This Intuitive Eating Quiz is designed to help you understand your current relationship with food and body.
Whether you’re just beginning with Intuitive Eating or you’re a seasoned Intuitive Eater, this quiz will provide valuable insights and practical steps to support your progress. Keep reading to learn what your results mean and how to enhance your intuitive eating skills.
Use the Table of Contents to jump to the ‘Take the Intuitive Eating Quiz’ section if you’re ready to get started now.
Table of Contents
What is Intuitive Eating?
Intuitive Eating is an evidence-based, weight-neutral approach to eating that works to heal your relationship with food and body image.
There are 10 principles of Intuitive Eating that work together to either help cultivate attunement or remove barriers to internal biological cues (hunger and fullness cues).
Instead of a goal of weight loss, like most diets, Intuitive Eating is about health gain.
Weight loss diets use restrictions and rules to change your body into something “better” and are typically driven by self-loathing and shame.
In contrast, Intuitive Eating is about tuning into your body’s internal wisdom to honor, nourish, and respect your body and is driven by self-compassion and values.
Using the Intuitive Eating Scale-3 (IES-3) to Assess Intuitive Eating
The Intuitive Eating Scale-3 (IES-3) is a widely recognized tool designed to measure intuitive eating behaviors. The original IES was developed by Tracy L. Tylka in 2006 and refined through years of rigorous research with the latest version (IES-3) released in May 2024.
The IES-3 assesses four core factors central to intuitive eating:
- Unconditional permission to eat
- Eating for physical reasons
- Reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues
- Body-food choice congruence.
Why use the IES-3 for this intuitive eating quiz? The IES-3 is the only validated, evidence-based tool specifically designed to assess intuitive eating, meaning it has been rigorously tested and proven reliable for accurately capturing behaviors and attitudes linked to intuitive eating.
This tool isn’t just for researchers; it was designed to be user-friendly and accessible to allow anyone to gain insights into their eating habits.
The IES-3 can help you pinpoint specific areas where you’re already aligned with intuitive eating principles and identify others where you may want to focus more attention. This assessment gives you a clearer understanding of your current relationship with food and body to help you make a meaningful and personalized plan.
In short, the IES-3 is rooted in evidence and provides a reliable and nuanced measure of your relationship with food and body.
Take the Intuitive Eating Quiz Now!
Per Tylka et al., “Instructions: The following items ask about your eating habits. Specifically, we are interested in your approach to eating foods that are available to you: meaning, foods that you have access to, can afford, and don’t have a medical or value-based reason for avoiding (such as insulin resistance, food sensitivities, food intolerance, food allergies, religious observances, being vegetarian or vegan). Please read each item carefully and indicate the response that best matches your eating habits in general.
Rating scale for each item: Strongly Disagree (1), Disagree (2), Neutral (3), Agree (4), Strongly Agree (5)”
Tylka, T. L., Maïano, C., Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M., Linardon, J., Burnette, C. B., Todd, J., & Swami, V. (2024). The Intuitive Eating Scale-3: Development and psychometric evaluation. Appetite, 199, 107407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2024.107407
Scoring Your Intuitive Eating Quiz
Per Tylka et al., “The global IES-3 score is calculated by averaging scores associated with all items. The specific factors are calculated as follows: averaging Items 1, 2, 3 to calculate Unconditional Permission to Eat; averaging Items 4, 5, 6 to calculate Eating for Physical Reasons; averaging Items 7, 8, 9 to calculate Reliance on Hunger and Satiety Cues; and averaging Items 10, 11, 12 to calculate Body-Food Choice Congruence.”
Your Global Intuitive Eating Score will be directly emailed to you if you took the quiz. If you prefer to calculate it on your own, here are the instructions:
Global IES-3 Score: This is the overall score, representing your overall intuitive eating tendencies.
- Add up the scores from all 12 items.
- Divide the total by 12.
- A higher score indicates a stronger alignment with intuitive eating principles
Specific Factor Scores: Additionally, each subscale can be scored separately to assess different aspects of intuitive eating.
- Unconditional Permission to Eat (UPE): Average the scores from Items 1, 2, and 3.
- Eating for Physical Reasons (EPR): Average the scores from Items 4, 5, and 6.
- Reliance on Hunger and Satiety Cues (RHSC): Average the scores from Items 7, 8, and 9.
- Body-Food Choice Congruence (B-FCC): Average the scores from Items 10, 11, and 12.
Intuitive Eating Quiz Categories and What They Measure
Unconditional Permission to Eat
This factor centers on the ability to give yourself full permission to eat all foods without guilt or judgment. It involves rejecting diet mentality and embracing a sense of freedom and flexibility around food choices.
Corresponding Principles: Make Peace with Food, Discover the Satisfaction Factor
Eating for Physical Rather Than Emotional Reasons
This factor focuses on the distinction between eating to satisfy physical hunger and eating to cope with emotional distress.
Corresponding Principle: Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness
Reliance on Internal Hunger and Satiety Cues
This factor focuses on trusting your body’s internal wisdom and using your hunger and fullness cues to guide your eating decisions. It involves letting go of external rules and restrictions and instead tuning into your body’s innate signals.
Corresponding Principles: Honor Your Hunger, Respect Your Fullness
Body-Food Choice Congruence
This component highlights the importance of making food choices that honor your health and taste preferences while also leaving you feeling good physically and emotionally.
Corresponding Principle: Honor Your Health—Gentle Nutrition
Next Steps: Resources for Improving Your Intuitive Eating Quiz Score
Taking the IES-3 quiz is a great first step towards a more intuitive relationship with food. Now, let’s explore how you can put those insights into action to improve your intuitive eating score.
