6 Signs you’re not eating enough
How do you lose weight? For many of us the answer would be “eat less and workout more.” We’ve been told our entire lives that we should eat less to lose weight and eat more to gain it. Did you know that not eating enough food can be just as bad for you as eating too much?
Six signs that you could be under-eating:
1) Your weight remains the same: Stepping on the scale and not seeing results from all the hard work you’ve put in from eating less and working out more can get frustrating. When you are not eating enough it’s hard to get enough nutrients into your body. Not having enough nutrients can cause extreme hormonal imbalance of the hormone Cortisol. The cortisol hormone regulates your body’s metabolism and controls its blood sugar. If your body has too much cortisol it can trick your body into thinking it’s starving, holding on to every piece of fat it can get. This can lead to retaining or gaining belly fat.
2) Can’t fall or stay asleep: Insomnia or sleep disturbances can occur due to an unstable blood sugar. Under-eating is commonly known to deter sleep. If you are not eating enough and, on top of that, over exercising, your liver won’t have enough glycogen to help maintain your body’s blood sugar. Having low blood sugar can cause you to experience weakness, anxiety, confusion, the shakes and dizziness.
3) Unpredictable mood changes: Have you ever been angry, then instantly in a good mood after eating? If you’ve answered yes, you would be defined as being “hangry.” This urban slang term subtly refers to the unpleasant mood you’re in when angry and irritable from hunger. A few scientific studies have shown a correlation between our moods and food intake. The hungrier you become, the angrier and more irritable you become.
4) Losing hair by the handful: Hair loss is a sign of nutritional deficiency, whether its calories, protein, or both. Malnutrition affects your hormones which leads to hair loss. If your hair is coming out at a rapid rate than you need to look at your diet.
5) You’re always cold: A known cause of drops in body temperature is caloric restriction. Our bodies rely on a certain amount of calories to heat themselves up.
6) Chronically Constipated: Under-eating causes constipation when there’s not enough digested waste to expel from the body. Under-nutrition caused by under-eating can affect the thyroid hormones leading to chronic constipation.
If you are experiencing many of these signs it’s time to re-evaluate your diet to increase your caloric intake! If you need help managing this, we have macro coaching programs that help you determine the precise amount of calories you should be consuming each day, whether you are looking to lose weight or gain. Visit our MACRO COACHING page for more details.
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