Instagram and TikTok have shifted our perception a lot. (This is nothing new.)

For some reason, I keep stumbling upon ex-bikini competitors on Instagram who have switched to intuitive eating. Which, good for them on making a decision that works for them! But for people who are on the outside looking in, they don't see the years of training and prep to get that body in the first place. Instead, they see physique updates and snapshots and say "Oh, they have that body and they eat intuitively... Why can't I do that?"

The truth is that you cant have that physique without working out and eating like a bikini competitor in some capacity. You have to set the foundation for that body first, which often entails the accumulation of years of careful tracking, measuring, and training.

This isn't to say that I think that intuitive eating is a bad thing. I do believe that anyone can be successful with intuitive eating if they put in the background work and get to a place where they're comfortable maintaining. But for most folks, it will require re-education around food. Who here has been victimized by a food scale? have you ever actually measured out a serving of peanut butter? Have you ever tracked your food only to realize that you only ate 50g of protein all day?

If you've never read a food label or tracked anything in your life, you won't have any kind of mental framework for how to eat for your goals. Intuitive eating, though it doesn't require tracking, still requires making educated and informed decisions about the food that we're consuming. Bodybuilders and competitors, especially at an elite level, are incredibly informed, and I'd wager that most of their dietary habits and preferences changed due to their history and still carry over into their intuitive eating journey.

So now that I've gotten that out of my system, moral of the story is: don't take a photo on Instagram out of context.