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What is Last Supper Eating?

Writer: Talia Cooper
Talia Cooper
Dec 8, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Sep 22


In the intuitive eating book (by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch) they talk about "Last Supper Eating".


Last Supper eating looks something like this:


Sally hears about a new diet (e.g. low-carb) and decides: “I want to be healthy! Starting tomorrow I’m gonna cut out carbs.”


Sally packs up her carby foods. Then she figures she may as well enjoy some today since starting tomorrow she’s never going to eat them ever again. Last supper eating: she eats lots and lots of carbs, feels stuffed, and says “Good thing tomorrow I’m not eating carbs anymore- clearly I can’t be trusted around them!”


That was Sally’s Last Supper of the Forbidden Food.


So she starts the low carb thing and for a while it’s great! She feels virtuous and proud of her self-discipline. She feels healthy. Maybe she loses some weight.


Then things get harder. She starts to feel hungry all the time and she can't stop thinking about food. It gets more challenging to resist eating carbs when she’s around other people. The weight isn't coming off as quickly as before. She feels anxious about holiday dinners where carbs will be served.


“Okay,” says Sally, “Maybe I’ll let myself eat carbs at this one holiday event, and then the next day I’ll go back to not eating them.”


So at the holiday dinner she gives herself temporary carb permission, loads up her plate with all the forbidden foods. She feels stuffed and sick and shameful. “It’s a good thing I don’t usually eat carbs because CLEARLY I can’t be trusted with them,” she thinks.


That was also Sally’s Last Supper of Carbs.


But this keeps happening. Birthdays, special events, holidays, travel, and even just slightly upsetting days turn into reasons to temporarily eat carbs, all of which feel like the last supper, all of which lead her to eating more than feels physically good, which leads to the feeling that she can’t be trusted and needs to hunker down further in the safety of rules.


You see the cycle?

Cycle of restriction infographic on yellow background with arrows, forbidden food text, and a small Last Supper image. The words on the image can also be read below.

This is the cycle of restriction (also called the restrict/binge cycle"


  1. Make a food off limits

  2. That food gets elevated to special forbidden status

  3. Binge on that food one last time (aka the last supper)

  4. Believe that you can’t be trusted around that food

  5. Double down on making it off limits

  6. REPEAT FOREVER

This cycle is also available in the “Light” version:


Infographic titled Cycle of Restriction Lite on yellow background, with arrows, icons, and text about forbidden food, shame, and cravings, and last supper eating applied in a smaller context. The words of the image can also be read below.


Restriction lite:

  1. Someone decides to try to eat less of a food

  2. That food STILL gets elevated to special forbidden-ish exciting status

  3. When that food is around they get a little preoccupied with it and wonder, “Is this okay to eat? Have I eaten too much of this recently?"

  4. They likely eat more of that food than intended because it’s special

  5. Feel shame, wonder if it’s about a lack of control.

  6. Swear to do better next time

  7. Repeat


To be clear: there is NOTHING wrong or shameful about Sally (or any of us!) trying to eat healthy and struggling to cut out a food. This is how our bodies work. This is how pyschology works-- forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest...


The way to throw a wrench in that cycle is to truly give yourself food permission.

Full permission. Not temporary permission. Not permission with guilt. Full permission.


Then the cycle starts going like this:


Orange infographic titled CYCLE OF TRUST with traffic light, donut, and heart showing steps to habituation, self trust and food.

Cycle of Trust:


  1. Give self FULL PERMISSION to eat and enjoy food

  2. Probably eat a lot of previously forbidden foods

  3. Remove extra special forbidden status from the food

  4. Realize that food is just food and that it’s nice to enjoy it

  5. Start to trust yourself to eat in ways that feel good

  6. Learn to eat with attunement more and more

  7. Learn to live with attunement more and more- i.e. trusting yourself with other decisions, not just food


This is the cycle of habituation and self-trust. Yes these images are a little oversimplified, but this is the the basic idea: give permission, habituate, build trust, repeat.


And that’s what intuitive eating is: learning to listen and trust.


It’s hard. It’s an emotional shift that takes time and intentionality. But it is something our bodies know how to do. And I'm here for you if you don't want to do it alone.


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