Side effects of not eating enough calories.

laphillips12

bump

cloe31

My side affects were similar to yours. I also had not being able to sleep, bacterial infections, total stressed and burnt out, always being sick. It took me 2 years that I was killing my body by not eating enough and working out too much.

Live and learn I guess

dunlunicor

You ladies can add missed periods on the list too if you don't net enough calories for five consecutive days.

What? No. It takes a couple of months of under eating before your periods stop.

Editing to add: That is a function of body fat %, not just under eating. A person with very low body fat might stop periods with only five days, but someone with plenty of body fat won't.

Theoretically, you're correct, but I have missed 2-3 periods in a row from undereating with a BMI of 21 and a bodyfat % of 23.

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

Number one have to be severe muscle cramps. I don't intentionally starve myself, but I have PTSD so some days are worse than others and when I'm stressed out, anxious, or upset, I don't eat. Any time I've gone three or more days without eating I get severe muscle cramps. Sometimes they're so bad I can't walk.

HopefulLeigh

I get nauseated. I find that I don't want to eat, just sleep. I get massive headaches. My husband can always tell when I haven't been taking care of myself because I shake visibly and uncontrollably.

I've *never* missed a period as a result of under eating. At one point in time, I was running six months of working two jobs and definitely wasn't treating myself properly. It still came like clockwork right up until I became pregnant, had my child and then went on the depo shot.

DanaDark

When I do not eat enough, I get bad headaches that medicine will not help.

deksgrl

You ladies can add missed periods on the list too if you don't net enough calories for five consecutive days.

What? No. It takes a couple of months of under eating before your periods stop.

Editing to add: That is a function of body fat %, not just under eating. A person with very low body fat might stop periods with only five days, but someone with plenty of body fat won't.

Theoretically, you're correct, but I have missed 2-3 periods in a row from undereating with a BMI of 21 and a bodyfat % of 23.

Did they stop after 5 days of under eating? That would indicate a severe hormonal imbalance.

dunlunicor

You ladies can add missed periods on the list too if you don't net enough calories for five consecutive days.

What? No. It takes a couple of months of under eating before your periods stop.

Editing to add: That is a function of body fat %, not just under eating. A person with very low body fat might stop periods with only five days, but someone with plenty of body fat won't.

Theoretically, you're correct, but I have missed 2-3 periods in a row from undereating with a BMI of 21 and a bodyfat % of 23.

Did they stop after 5 days of under eating? That would indicate a severe hormonal imbalance.

Ah, I see what you were saying. I somehow skipped over your reference to the 5 days thing. Disregard.

Edited because the smilies don't want to work for me, but I'm a dumb@$$.

Poprocket_2012

i love not eating, i enjoy the sense of control i get, although i understand it's not for everyone

dunlunicor

i love not eating, i enjoy the sense of control i get, although i understand it's not for everyone

Careful with that. Good way to wander into a full-blown ED if you're not already there.

penrbrown

Absolutely foul mood. When I'm under eating I get extremely unhappy. I've been known to faint too. Ugh.

wswilliams67

If you are eating below your BMR on a consistent basis you will have issues with your body. Headaches, lethargy, fatigue, depression, blurred vision, etc.

Calculate your BMR and TDEE and eat a caloric intake that fits in between those numbers...

Eat your TDEE to maintain weight.
Eat your TDEE-500 for 1 pound/week of weight loss
Eat your TDEE-1000 for 2 pounds/week of weight loss (only if this number is above your BMR)

If your TDEE is calculated as sedentary then it will be much lower and you will have to eat back all of your exercise calories to avoid high caloric debt.

If you calculate your TDEE to include your exercise level then all you have to do is eat your TDEE number and NOT eat back your exercise calories.

Eating sub-1200 calories can have serious health risks. If your BMR is 1300 then it's not too damaging, but if you are up in the 1800+ BMR range it will cause your body to go into famine mode and you will stall out. Your weight loss will stop, your exercise performance will suffer and in general you will feel like crap.

Hope that helps.

http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

d3mon4ngel

My symptoms woule be:

I feel spaced out.
My eyes go all kind of starey and I find it hard to focus.
My mind becomes foggy.
I feel tired.
I find myself biting and picking at my fingers. ( no, I'm not trying to eat them!)
I feel hungry ish but for some reason don't really fancy anything to eat.
I feel kind of buzzy.

I still get this feeling from time to time, even though I am eating enough calories throughout the day (1900 daily). In fact it happened two days in a row last week, both times after having a cinnamon bagel just after lunch, but that could be a coincidence. It doesn't happen all the time, but often enough that I'm considering going to the doctors about it, just to be on the safe side :ohwell:

Queen_Adrock

Tired, headachey, and CRANKY. Holy hell, do I get cranky. Richard Lewis on that Snickers commercial is me to a tee.

yoovie

geekyjock76

You ladies can add missed periods on the list too if you don't net enough calories for five consecutive days. Of course, there are far more serious problems if it goes on chronically such as hair and bone mass density loss.

