The short version
- A 2023 study of 116 women aged 40 to 64 found that those who ate in response to physical hunger rather than to stress or habit tended to have lower body fat.
- It is a cross-sectional study. It shows two things occurring together. It does not show that one causes the other, and it studied no product or program.
- “Just listen to your body” is harder advice than it sounds after decades of diet rules, which is why some women do better with a defined structure than with pure intuition.
- Structure and intuition are not opposites. A good structure is scaffolding you eventually stop needing.
If you have the sense that your body stopped responding to the approaches that used to work, you are describing something a great many women describe. What tends to follow is an assumption worth examining: that the answer must be to eat less still. Tighter rules, smaller portions, a shorter list of permitted foods.
There is research suggesting the relationship is not that simple.
What the study actually looked at
A peer-reviewed study published in Eating Behaviors in 2023 examined 116 women aged 40 to 64. The researchers were interested in intuitive eating — eating in response to physical hunger and fullness rather than to external rules.
What they found was an association. Women who scored higher on measures of intuitive eating tended to have lower total body fat and lower abdominal fat. Two patterns stood out in particular: eating for physical reasons rather than emotional ones, and relying on internal hunger and fullness signals rather than on a schedule or a rule.
Three caveats matter, and they matter enough to state plainly rather than bury:
- It is cross-sectional. It measured both things at one moment. It shows they tend to occur together. It does not establish that intuitive eating produces lower body fat, and the relationship could run in either direction.
- It studied behaviour, not products. No supplement, drop, program or plan was involved. Nothing in it endorses anything you can buy, including anything on this site.
- It is one study of 116 people. The researchers themselves framed the findings as potentially useful for public health messaging in midlife women, which is appropriately modest language.
What it does suggest is that the instinct to respond to a plateau with more restriction may be worth questioning — and that how you decide to eat may matter alongside how much.
The trouble with “just listen to your body”
Intuitive eating is easy to describe and genuinely difficult to do.
Most women arriving at midlife have spent decades being told what to eat by someone other than their own appetite. Points, portions, windows, permitted lists. After that much external instruction, the internal signal is not always easy to hear, and it is not always easy to trust when you do hear it. “Am I hungry, or is it four o’clock?” is a harder question than it looks.
Then there is the practical load. Tuning into hunger requires attention, and attention is the thing in shortest supply in a working week with other people to feed. Advice that assumes spare mental capacity tends not to survive a Tuesday.
Structure is not the opposite of intuition. It is what buys you enough quiet to hear it.
Why a defined structure can help rather than hinder
This is the part that sounds contradictory: for some women, a clear routine is what makes intuitive eating possible, not what prevents it.
The reason is that most of the exhausting part of eating well is not the eating. It is the deciding. What to buy, what to make, whether what you just ate was allowed, what to do about the gap between lunch and dinner. A routine that answers those questions in advance does not silence your appetite. It clears the noise around it.
The difference between that and a restrictive diet is what happens to the rules over time. A restrictive diet asks you to keep obeying it. A good structure is scaffolding — it holds the shape while something is being built, and the aim is to need it less as you go.
What that looks like in practice
- Decisions made once, not daily. A repeatable shopping list and two or three default meals remove most of the small choices that wear people down.
- Real food from an ordinary shop. Nothing to unwind afterwards, because you were not eating anything unusual to begin with.
- A defined length. Knowing when something ends makes it far easier to begin.
- Regular contact. Something arriving each week keeps the structure visible, which is most of what keeps people in it.
How the Appetrol20 Program is built
The Appetrol20 Program is a six-week whole-food wellness program created by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN Nurse Practitioner. It exists for women who want a routine to follow rather than another set of rules to obey.
The program pairs Appetrol20 homeopathic drops with a whole-food eating plan set out in the 21-Day QuickStart Guide, and a weekly email from Marcelle across all six weeks. No meal replacements, no shakes, no calorie counting — everything comes from an ordinary grocery store. It is designed to support healthy eating habits, mindful eating routines, and a calmer relationship with food choices.
To be explicit, because the study above deserves it: nothing in that research endorses this program or any other. The Appetrol20 Program is one structured option among many, and it is offered as that rather than as a finding.
About the drops
Appetrol20 drops are a homeopathic drug, not a dietary supplement. The product is registered with the FDA and contains ingredients listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States (HPUS). It is manufactured in the USA in a nationally recognized homeopathic specialty facility following Good Manufacturing Practices. The drops contain no stimulants and no HCG.
The formulation includes ingredients traditionally used in homeopathic practice to support appetite and help curb food cravings.*
*These uses are based on traditional homeopathic practice, not accepted medical evidence. They have not been evaluated by the FDA. There is no scientific evidence that the homeopathic drops work. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The FDA does not approve homeopathic drugs, so no product in this category is FDA-approved — registration and approval are different things.
Background
The program is built from the same foundational whole-food wellness framework as Marcelle Pick’s original 2018 “Drop 20 in 6” program, developed within her medical practice, which more than 3,500 women completed.
Based on outcomes from Marcelle Pick’s original 2018 “Drop 20 in 6” program, developed within her medical practice. On average, participants reported weight loss outcomes. Individual results vary and no specific results are guaranteed.
See the 6-Week Appetrol20 Program or read whether the program is a good fit for you.
Reference: Owens BA, et al. Eating Behaviors. 2023;50:101796. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37634483/
