Effects of over restriction/undereating

rankinsect wrote: »

The worst possible effect is malnutrition - that could be something like vitamin deficiencies or it could be protein deficiency. Your body will break down muscle faster to support the higher rate of weight loss (you can only lose fat so fast, and at high levels of loss, a lot of that loss is muscle) - which is only exacerbated more if your body needs to break down muscle for protein, too, because you're deficient.

Of course the actual worst effect would be if you continued to restrict calories until you died of starvation, typically happening from heart failure when your body has cannibalized your organs to the point you can't maintain electrolyte balance.

Actually the worst result is death from fainting at the wrong time.

Apparently the leading cause of train delays in New York for medical reasons was from fainting from hunger.

....not to mention hair loss, bad skin (your skin is an organ), irritability, infertility...just to add a few things to what was posted

Lower sex drive.

Malnutrition
Hair loss
Loss of lean mass (which lowers your BMR)
Damage to internal organs
Higher risk of osteoporosis
Long term fertility damage

lilaclovebird wrote: »

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

katie1318 wrote: »

So I think most of us can agree that "starvation mode" is generally not what our bodies are susceptible to when we strictly diet or undereat. But what exactly does happen to our bodies if we restrict calories too much (like less than 1000-1200 for a woman)?

It is awful in reality. I did this for over 10 years and it stopped my periods, weakend my teeth, my hair wouldn't grow and my nails split in to layers all the time. My skin was always dry and I looked like a skeleton with skin.

Fast forward to my late 30s and I have been in recovery for 11 years. The problems I am left with is brittle bones due to lack of nourishment during my developing years, weakened teeth and gums where they don't think I'll keep my teeth for many more years. Constant pain due to my l1 and l2 crumbling. I face spinal realignment on a monthly basis and I'm fighting to keep my bone strength and keep the muscle strong around it to help. My hair is much better but my nails still aren't.

I look a million times better than I did when I under ate now that I maintain a healthy BMI.

@RuNaRoUnDaFiEld You are so beautiful and so strong. Thank you for sharing your story and this information to satisfy our, sometimes horrifying, curiosities. It is deeply appreciated.
Congratulations on your excellent work in recovery.

Does anyone else feel like the OP of this thread was asking as if to see if it would really be worth it to over restrict their caloric intake, or is that just me?

Completely agree on the comment from @RuNaRoUnDaFiEld - if more people with a history of EDs would come out and speak up like that it may help others avoid the long term damage and seek help earlier. Well done!


As for your second comment, I sort of assumed that as well, and then realized that my assumption could be way off base. Maybe the OP was asking to stop themselves from taking that route, for general knowledge, or to help prevent someone else from doing something unhealthy. But I did assume at first.

I struggled with eating disorders from age 20-30. I think I may have even invented a few. At age 23 I suddenly started menstruating after two years of not...only to find out I was pregnant and was having a "near miscarriage". My due date was impossible to estimate because of that, so when I went into labor an emergency c-section was done and my baby was in intensive care for 12 hours to be sure she was not premature. There is no amount of body fat to lose that is worth "undereating" for.

I'm not going to repeat anything anyone has already said, they are all true and very serious consequences of under eating! I, too, suffered from anorexia nervosa and can say looking thin just isn't worth any of the damaging physical nor mental effects you will go through.
Some things I would like to add to the list:
-You will be cold all the time (due to less muscle and body fat to insulate you)
-I actually developed Raynaud's phenomenon from this; when I get cold some of my fingers will actually turn a yellow color because the blood vessels constrict and I lose all feeling in them. This is your body's way of trying to keep the important organs near the core warmer, and if you are left in the cold some people have actually lost extremities due to this condition (luckily I'm not one of them).
-Once your body does begin to gain weight again and you stop restricting, it feels HORRIBLE. I would retain water like crazy and actually suffered edema while regaining. After overeating (whether it would be a binge or simply 300 calories over maintenance), everything would hurt, especially my stomach (which was the first place to gain the weight since again, the body tries to preserve the vital organs first) and it looked very abnormal how much larger my stomach was versus the rest of me for quite some time.
-Someone here already mentioned weakened teeth; mine actually cracked and others developed cavities. I brush my teeth two times a day and never forced myself to vomit, so this was solely due to vitamin deficiencies.

Thank you very much for the comments, they really do mean a lot

I wrote that post in haste on Sunday morning. I was in agony at the time and lacing up my trainers to go to run 5k. (Running helps keep bone density) It was one of my very rare self pity moments.

If it helps one person see that under eating is not a good idea, I'll be happy.

Hug to the other posters on this issue, I hope your posts stop someone else going through this too x