are a few subtypes of the Unconscious Eater you can continue reading about below.
4. The Chaotic Unconscious Eater
This eater often lives in an over-scheduled life... always so much on the to-do list!
This eating style is haphazard, eating whatever is available and most convenient. Nutrition and choice are often still important to this type of eater, however, not at the moment of chaos.
The Chaotic Eater is often preoccupied with important tasks, thus hunger cues get pushed aside until the cues become fiercely ravenous. As a result, it becomes easier for this type of eater to feel overly full after meals. Increased food guilt may occur as a result of getting overly hungry and being less conscious of selected foods chosen when eating does take place.
However, the Chaotic UC eater can work towards increasing mindfulness, by scheduling or creating a task to stop and remind them to take break for a meal and/or snack until a more consistent, mindful habit can be established.
5. The Refuse-Not Unconscious Eater:
Whether hunger is present or not, this eater is vulnerable to the presence of food. Taking candy from the dish or taking a bite from whatever is left on the counter, the Refuse-not eater is actually not often aware they are eating or how much they are eating. They often feel obligated to take what is offered in social situations.
The Refuse-Not Eater can work on bringing mindfulness to the present moment by pausing and evaluating hunger cues before taking food from a bowl or jar absentmindedly. This will prevent unnecessary eating, or eating while unaware, and bring focus to how their body feels.
6. The Waste-Not Unconscious Eater
This eater is a value eater and is inclined to be in the ‘clean the plate’ club or finish the kids plate to avoid waste. It is not uncommon for the Waste-Not eater to feel uncomfortably full after meals pending what is still left after the meal is over.
The Waste-Not Eater can work to bring mindfulness by checking in with their hunger cues before taking a second helping of food or eating from their kids plates. This may help prevent overeating and bring focus to how their body feels.
The Waste-Not Eater can remind themselves that food can be saved for leftovers to eat later in the day, or the day following - it will not be wasted and does not need to be consumed by them to avoid throwing away.
7. The Emotional Unconscious Eater
Food is used as a coping mechanism. It is common for the Emotional UC Eater to view their eating as the problem, when often it is a result of a deeper issue. Eating patterns vary from quick food impulse to chronic binge eating.
This eating style can also use food as reward or in times of distress. Think - providing a child with a treat when he/she gets hurt or is crying. This pattern will actually teach the child to eat when they feel pain or sadness (emotion). While emotional eating can actually be a part of healthy, normalized eating patterns, the frequency of eating out of emotion is key.
MINDFULNESS can be brought in by taking a moment to pause and evaluate why eating is occurring, and taking note of true hunger cues.
All Unconscious Eater forms we have covered can become a problem if the eating patterns result in chronic overeating. It is often somewhere between the first and last bite where the lapse of consciousness takes place. Think of sitting down with a big bag of chips….all of a sudden, the bag is empty. ‘How did that happen?’ We lose our state of awareness when we eat unconsciously.
However, if you begin eating to become aware of this pattern you automatically lessen the amount of time being unconscious about eating! Change is always possible!
WELCOME: THE INTUITIVE EATER
The peaceful, aware, yet unaffected eater!
We are all born as this type of eater and possess this natural intuitive eating ability at any point in time. It is environmental and societal pressures that often pull us away from these natural instincts.
Consider a baby or toddler. They are the unaffected eaters. They eat due to their natural, intuitive cues. They are not influenced by the media, receiving misinformation and mixed messages. Rather, they have the innate ability to regulate eating according to their body’s need for growth and nourishment.
It becomes increasingly difficult to remain this type of eater in today’s world for various reasons. However, an intuitive eater typically has the most positive food relationship. They can make food choices without guilt. They can honor their hunger and fullness cues and truly enjoy the pleasure that comes with eating.
There is a lot that goes into regaining the confidence to trust our intuitive side, especially if we don’t ever recall a time in our lives when we didn’t have food guilt or don’t know what hunger or fullness feels like. But the beauty of our bodies is that they are highly adaptable. The body wants to be in an intuitive and positive state with food thoughts, feelings and actions.
Pausing and taking the time to become more present and aware are key steps to discovering your intuitive self. Taking this time requires the double P’s: patience and persistence. And some willingness to get a little uncomfortable and trust your body’s ability to think and act intuitively. Taking the time needed will allow you to reclaim your confidence with food and honor the role that it serves the body - to fuel and nourish.