Undereating/how long until symptoms go away

RiseHigher

Hey all, I've been doing research into sports nutrition and it appears that in following FitBit/MyFitnessPal, I had been fairly grossly undereating for months while marathon training. I run a lot as I compete at the regional/national level. I addition, I frequently do remodeling projects on the side.

How long does it take to recover after something like this to stop feeling hungry all the time?

I moved up my calories to "maintenance" according to these tracking devices, but even that was still too low, judging from the symptoms I was having. So I started to do more research and am now going to eat according to what the sports nutrition books say I should be eating.

I can say that now I have SO much more energy (others have noticed as well), I'm not so cold all the time, and my resting heart rate actually increased by about 10 beats per minute as well. I also wake up in the morning and feel like I don't HAVE to have caffeine in order to get by. I was losing weight but it was at about half the predicted rate.

Kalikel

If you were under-eating for a long time, it can take a long time for your body to adjust properly. Some people - anorexic-type people - do damage that takes years to undo. By about six months in, their hair has started growing back, they're warmer, their brains are sharper, etc.

It's amazing the difference that can be made in six months.

Do you find that you think clearer and faster?

RiseHigher

I don't think it was to the point I was anorexic. For one I hadn't lost enough weight for that and also it wasn't that long. However for a long time on and off I had dieted using these types of sites without good results. The one time I had lost weight before, I had a foot injury and so dropped my calories to 1200 a day because I couldn't really move much. I lost 1.2 lbs per week when FitBit etc told me I shouldn't really be losing much at all.

According to the sports nutrition books I should have probably been eating around 3,000-3250 calories per day. I was probably having around 1600-2100 a day, going by the FitBit. This is even with me adjusting up the FitBit's incorrect mileage. Had I not done that it would have been lower.

Then I went to "maintenance" calories before my marathon to help carb load. I noticed I felt better, but also was MUCH more hungry, and was losing weight faster than before. A few days before my marathon I dropped to the lowest weight of the year. Not good for carb loading. So I stopped tracking and just ate, finally put on a few lbs before the marathon (a good thing for carbs/water in the race).

I took a week off from dieting after the marathon. My energy was so much more (others even noticed), I didn't feel like I just wanted to sleep all the time. I gained about 5-7 lbs, but the bodyfat scale shows it's all carb/water and maybe 1 lb of fat.

I went back to maintenance after that seeing if the same thing happened as before my marathon. But this time not only was I more hungry but I was cold all the time too (this didn't really happen before but it was summer as well). One time before going to the pool I sat in my car blasting the heat because I was so cold; it wasn't even that cold outside. I dreaded getting into the pool because I knew it would make me colder. I ate a Clif bar and it was better. I lost about 3 lbs in five days, but some of this was still bloat from the week off. Then last night I was so sick of being hungry all the time I binged on carbs like 1,000 calories probably. I thought I'd massively gain weight from that but only gained like a pound. So I think "maintenance" with these tracking things are probably off for me, that's why I'm going to go by the sports nutrition books which calculate a lot more calories per day.