The Stress Starver

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victoriashea
victoriashea Posts: 112
in Fitness and Exercise
There once was a girl, trying to drop some pounds and get healthy, fit, sexy, toned, tanned, et cetera. She did all the research and got all the facts. She knew what to eat when, how to jog properly, and how to do a pushup (at least relatively) like a cadet. However she had a problem. She joined a few fitness forums to look for answers but no one seemed to have the same problem.

"My Fitness Pal is my last hope!" she said naively, conveniently ignoring the idea of going to a doctor.

Her question was this: Does anyone else out there lose their appetite in light of stress? I know a lot of people stress eat, but I seem to stress starve! I've barely hit 600 calories the past week or so. I'm a vegan with a nut allergy, so pretty much everything I eat is low calorie. I gotta consume a massive amount of food to reach my calorie goal, but that requires a massive amount of preparation which is time I just don't have right now.
I know missing the calorie mark this dramatically can't be healthy, but how much danger am I really in? And how do I... not?

Hopefully we can make this odd tale end with a "happily ever after".

-VS

Replies

  • no_where1976
    no_where1976 Posts: 56 Member
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    I'm not a vegan but when i stress real bad or my feelings are hurt I can never eat! i've never been an emotional eater. Although I wonder if trying shakes might work? Replace a meal with a shake b/c no matter how sad or mad or stressed I am I can alwasy drink something.

    I hope that helps you. If not you might go see a doc and ask their opinion :)

    Good luck!
  • pandabear_
    pandabear_ Posts: 487 Member
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    I don't eat when I'm stressed either and I end up losing 'stress weight' too. It's not a nice thing.
  • knovak77
    knovak77 Posts: 3
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    I can be a stress starver or a stress eater, depending on how long the situation goes on. I think being vegan, with a nut allergy, would make it more difficult. Now I'm not a doctor or nutritionist but I've been on the weight loss journey so take this with a grain of salt. It is important to get the nutrition from food, that requires eating the rainbow. If you are stress starving, throw everything in the blender and drink it. If you are putting your body into starvation mode, your metabolism will turn off and you could become malnourished. This will also put you at risk of getting sick.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,248 Member
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    It really depends how long you do this. A body will not go into starvation mode (whatever that exactly is since I think what most people portray it as is some figment of people imagination) in a day or two. It takes a prolonged time of eating way to little for your metabolism to slow down. Studies on short fasts find no slowing with a complete fast in 24 hours, and usually no metabolic slowing with a complete fast for as long as 72. If you are eating a little that would probably change those number. If it is only a day or two and your stressor is gone or dealt with so you get back to eating normally, no major harm done, but if this is protracted you need to come up with ways to get your calories. I would suggest a vegan protein powder that is nut free due to your allergy and blend that with a bunch of fruit. I would be quick and give a little more caloric density. You could add some oils to that as well to up the calories. Quick and high calories. Some experimentation might be needed to find what taste good as I am just throwing this off the top of my head since I am not vegan and never plan to be.

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