Side effects of not eating enough calories.

24

Replies

  • sdreed25
    sdreed25 Posts: 208 Member
    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

    OK I've just read this and it's quite the eye opener, I've become fairly stuff so I might have a bash at this. Based on this I'm under eating by about 500 cals!
  • mabelbabel1
    mabelbabel1 Posts: 391 Member
    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

    OK I've just read this and it's quite the eye opener, I've become fairly stuff so I might have a bash at this. Based on this I'm under eating by about 500 cals!


    Really can't recommend this enough. :smile:
  • Jpinpoint
    Jpinpoint Posts: 219 Member
    Ok I am surprised b*tchy wasn't on your list! :p I become evil with low calories and start to feel all the symptoms you described.

    This is me. I'm evil/mean when I'm super hungry, past hungry and into danger zone. Mostly I'm only mean if there is a person/block between me and food.
  • justiningham
    justiningham Posts: 139 Member
    If I don't consume enough calories, within a day or two I would get a variety of side effects....It's only recently that I have realsied these were as a direct result of under eating......at one point in my past I used to strive for the buzzy feeling I would get from it.
    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'm interested to know what symptoms did or do you get and did or do you consider them to be a side effect of under eating?


    I don't allow this to happen these days. I joined Dan's IPOARM and use Heybales spreadsheet at the beginning of November..........I'm still tweaking my cals to find out the right number for me, but so far, I'm a lot happier and healthier and the weight and inches are still coming off! :smile:

    Bump - this is good to know!
  • sdreed25
    sdreed25 Posts: 208 Member
    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

    OK I've just read this and it's quite the eye opener, I've become fairly stuff so I might have a bash at this. Based on this I'm under eating by about 500 cals!


    Really can't recommend this enough. :smile:

    I've been quite tired and crank this week despite being 250 calories up on normal, I say normal but I haven't done MFP properly for months due to little progress in recent months (on weight loss). I'm going to give this a go for sure next week and if I can during x-mas but definitely in the New Year for all of Jan and see how it goes. This is 500 more calories than normal but if I eat healthy food and don;t use it as a license to eat crap I can see this working
  • dunlunicor
    dunlunicor Posts: 189 Member
    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.
  • kristen6022
    kristen6022 Posts: 1,923 Member
    Just saying, and I don't care if I get flamed,

    If you can't go more than a few hours without eating, then you have something out of balance with your hormones and blood sugar levels. There are several ways to manage your eating, one of them is a Fasting regimen called eat STOP eat, where you eat 1.5x your daily calorie intake, fast the next day, and consume 1.5x your daily calorie intake on day 3.

    I'm not THAT much of a masochist, but it DOES sound challenging and fun, and I really enjoy exploring all the different ways there are to eat less than what I ate to get overweight.

    It sucks that you can't go longer without eating, that's a lot of what my problem was, I grazed on bad stuff all day long. A lot of other people might have the same issues. You should probably have your hormone levels checked and see what's going on, because I used to have the same problem, If I didn't eat often I'd feel like death. Now that I have adapted to eating less on a regular basis I can tell my blood sugar is more even, and my hormones are better in check. There's nothing wrong with eating less.

    I don't understand what this has to do with the OP's post? I lost 40+ pounds eating 6 small meals a day. I felt good, I was satisfied and I could eat. I don't know why anyone would even want to follow this plan if eating is working for them?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    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.
  • jcr85
    jcr85 Posts: 229
    I get hungry.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    If I don't consume enough calories, within a day or two I would get a variety of side effects....It's only recently that I have realsied these were as a direct result of under eating......at one point in my past I used to strive for the buzzy feeling I would get from it.
    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'm interested to know what symptoms did or do you get and did or do you consider them to be a side effect of under eating?


    I don't allow this to happen these days. I joined Dan's IPOARM and use Heybales spreadsheet at the beginning of November..........I'm still tweaking my cals to find out the right number for me, but so far, I'm a lot happier and healthier and the weight and inches are still coming off! :smile:

    Although there are some good foods in your diary, you are eating quite a bit of sugar and white/ refined/ high glycaemic index carbs and your diet doesn't comply with the UK minimum/ maximum guidelines for healthy eating. Junk/ processed/ sugary stuff should comprise no more than 10% of daily calories which is one small snack: the breakfast biscuits alone take you over. Instead eat more low sugar fruits and non starchy vegetables (nine different 80g portions a day from the full rainbow of colours not just green), oily fish (several servings a week), reduced fat dairy (three portions a day), beans and lentils rather than wheat and potatoes. You should find this helps stabilise your blood sugar and supplies the nutrients linked with fat loss such as long chain omega-3s and calcium.
  • laphillips12
    laphillips12 Posts: 22 Member
    bump
  • cloe31
    cloe31 Posts: 75 Member
    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
    dunlunicor Posts: 189 Member
    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
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    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
    HopefulLeigh Posts: 363 Member
    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
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    When I do not eat enough, I get bad headaches that medicine will not help.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    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
    dunlunicor Posts: 189 Member
    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
    Poprocket_2012 Posts: 142
    i love not eating, i enjoy the sense of control i get, although i understand it's not for everyone
  • dunlunicor
    dunlunicor Posts: 189 Member
    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.

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