UNDEREATING

One of the reasons why so many women struggle with thyroid and metabolic issues, is because of calorie restriction and undereating. Our body needs a certain amount of propper fuel to function optimally, but if we aren’t eating enough, the body goes into starvation mode. Starvation mode is the phenomenon referring to the body's physiological adaptation or natural response to calorie restriction. It’s like a built in survival skill, in case of famine and times without food. 

This mechanism was a useful physiological response for our ancestors in order to survive at times without food. Today, we don’t struggle with famine, but still, we mess with this adaptive response more than ever. Dieting and eating too little makes your body go into this survival mechanism, which involves lowering your metabolizm (the process in which your body converts food into energy) to conserve energy and not burn as many calories, as it doesn’t get enough energy from food needed to function on a optimal level. 

As well as slowing down your metabolizm, it slows down the regular functioning of the rest of your body in an effort to use as little energy as possible. This is to keep you alive in this state of uncertainty and until you’re able to eat again (in this case, until you understand that you HAVE TO EAT AGAIN). When your metabolizm falls due to undereating, your hormone-production falls which further contributes to acne, loss of sex drive, PMS and other hormonal imbalances. You may also lose your period as the calorie restriction stimulates the starvation response in your hypothalamus that further can disrupt luteinising hormone (LH) and shut down ovulation. From the hypothalamus’ perspective, healthy periods and wanting to make a baby is the same thing. Being healthy enough to make a baby is how you are healthy enough to have a period. In times of undereating (which your body sees as famine) the focus is NOT on creating babies. 

Slow metabolizm equals hypothyroid symptoms like fatigue, bloating, weight gain, cold intolerance and depression and since nutrient deficiencies is a common cause of low thyroid function, undereating can also contribute to hypothyroidism.

When your food intake becomes chronically low, you’ll start to pump out high levels of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. This puts you into a state of anxiety, irritability and high alert which affects your sleep, digestion and immune system. 

This response is an important part of human evolution, and has allowed humans to ‘stay awake’ to continue to search for food, in the face of prolonged starvation. But eventually you can't keep pumping this stuff out, so your adrenals slow down their production of these important hormones needed (in right amounts) for health, mood and energy so you become unmotivated, depressed, exhausted and easily overwhelmed. 

Finally, with long-term restrictive eating, your brain decides to activate the survival response to conserve energy by turning down your metabolizm (by slowing down your thyroid). Now you have an hormonal imbalance. 

Picture from pinterest

Today’s dieting trends are troubling and we think that eating less is the answer to achieve our goals, not understanding that it will potentially ruin our health. But can you blame us? We are living in a society that profits from self doubt which leads to major issues when it comes to food and weight. 

People find themselves CRAVING food, especially sugar, carbs and fat - everything with energy, and after being a «good girl» for a day, week or even longer, you simply can’t restrict yourself anymore. You eat. A lot. Of the wrong things. And you feel like shit afterwards. Why do you get those cravings? Because your body is trying to keep you alive, in desperate need of fuel. This whole hormonal imbalance also screws up your hunger and fullness signals, so that you have no idea when you are either hungry or full. It’s a blur (binge anyone?) Having major cravings can therefore be a clear sign that you haven’t eaten properly and/or enough. 

Eat enough, (as well as getting to the root cause of why you aren’t) and your metabolic rate will increase, your hormones find balance and you’ll feel SATISFIED AND HAPPY. To get out of survival mode and allow your adrenals and thyroid to reset, your brain has to realize you're safe and that it can turn off the alarm. Please turn off the alarm!