Says someone who would know?! lol.

But yes, any time my intake is out of whack, my periods are too. When I was overeating, I had my period for a solid 11 months. When I under-eat, I will only have it for one or two days a month.

LOL I'm a personal trainer and when I talk to a woman who says she hasn't had a period in forever, I'm not surprised why when they turn in their food diaries and I see how little they chronically eat. When they bump up their caloric intake, period comes back.

foxro

Those "symptoms" are considered normal for my age(lol)

mabelbabel1

Those "symptoms" are considered normal for my age(lol)

Hehehehe!! I don't believe that for a minute! lol! :bigsmile:

geekyjock76

You ladies can add missed periods on the list too if you don't net enough calories for five consecutive days.

What? No. It takes a couple of months of under eating before your periods stop.

Editing to add: That is a function of body fat %, not just under eating. A person with very low body fat might stop periods with only five days, but someone with plenty of body fat won't.

So wrong on both accounts of duration and body fat.

http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/88/1/297.full

Mich4871

my weight loss plateaus. That's how I know I have to increase my calorie intake

AnniePenny

I find that I am tired and have very little energy.

When I first heard about IPOARM - link is
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

I was very sceptical. I mean it sounded crazy. I was eating around 1200 cals and my weight loss had stalled for a few weeks and this link to calculators resulted in hearing that I should be eating MORE!!! Anyway after doing a bit more research and getting 2nd and 3rd opinions from other websites, checking the success stories of people who had made the change, I finally felt that it was at least worth a try.

I slowly each day upped my calories and now eat between 1600 and 1800 calories and tweaked my macros. GUESS WHAT...this works folks, despite eating all those calories the scale is beginning to fall again.

Most importantly, I feel so good, my body just feels right. I am not so tired, I am never hungry and I am really beginning to enjoy my food. This is a method of weight loss that I will have no problem in sustaining, when I finally reach my goal.

Thanks HelloitsDan for taking the time to research and for bringing this information to MFP

I've read this and upped my calories to 1600 too, changed my macros to force myself to eat more protein :P . I'm wondering.. how long after you made the changes did you start seeing a change in the scale? Doesn't matter if it's little change as long as it's steady, i know. I'm just curious. I'm not 100% sure if 1600calories is the right number for me and I don't know for how long I should give that number a try before resuming if it's working or not (have been eating 1600c for around 2 weeks + exercising an average of 500c a day -except sundays. Lost just inches)


For me the major side effect of not eating enough is being b*tchy.. My roommate sometimes does it and not only she's almost mean jajaj but also feels kinda dizzy and more prone to low blood pressure. For me, everytime i realise i don't feel so good my first thought is to think "I'm probably hungry" so i eat something even if it's small and wait like 10/15 min to see if that was it or not.

SpiritBunny

I've wondered about this. Based on my muscle mass I should be eating 2800 daily just to maintain my weight but I'm routinely eating only a fraction of this 800-1,100. I have fibro, pcos so I don't know if there is a correlation to my low caloric diet.

I eat this way because it's the only way so far that I have seen results.

selfepidemic1

Low blood pressure means you'll feel faint, dizzy and sometimes get tunnel vision. I would consume more salt and potassium.

If I don't manage my food well my hair falls out, due to lack of protein. This happened when I didn't have access to food.

PennyVonDread

Well, I found out when I couldn't afford food anymore that my heart stops beating.

But I was diagnosed right afterwords with a blood disorder that makes me more prone to anemia and heart failure even when I do eat.

QueenMaryam04

bump!!

saltedcaramel86

I get extremely weak, shaky, tired, have headaches and most importantly, extremely irritable! I turn into the Hulk without regular food. :mad: :explode: lol

Unknown

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shelbypx92

My sophomore year of college I went a couple months eating significantly less calories than what I was used to (probably somewhere between 500-700 calories a day). It wasn't intentional at first, I was just busy and ate less. Then I started to see myself lose weight pretty quickly and kept intentionally eating a very small amount of food each day because I liked the results. Then, after about 2 and a half months of doing this I started having panic attacks. I don't remember if I had any symptoms prior to the attacks, mostly just generalized anxiety which I didn't connect with the lack of calories. But when I started having those panic attacks almost on a daily basis it finally clicked that it had to be related to my eating. I started eating more often and normal portions again and my panic attacks and anxiety went away completely. I now realize that I was subjecting myself to disordered eating and that my body was reacting to it's lack of energy input and nutrition by going into panic mode. I can't really speak much to the short term effects of a significant calorie deficit, but the long term effects can be pretty scary.

Veil5577

Just a massive hatred for my fellow man. :grumble:

brower47

Back in the day before I got educated about proper weight loss, I would under eat.

I would be:
tired
sleep poorly
not want to do anything that required movement
my vision would darken when I stood up too quickly

Luckily, I was never one to stick to deprivation diets so I never suffered from long term effects of eating to little.

Never again.