Under-eating and eating disorders

Under-eating and eating disorders 

Under-eating is basically a form of severe calorie restriction, generally self-introduced in the hope of losing weight or bettering one’s body composition. Before I carry on, I want to clarify that I’m talking about severe calorie restriction here, not 500 below maintenance or a “cutting phase” (if you want to call it that). I’m talking about people who are running on 300 - 600 kcals per day, and in most cases this is being fuelled by some form of eating disorder (I’m going to get onto this later). By reducing calories so dramatically below maintenance, it’s likely an individual will start to experience symptoms such as, fatigue, headaches, difficulty sleeping and a lowering state of mood. I have left out weight gain here because some people claim that weight gain is a result of the body’s mechanism of “starvation mode” due to metabolic decline. However, this theory (I do agree to some extent) has been proven incorrect, as metabolism is unable to lower so drastically to have any effect on body fat storage. HOWEVER (yes this is my point of agreement), although metabolic decline may not cause fat storage, there are bags of research to suggest severe calorie restriction has a negative impact on the production and secretion of various hormones within the body (particularly hormones that assist in female menstruation); thus causing undesirable fat storage on the body due to an accumulation of oxidative stress and other inflammatory responses. 

Now for my opinion. I believe a lot of this severe under-eating comes from a lack of understanding on the subject (food). How many times have you heard people say, “I won’t eat today because I have to wear a tight dress out tonight and I’ll look 4 months pregnant if I do” or, “I’ve eaten so terribly this weekend, I’m just going to eat celery today because that has no calories in it”. I guarantee these are the kind of people you see face down in the gutter after a night out (in which case that skin tight dress they thought made them look a 10/10 has now made them as appealing as the cigarette butt floating in the drain next them). Or, they’re the kind of person you find in the high street grease box (kebab shop or chip shop) at 3am filling their gobs with something as nutritious as the polystyrene box it came in (and yes, you do look 4 months pregnant now you fool). No wonder the bloke who bought it for you has now disappeared. Not only do you smell like that poor girl snoring in the gutter, but you also look like a baby who’s been fed with a fly swat. You see what I’m getting at, I hope. 

There is a more serious side to this, particularly when we are talking about eating disorders. I genuinely believe that the majority of eating disorders evolve from a significant life event. However, it is very much dependent upon the type of person and how they deal with that event which determines if they develop an eating disorder or not. Going back to my previous post (anxiety); if one has a sensitive mind from years of worrying, stressfulness and the experience of a traumatic event in their life and they hear information such as, carbohydrates make you fat, dairy and fatty foods will go straight to your thighs, if you are not eating organic your blood will turn to poison, you must eat every 2.5 hours otherwise you will go catabolic, and all the other forceful and extreme information that the fitness industry portrays, it’s no wonder that these people become obsessive with how they look and what they eat. An eating disorder does not necessarily have to be anorexia or bulimia. The mere obsessions and phobias developed around food, and different protocols are most definitely eating disorders. 

Now, I get a lot of stick because I track my macros, weigh my food and basically monitor what I put in my body. To some, this may seem obsessive and an eating disorder in itself – but is it? I know how much food my body needs. I don't restrict foods from my diet because they are labelled as ‘bad foods’. If I feel like a pizza or a burger, I’ll eat a pizza or a burger and ice cream for that matter, instead of have a ridiculous ‘cheat meal’ where I upload pictures of my 3 pizzas, 4 boxes of pop tarts, a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and a litre bottle of Coke (it’s cheat day, we don't do diet) to Instagram and #CHEATDAY. In most cases, this is someone’s attempt to “get it out of their system” (yes, it will be out your system very fast I can assure you). In other words, people make themselves feel so sick so that they don't ever want to eat ‘bad foods’ again… until next weekend comes around and it’s #CHEATDAY again! I don't care what you say but binge eating like that is most definitely an eating disorder. 

Why not enjoy the food that you like? Enjoy eating a pizza or a burger if you feel like it and are able to factor it into your calorie intake. I can guarantee you won't have any of the regrets that most of those people do following those ridiculous binges. You won't be sat on the toilet for the next 2 days, and you won’t then go and starve yourself for the following days thinking that all will be good because you've lived off celery and green tea (chicken and broccoli for you gainz lovers) for the past 6 days. I'm going to direct you to my post “Finding our feet with how much to eat” where you can stop this unnecessary binge eating and starvation cycle that so many people find themselves on. Instead, workout what you need to eat macronutrient-wise and factor the foods you love into them. You don't have to become obsessive with it (I mean it…be realistic). Just get an idea for how much you need. I suggest weighing your food for a week or two, and soon you should be able to get an eye for what things look like. Use size comparisons if you like, e.g. I know I need a fist size of chicken breast or I need an iPhone size of a potato. You see what I mean – there are simple ways around it. 

I have drifted a slight bit here between the two issues: under-eating and eating disorders. But conclusively, as I mentioned earlier, I believe it comes down to a lack of understanding. Put it this way, to perform optimally, and ensure your body is functioning properly and hormonally you need to be eating an adequate amount of food. Thus, I suggest increasing your intake to maintenance level calories in time; see my post on “Finding our feet with how much to eat” to learn how to do so sensibly and correctly.

Enjoy.