Mechanical Eating Reframe in Eating Disorder Recovery

If you're someone who’s been in the furnace of recovery from an eating disorder, you likely have come across the phrase “mechanical eating”. If I’m completely honest, I think the phrase and what it implies could use a little updating.  

To me, “mechanical eating” sounds robotic, like we are encouraging individuals to suppress their emotions when relating to food. In reality, that's not what we’re looking for in recovery. Suppressing emotion is too often a function of disordered eating in the first place. 

As humans, we have tastes, preferences, likes and dislikes and, ideally, we have internal cues that signal when we’re hungry and full. For those engaged in eating disorder recovery, those cues may be shifted or absent - and our preferences may be hard to sense or know. Eating in a consistent way and at regular times is a key feature of initial recovery work. 

With that in mind, I would like to challenge some aspects of “mechanical eating” and reframe this critical tool as “non-preferential eating.” 

Mechanical Suggests Emotionless, Recovery Requires Emotion 

The term mechanical eating reinforces an inhuman, robot-like relationship with food. While the term does suggest eating for function, throughout the recovery process we also want to help people develop a sense of autonomy with their food choices. We aim to do this in ways that feel very different from the default patterns of their eating disorder.  
Using the term “non-preferential eating” points to the fact that, while we may be engaging in eating at a time or an amount that we would prefer not to, we can both eat AND stay in contact with the emotive angle - a reality check almost - that doesn’t attempt to override the difficulty.  

Non-preferential eating suggests that yes, eating at this time or in this way is not something we want to be doing. And this is okay, we don’t have to want to do it, but we realize that it is necessary for our recovery.  
It acknowledges the fact that it is still our choice to be eating, while also holding awareness that we may not want to in that moment. It allows both things to be true and okay. 

Non-Preferential Eating Recognizes Emotion 

As a dietitian specializing in eating disorders, a key feature I see for many navigating recovery is, at some point, grappling with the acute discomfort of eating. For some, it might be that their hunger cues are lacking, for others it’s the fear of the perceived physical or emotional consequences that eating may cause. These are just a few of many reasons. 

Some common things I hear from clients that you may relate to include: 

• Not wanting to eat in the morning because you ate late last night, or because there is a general need to “compensate” from eating the day or two before 

• Wanting to do anything other than eating...including delaying or picking at food, immersing yourself in another task, or misreading disrupted internal cues (aka “I’m not hungry yet”)  

• Feeling absolutely no emotion, or extremely heightened emotion, towards food in the moment 

Non-preferential eating acknowledges these possibilities and says: Yes, I feel this. I see my resistance, and I’m going to eat anyway.  

It honors your distress and provides a certain amount of distance without requiring you to entirely suppress emotion.  

When Does Non-Preferential Eating Matter? 
Whether you are transitioning from inpatient to outpatient care, or if you’re navigating recovery alone, when it comes to eating during eating disorder recovery, you are ultimately the one to make the decisions about when and what to eat.  

Hunger and fullness cues often disappear under disordered behaviors, leaving it very hard to reliably sense into and act based on those cues. By employing the skill of non-preferential eating, you create a consistent behavioral anchor that enables you to meet the difficulty and support your physical needs at the same time. 

This anchor doesn’t deny your feelings, it allows you to fuel yourself appropriately in order to navigate the emotions that arise. If we engage in regular eating, we position ourselves to better heal what lays at the root of the disordered eating. We are able to develop a profound internal resilience that shifts the quality of our lives. 

How Can Non-Preferential Eating Support Recovery? 

When mechanical eating feels like going through the motions, non-preferential eating invites you to be gently aware of your mind and body. When disordered eating arises, it allows you to intervene and get back to your baseline by having awareness of your emotions while not being consumed by them. It allows you to:  

• Check in - "I’m anxious right now." 

• Name it - "That’s fear, or resistance." 

• Choose to eat regardless - "This moment doesn’t define my recovery; I do." 

Over weeks and months, you’ll start to notice that resistance soften. You may not need to use the skill as much over time, but it is always available to you and ensures you stay on track with your recovery.  

A lot of my clients will ask about intuitive eating and whether this is something that they can engage in during recovery, but in my opinion this is something that should come at a much later date, if at all.  

Giving ourselves time to develop self-trust and understand our bodies within the context of regular and sufficient meals is an essential part of recovery.   Intuitive eating relies on us to be in tune with and listen to our body, our hunger, our tiredness, our fullness, and these cues are often misplaced during an eating disorder.  

Go Gently with Recovery  

Recovery isn’t automatic, it's asking us to let go of something that has kept us safe for many years or decades. It can be messy, and some structure is useful to guide us. By practicing non-preferential eating, we give ourselves permission to keep going even when motivation fails. 

A gentle reminder: you are allowed to eat in a way that is quite different from the pattern of your eating disorder. You are allowed to do this and be angry, sad, afraid, you name it. 
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You are allowed to separate from the choices that may have once kept you safe, but now feel like a cage. In fact, it is one of the most powerful things you can do - for your body, for your mind and for your future.  
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