Here are four ways to better align with intuitive eating principles, along with helpful resources to guide you:
1. Ditch Diet Culture
Diet culture thrives on making you feel like you’re not enough and that your body always needs to be fixed. Letting go of diet culture is the first step toward reclaiming your relationship with food.
Breaking free from diet culture allows you to live a life defined by purpose and values, not by how you look. It helps you to reclaim the space that diet and beauty culture have tried to shrink. Your dreams, values, goals, mission, interests, the way you make people feel, and the impact you make in the world have nothing to do with how you look.
Resources:
- Get my free 5 day email course to ditch diets. This course will help to:
- Move away from the cycles of restriction, binging, and guilt so that you find lasting consistency and control to reach your goals with ease and enjoyment instead.
- Boost your metabolism and find your happy and stable weight.
- Live your best life NOW without waiting for your body to change, so you don’t miss out on any meaningful moments in life.
- Discover a new and satisfying way to fuel your body and find feel-good movement you actually enjoy, leading to improved health and well-being.
- Disadvantages of Dieting: We so often hear about “the dangers of gaining weight and overeating,” but we almost never hear about the downsides of weight loss and restriction. In this post, you’ll learn the physical, psychological, and social costs of dieting, as well as the alternatives to dieting and how to break free from the diet cycle.
2. Hone Your Intuitive Eating Skills Based on Your Results From The Quiz
Use your IES-3 results to pinpoint areas where you’re already in tune with intuitive eating and identify principles you may want to strengthen. Here are some resources to get you started.
Resources:
- Free Beginner’s Guide to Intuitive Eating: This is your guide to understanding the 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating + easy tips for putting them into practice today!
- Intuitive Eating 101: Start here for a comprehensive guide to understanding the principles of intuitive eating and how to reconnect with your body’s natural signals.
- The Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating: learn the 10 principles of intuitive eating, why they’re important, and how to incorporate them
- How to Cope With Food Guilt: Food guilt is a complex issue with many contributing factors. In this blog post, you’ll learn the reasons why you may feel guilty after eating and learn actionable solutions to cope.
- Hunger Fullness Toolkit: This free guidebook has 3 tools to help you tune into your hunger and fullness cues, including:
- Hunger Fullness Scale PDF
- Journal prompts to help you reflect and tune into your internal cues.
- A meditation to help you connect with your body and tune into hunger cues
- The Ultimate Guide to the Intuitive Eating Hunger Scale: The Hunger Scale is a tool to help you build awareness of your internal cues, so you don’t have to rely on inflexible external measures like tracking macros. In this guide, you’ll learn what the Intuitive Eating Hunger Scale is, how to use it, and common mistakes and troubleshooting.
3. Work on Developing a Positive Body Image
Body image and intuitive eating go hand in hand. When you stop trying to shrink or change your body, it becomes easier to honor your body’s needs.
Developing a positive body image involves challenging negative thoughts and beliefs about your body, focusing on appreciating your body for its strength and functionality, and practicing self-care. It’s about recognizing that your worth extends far beyond your appearance and embracing your body’s unique beauty.
Resources:
- Free Body Image Toolkit: Three tools you can implement today to improve your body image.
- A Comprehensive Guide to Cultivating Body Appreciation: Developing body appreciation reduces body dissatisfaction, makes you less susceptible to external pressures, lowers the likelihood of disordered eating, and encourages self-acceptance, respect, and care for your physical and mental well-being.
4. Expand Your View of Health Beyond Weight
Health is about so much more than just your weight. It encompasses physical, mental, and social well-being, not one at the expense of the others. Shifting your focus away from weight loss to overall well-being helps you make choices that support your health in a holistic way, without the pressure of trying to fit a certain standard.
Resources:
- Intuitive Eating Made Me Fat? The Truth About Intuitive Eating and Weight Gain
- Intuitive Eating for Weight Loss [Everything you Need to Know]
- Non-Scale Victories to Celebrate Your Health Beyond Weight [List of 50+ Examples]
Final Thoughts
Wherever you are with intuitive eating, know that progress is possible. Use your intuitive eating quiz results as a guide to take the next step toward a healthier relationship with food and your body.
If you’re interested in learning more about body image or Intuitive Eating, be sure to check out some of these other blog posts:
- 30+ Body Neutrality Journal Prompts
- Intuitive Eating Made Me Fat? The Truth About Intuitive Eating and Weight Gain
- Why Do I Feel Guilty After Eating? Surprising Reasons & Solutions
- The Disadvantages and Dangers of Dieting [An Unbiased Guide]
- 80 Non-Physical Compliments That Have Nothing to Do with Appearance
- Intuitive Eating Before and After [What to Expect When You Start Intuitive Eating]
- The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating [A Complete Guide + Free PDF]
If you’re looking for personalized support, I offer one-on-one body image and Intuitive Eating counseling services to help you find food freedom and body confidence. My one-on-one services are tailored to your specific needs and concerns. We work to develop a plan together that will help you achieve your goals and fit into your life. Whether you’re looking to break free from the diet cycle, overcome emotional or binge eating, or start treating your body with respect and kindness, I’m here to help!
Kristin is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, and Certified Personal Trainer. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Dietetics with a concentration in Biology and a Master’s Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. She has experience conducting systematic reviews and writing and evaluating scientific literature in peer-reviewed journals. She has a goal of making evidence-based nutrition information accessible and easy to understand.